Iguazio launches first-ever ‘MLOps for Good’ virtual hackathon

Today, Iguazio kicks off its first-ever global virtual hackathon.

Iguazio, the Data Science Platform built for production, announced its first-ever global virtual hackathon, which is starting today and will take place until June 29th, 2021. With a mission to foster projects that can immediately impact real-world issues, Iguazio partners Microsoft, MongoDB, and sponsor Aztek to seek individuals who want to bring data science to production to do good together.

2020 has been a tough year. AI models that can tackle topics like improving healthcare, detecting fake news and making the web safer for children have the potential to create positive change in many areas, but unfortunately, bringing data science to production so that it can generate real-world impact is still a largely unsolved challenge. This hackathon calls out data scientists, data engineers, and MLOps practitioners who want to create real-world impact by building not models but fully functional AI applications to generate immediate positive change.

Global challenges are defined by the UN Sustainable Development Goals and will serve as guidestars for the teams to focus on real-life social and environmental goals.

Submissions will be judged on solution innovation, commerciality & applicability, and ML operationalization and repeatability or the completeness of the functional ML pipeline, with additional points awarded for building real-time pipelines, creating the ability to retrain models, or incorporating multiple ML models.

The esteemed judging panel includes the following experts:

  • David Aronchick – Partner, Program Manager at Azure Innovations in the Office of the CTO, Microsoft
  • Orit Nissan-Messing – Co-Founder and VP Architecture, Iguazio
  • Greg Hayes – Data Science Director, Ecolab
  • Cecile Blilious – Head of Impact and Sustainability at Pitango Venture Capital
  • Nick Brown – Senior Data Scientist, IHS Markit
  • Anna Anisin – Founder, DataScience.Salon
  • Yaron Haviv – Co-Founder and CTO, Iguazio
  • Adi Hirschtein – VP Product, Iguazio

Community partners include the Toronto ML Society, Data Talks Club, AICamp Community, AI Infrastructure Alliance, Data Science Salon, Machine & Deep Learning Israel, Data Science Initiative, Open Data Science Conference, SF Big Analytics and JerusML.

“We see so much potential for change in the world, especially in times of pandemic when a new reality creates a massive need for immediate positive impact,” said Asaf Somekh, Co-Founder and CEO of Iguazio. “The data science community has tremendous talent and new innovative ideas; we want to channel this innovation to create real-world impact and make a difference for good. We are grateful to our judges, community partners, data scientists and engineers who will join us in using MLOps for Good”.

In addition to the gratification of working together to build solutions that will create positive change, the best projects deemed by the judges will be rewarded with various prizes. Participation guidelines, event details and link to registration can be found here. Winners will be announced on June 29th.

READ MORE:

About Iguazio

The Iguazio Data Science Platform enables enterprises to develop, deploy and manage AI applications at scale. With Iguazio, enterprises can run AI models in real-time, deploy them anywhere (multi-cloud, on-prem or edge), and bring their most ambitious AI-driven strategies to life. Enterprises spanning a wide range of verticals, including financial services, manufacturing, smart mobility, telecoms and ad-tech, use Iguazio to solve the complexities of MLOps and create business impact through a multitude of real-time use cases such as fraud prevention, predictive maintenance and real-time recommendations. Iguazio brings data science to life.

For more news from Top Business Tech, don’t forget to subscribe to our daily bulletin!

Follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter

Amber Donovan-Stevens

Amber is a Content Editor at Top Business Tech

Is It Time for a VMware Alternative?

Wind River • 22nd May 2025

Companies have options when it comes to replacing VMware as their cloud platform, to address rising costs, support concerns, and a shrinking partner ecosystem. If you are ready to contemplate a different vendor, here are five reasons why Wind River Cloud Platform should be on your short list of VMware alternatives.

AI Leads as VivaTech Unveils Top 100 Startups

Viva Technology • 14th May 2025

Viva Technology has unveiled the first edition of its “Top 100 Rising European Startups for 2025,” spotlighting the most promising young companies shaping Europe’s tech future. Germany, France, and the UK lead the ranking, which highlights high-growth startups across 13 countries. Artificial intelligence dominates the list, with 15 companies spanning AI agents, models, and infrastructure....

Birmingham Unveils the UK’s Best Emerging HealthTech Advances

Kosta Mavroulakis • 03rd April 2025

The National HealthTech Series hosted its latest event in Birmingham this month, showcasing innovative startups driving advanced health technology, including AI-assisted diagnostics, wearable devices and revolutionary educational tools for healthcare professionals. Health stakeholders drawn from the NHS, universities, industry and front-line patient care met with new and emerging businesses to define the future trajectory of...

Why DEIB is Imperative to Tech’s Future

Hadas Almog from AppsFlyer • 17th March 2025

We’ve been seeing Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) initiatives being cut time and time again throughout the tech industry. DEIB dedicated roles have been eliminated, employee resource groups have lost funding, and initiatives once considered crucial have been deprioritised in favour of “more immediate business needs.” The justification for these cuts is often the...

The need to eradicate platform dependence

Sue Azari • 10th March 2025

The advertising industry is undergoing a seismic shift. Connected TV (CTV), Retail Media Networks (RMNs), and omnichannel strategies are rapidly redefining how brands engage with consumers. As digital privacy regulations evolve and platform dynamics shift, advertisers must recognise a fundamental truth. You cannot build a sustainable business on borrowed ground. The recent uncertainty surrounding TikTok...