Opera Solutions Announces 'Opera Open' Winners
Jersey City, NY (PRWEB) October 25, 2016 -- Opera Solutions, a global leader in applied Big Data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), has announced the winners of its global innovation contest, the Opera Open. The annual event, which is open to all non-management–level employees, awards teams for using the company’s world-class machine learning science and its flagship Big Data analytics platform, Signal Hub, to solve significant business problems in new and better ways.
“At Opera Solutions, we apply machine learning science and technology to deliver profit and growth that otherwise would not be attainable,” said Arnab Gupta, Opera Solutions’ CEO and founder. “The Opera Open gives every employee an opportunity to branch out and dream of new ways to do this and then to work with their peers around the world to bring these ideas to life. This year’s entries demonstrate not only that we attract some of the world’s best scientists and technologists, but also that our entire organization shares both the imagination and expertise required to turn our vision into reality.”
The judges’ panel consisted of internal senior managers and external business executives. This year’s winners and finalists push the boundaries of advanced data science applications:
• First Prize ($30,000): Agrilytics. By allowing farmers to micro-segment and manage their acreage, Agrilytics can dramatically increase agricultural yields and maximize a farm’s financial returns. Advanced predictive analytics leverage a wide range of data sources, from soil sensors to international commodity prices, to provide daily and long-term individualized recommendations for seeding, irrigation, fertilization, crop rotation, and more via a tablet-based app.
• Second Prize ($12,000): Singularity. Singularity turns the machine into an analytic helpmate that even non-scientists can use to find hidden business insights. Users pose plain-language questions (e.g., Why are sales decreasing? Who is most likely to accept this offer? What consumer behavior is most linked with profit and revenue?) to get clear, easy-to-understand answers. The machine can also be set to automatically uncover important insights, patterns, and correlations.
• People’s Choice Award ($5,000): ReFlex. ReFlex is a mobile app and Web service that instantly serves up information to in-store consumers on their mobile devices, bringing the benefits of online shopping to brick-and-mortar shoppers. If shoppers need more help, a push of a button summons a salesperson. Detailed real-time visitor data is also available to store personnel, so they can personalize interactions and target high-value customers.
Finalists included Documen, a natural language processing–based workbench and query interface for ingesting, tagging, and classifying text-based documents; DrugHub, which uses high-capacity processing and machine learning algorithms to screen millions of compounds per day (~20–30X more at 20% higher accuracy than current methods); Alpha Drive, a real-time demand prediction app for taxicabs to allow them to increase revenues and better compete with Uber; and Sequence Miner, which allows users to more easily create a longitudinal “journey-based” view of each customer’s interactions with their company. Additional entries included a meal-ordering app in China, a way to use social media to predict stock movements, and a Big Data app to help soccer teams win, and more.
The contest attracted 24 entries representing 40% of eligible employees and all of the company’s eight offices. Teams had to develop working prototypes, virtually all of which were built on the company’s flagship end-to-end Big Data technology platform, Signal Hub.
“Signal Hub, with its advanced, scalable analytics capabilities, made it possible for teams to rapidly bring their ideas to life,” said Laks Srinivasan, co-COO of Opera Solutions. “As evidence of these entries’ practicality and applicability, we are now moving to commercialize the most promising ideas.”
About Opera Solutions, LLC:
Opera Solutions provides software, science, and services that help companies scale analytics across the enterprise and achieve profits and growth that would otherwise not be possible. The company serves global leaders in financial services, healthcare, professional services, the public sector, telecom, retail, travel and leisure, and more through its offices in North America, Europe, and Asia. For more information, visit http://www.operasolutions.com.
Eric Sokolsky, Spark PR, +1 (908) 288-7201, [email protected]
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