The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were launched in 2016, aiming to deliver, by 2030, 17 goals that affect us all. Rather than a quantitative process (which can weaken the scope of ambitious goals by reducing them to a tick-box exercise), the SDGs take a qualitative and data-driven approach. The SDGs will have the biggest positive impacts in places with the most needs, however with the emphasis on sustainability, the SDGs place responsibility for change on the richer and more developed countries in the world, highlighting changes we all need to make in order to keep our planet liveable.

Thanks to the British Council, postgraduate students from across NCI’s schools of business and computing are taking part today and tomorrow in an AI Hackathon that focuses on contributing to the achievement of the SDGs. Monday sees training both in AI tools and their application as well as a deep dive into the goals themselves, and on Tuesday morning, the question will be asked: How can AI be used to support the UN SDGs?

With five teams participating, and a panel of industry experts judging entries, we will report on the winning teams later this week – best of luck (and best of learning!) to all involved, and every good hope for some very real and workable projects at the end of the hackathon.

Team 1
Saurabh Sharma studying for an MSc in AI
Olayinka Mayowa studying for an MSc in International Business
Ankhit Verma studying for an MSc in AI
Rajratan Gajbhiye studying for an MSc in AI
Chetna V. studying for an MSc in AI

Team 2
Mugil Sivasamy Kalamani studying for an MSc in AI
Abhishek Gupte studying for an MSc in AI
Ramanathan Arunchalam studying for an MSc in AI
Oladapo Emmanual Abiola studying for an MSc in Entrepreneurship
Blessing Oghenerukevwe Enakpodia studying for an MSc in Entrepreneurship

Team 3
Vikas Varma Malipeddi studying for an MSc in AI
Hudson Paul studying for an MSc in AI
Vamshi Krishna studying for an MSc in AI
Joshua Oluwafe Komolafe studying for an MSc in AI for Business
Simani F Monyatsi studying for an MSc in Entrepreneurship

Team 4
Emre Kavak studying for a Higher Diploma in Computing (Software Development)
Kyungjin (Jinnie) Cho studying for a Higher Diploma in Computing (Software Development)
Miseong Kang studying for a Higher Diploma in Computing (Software Development)
Guilherme Moraes de Assis studying for a Higher Diploma in Computing (Software Development)
Laxman Singh studying for an MSc in Data Analytics

Team 5
Veera Avinash studying for an MSc in Data Analytics
Vinith Kumar studying for an MSc in Data Analytics
Sneha Muralidhar studying for an MSc in Data Analytics
Amrit Iamxanasa Shidling studying for an MSc in Data Analytics
Pradeep Narayanswamy studying for an MSc in Data Analytics