Chapel Hill, North Carolina (February 10, 2021) – Tanjo AI, an award-winning machine learning (ML) company based in North Carolina, has moved to the final round in the $500K Pandemic Response Challenge run by XPRIZE and sponsored by Cognizant.
Tanjo AI is advancing to the final round. Finalist teams were selected from semifinalists from 28 countries following an independent judging panel’s assessment of teams’ predictions of COVID-19 transmission rates and patterns.
XPRIZE is the world’s leader in designing and operating incentive competitions to solve humanity’s grand challenges. The Pandemic Response Challenge is in partnership with Cognizant (Nasdaq: CTSH), one of the world’s leading technology and professional services companies
Tanjo AI’s Community Confidence COVID-19 machine learning dashboard is designed to give business owners and community stakeholders real-time intelligence and predictive modeling on population health risk, consumer sentiment, and community resilience. Users can access this information in an easily understandable way that helps them view the risk to their organization or region, and they will even be able to simulate the impact of implementing evidence-based recommendations.
“The finalists in the Pandemic Response Challenge have demonstrated incredible innovation in their efforts to help the world emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Brian Humphries, Chief Executive Officer of Cognizant. “Advancements these teams are making can have far-reaching implications – empowering policy-makers and business leaders globally with data-driven tools, informing countries’ decisions about their re-opening strategies, and proving the value of AI and collaboration in addressing future humanitarian crises.”
Launched in November 2020, the Pandemic Response Challenge comprises two phases. In Phase 1, concluded earlier this month, contestants were tasked with analyzing local COVID-19 data, intervention strategies, and mitigation policies to develop and test a prediction model that could anticipate global infection spikes. The teams had access to foundational models from Cognizant’s Evolutionary AI™ team, which applied artificial intelligence to COVID-19 data sourced from Oxford University and John Hopkins in Spring 2020.
“It’s an honor to be recognized along with this global group of innovators,” said Richard Boyd, CEO, Tanjo AI. “We are all working around the clock to help mitigate the negative impacts of COVID-19 through the smart application of artificial intelligence to ensure the health and safety of our communities.”
Since the initial approval of COVID-19 vaccines in December 2020, the global pandemic has raged on – more than 25 million additional people have been diagnosed with the disease. The competition aims to harness the power of data and artificial intelligence in equipping policymakers, health officials, and business leaders with insights and guidance necessary to implement public safety measures and safely deliver the vaccine, maximizing their ability to keep local economies open while minimizing potential virus breakouts. Additionally, organizers hope the Challenge will advance the use of AI and data in addressing other humanitarian challenges.
“Within a very short time frame, this challenge has shown encouraging results that leverage artificial intelligence at the service of social impact,” said Amir Banifatemi, Chief Innovation and Growth Officer of XPRIZE. “We set out to maximize the power of collaboration, competition, and innovation to accelerate solutions that could be applied to COVID-19 and future pandemics. We are excited to see how some of the top problem solvers are working towards this challenge, and we look forward to sharing their solutions with the world soon.”
Cognizant and XPRIZE will award a prize purse of $500K at the conclusion of the challenge on February 26, 2021.
For more information on the challenge guidelines, judging panel, and more, visit xprize.org/pandemicresponse.
About XPRIZE
XPRIZE, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is the global leader in designing and implementing innovative competition models to solve the world’s grandest challenges. Active competitions include the $20 Million NRG COSIA Carbon XPRIZE, the $10 Million Rainforest XPRIZE, the $10 Million ANA Avatar XPRIZE, the $5 Million IBM Watson AI XPRIZE, $5 Million XPRIZE Rapid Reskilling, $5 Million XPRIZE Rapid COVID Testing, and $500K Pandemic Response Challenge. For more information, visit xprize.org.
About Tanjo AI
Tanjo AI is an award-winning artificial intelligence and machine learning company dedicated to achieving balance between human and machine interaction to optimize outcomes. Serving multiple industries from healthcare and education to financial and consumer market research, Tanjo helps customers gain greater business insight and drive actionable innovation. With the Tanjo Enterprise Brain, customers can better harness and maintain organizational knowledge to prepare for digital transformation. With Tanjo Animated Personas (TAP) marketers can test product concepts and messaging to an unbiased group of digital stand-ins that represent their customers’ true values and interests. Tanjo prides itself on delivering attainable machine learning-based platforms that offer customers a 10x or more return-on-investment.
About Cognizant
Cognizant (Nasdaq-100: CTSH) is one of the world’s leading professional services companies, transforming clients’ business, operating and technology models for the digital era. Our unique industry-based, consultative approach helps clients envision, build and run more innovative and efficient businesses. Headquartered in the U.S., Cognizant is ranked 194 on the Fortune 500 and is consistently listed among the most admired companies in the world. Learn how Cognizant helps clients lead with digital at www.cognizant.com or follow us @Cognizant.
