MMK-Informservice team among winners at national AI hackathon
A team of experts from MMK-Informservice’s Centre for Modelling and Advanced Analytics took first place in the division for first-time entrants at Digital Breakthrough – a nationwide Russian hackathon that focused on artificial intelligence. The hackathon took place in Nizhny Novgorod on 8-10 September 2023.
Over the course of 48 hours, programmers from all over the country (some working on-site, others remotely) developed solutions to 10 technological problems with the help of machine learning and AI. The problems used in the competition were designed by major Russian organisations and companies, including Rosatom, the Bank of Russia, Russian Railways, Rutube and others. Some 169 teams reached the final round.
The team from MMK-Informservice’s Centre for Modelling and Advanced Analytics, which included Elena Astratova, Galina Kutuzova, Kristina Komarova, Ruslan Zakirov and Denis Titlov, developed a model that can determine a customer’s propensity to purchase parking spaces at parking lots. The solution enables companies to reduce costs and improve customer loyalty by taking a personalised approach.
“The hackathon cases didn’t include problems related to production systems, but the tools and methods that we use in our day-to-day work at MMK were applicable in the area of construction-related retail as well. This enabled us to create a model with a computational accuracy of 80%, a result that put us in the top five. We gained invaluable experience and also learned about and took on board new methods and solutions that are being used in the IT industry today,” said Mr Titlov, the team captain.
Working under time pressure, the team developed a solution, made a presentation and recorded a video, after which they completed the defence of their project online in a process that was watched by more than 5 thousand people. As a result of two days of painstaking work, the team was awarded first place in the division for new entrants. Their prize was a trip around Russia.