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Students winners of international data science contest

NEWS RELEASE NO. 178 OF 09 DECEMBER 2021

Enrico Coluccia and Chiara Rucco, respectively an undergraduate and a recent graduate from the University of Salento, are part of the international group that won the "Data science sustainability challenge" online competition, conceived and promoted by Microsoft, Capgemini and ÖBAG. Coluccia, a 24-year-old trainee at the Milan headquarters of the multinational Siemens, is a graduate student at UniSalento in "Computer engineering"; Rucco, a recent graduate of the same degree program, is a doctoral student in "Complex systems engineering" and a trainee at the International computing center of the United Nations. The team, called “Il tacco dello stivale", in English “The heel of the boot", which also included young engineers Pablo Izquierdo (Valencia) and Akshay Punjabi (Tenerife), prevailed over 32 other international groups.

The challenge was to suggest ideas to exploit the potential of big data and Artificial Intelligence "for a green future": "The challenge consisted in creating thematic layers superimposed on satellite images of Austrian territories that, thanks to machine learning algorithms, identified objects belonging to 17 predefined categories (vehicles, trees, asphalt, roofs, etc.)," explains Professor Antonella Longo, UniSalento professor of Databases and Big data management and tutor of the team, "These models were later applied to images from business contexts to improve their biodiversity and sustainability. After short training and briefing sessions held by senior consultants, data scientists, and data architects from Microsoft, participants developed a model and submitted day-by-day results to update a 'leaderboard' determined by the jury. Our group was awarded for its efficiency, cost-effectiveness in terms of computing resources used and flexibility in different application contexts, including the identification of natural disasters and the ability to monitor urban growth and traffic in cities. One of the objectives was, in particular, to evaluate the potential of renewable energy in different urban areas on the basis of some metrics calculated during the challenge, including indicators related to biodiversity, gas and CO2 emissions and the presence of photovoltaic systems.

The team won a cash prize of five thousand euros and the opportunity to discuss their solution with the top managers of the initiative's large partner companies.