4 December, 2017
BigDatathon - combination of business and big data
BigDatathon - a competition focusing on the application of big data, data analytics, and data science, was held by Big Data Institute of HKUST & Radica on Dec. 2-3.
The competition gathered some real business challenges and data from actual companies for all participants to solve. There were over 200 participants in 36 semi-final teams involving the event for 4 challenges. The topics of challenge were from DFS Group Limited, Godiva Chocolatier, and Radica. There were some famous enterprises and firms sponsored the event, including Microsoft, X-Tech Startup Platform, HKSTP, as well as PwC.
The Opening Ceremony 2017 of BigDatathon started at 10:30 a.m. in HKUST on Dec. 2nd. The opening speeches were presented by Prof. Lei Chen, Associated Director of BDI, HKUST and Mr. Francis Kwok from Radica.
Prof. Lei Chen said that recently AI has become the focus of the society, but people may forget that without big data, AI can not move future. Therefore big data is the oil of AI engine. So that’s the reason why we want to organize the big data competition.
Mr. Francis Kwok said that this is the third year Radica sponsor for HKUST Hackthon. In fact it is really important to inspire students especially engineering students to try to work with business people and scientists. Beyond all question they have to use their ability to solve problems...
After then, some sponsor representatives from Microsoft and HKSTP also provided their speech.
In that day the competition started at 2:00 p.m. and went on until 12:00 a.m. on Dec.3rd. After then the Top-10 teams was selected, and their final presentations were presented at 2:30 p.m. The winners were produced at 5:30 p.m. finally.
The judges for this competition included 8 professional persons, they were:
Mr. Francis Kwok, Founder and Chairman, RADICA Systems Limited
Prof. Yang Wang, Dean, Faculty of Science, HKUST
Prof. Qiang Yang, Director of BDI, HKUST
Dr. Jian Sun, Director of Internal Operations, X-Tech Startup Platform
Ms. Wallis Chan, Managing Director, Radica System Limited
Mr. Delon Yau, Software Engineer, Microsoft
Ms. Jennifer Ho, Global Risk Assurance Data and Analytics Leader of PwC
Mr. Arman Rahman, Software Engineer, Microsoft
For this event Prof. Qiang Yang said that big data has transformed the society. People are talking about four paradigms. Generally speaking, there is a change every 70-100 years in science and technology. Then computer came along in 1960s. Very lucky we are in the beginning of the fourth paradigm, which is to discover knowledge from data. Now Chinese people including Hong Kong people have a true historic chance to get ahead, and this why our government is proving so much support. Having this kind of datathon is a very essential part of it.
Ms. Jennifer Ho said that I have incredibly impressed with all the participants today for their energy, enthusiasm and active participation. They did awesome jobs and I look forward to working with some of them in the coming future.
Also Dr. Jian Sun said that this is a great platform to bring students together from different majors. Both business and technical students can take their advantages.
The Presentation Ceremony 2017 of BigDatathon started at 5:30 p.m. in LTB, HKUST. The prize included Champion Award, 1st Runner Up Award, 2nd Runner Up Award, Radica Best Data Hunter Award, Best Enterpreneur Award, Most Innovative Idea Award, as well as Best Presentation Award.
