Watson Goes to College
May 28, 2012
From Jeopardy to the college campus — Watson goes to MBA school, we learn in eWeek’s piece, “IBM’s Watson Challenges University of Rochester MBA Students.” Will an art history PhD challenge be next? I’d like to see that one.
For this project, U. of Rochester‘s Simon School of Business worked with IBM to sponsor the first Watson Academic Case Competition. Twenty-five students worked in teams to develop new ways to apply Watson‘s technology to complex problems in the realms of transportation, energy, retail and the public sector. For the faculty, business leaders, and IBM execs who chose the three winners, a strong understanding of how to use big data strategically was a key criterion.
Third place went to a project designed to streamline the customs process in airports while boosting security. The second place entry is designed to help energy companies project environmental impacts as well as manage regulatory and safety issues. Both are fine projects with strong real world potential, and I hope each gets developed further. The first place entry, though, might just save some lives. Writer Darryl K. Taft describes the winner:
“First place went to ‘Managing Data in the Eye of a Storm,’ which showed how IBM’s Watson technology could be put to work combining weather-related data and the latest census numbers to help organizations better prepare for a crisis administration and allocate resources accordingly. The first place student team concluded that Watson’s ability to look at unstructured and structured information could more accurately identify weather patterns and help improve response times.”
Big data analysis in the service of humanity—much more valuable than winning at Jeopardy.
Cynthia Murrell, May 28, 2012
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