Impressions from the Credit Suisse ML Hackathon

An excited group of 50 participants from Credit Suisse and its partners formed 13 teams to compete in a 48h hackathon. Part of the challenge was to build a scalable method to expand on an existing taxonomy tree, supported by a machine learning algorithm. Adding nodes to existing leaves, is a simple task for a trained human, but not so for a machine.

We've had the privilege to supporting the event with our Bluemix platform. Besides their exceptional creativity and problem solving abilities, lots of python and more, some of the teams have made the destinct choice to use the IBM Watson NLP capabilities as accelerator in their approach.

We are very proud to say, that two of those teams using our capabilities, have been selected by a prominent CS executive group as the winners for best approach, best accuracy and best overall solution. WINNERS! That's AWESOME!

Congratulations again to the winning teams! Kudos well deserved!

I want to say a big THANK YOU! to the entire #creditsuisse crew (Aleks, Anna, Milan, Gery, Markus, just to name a few) for hosting us so kindly. Fabulous talents, teams and lots of creativity! Lovely we got the chance to be part of the #hackathon with IBM Watson. Many, many thanks also go out to IBMers Romeo Kienzler, Nik Kessler, Henrique Saeuberli & Reginald Blokland.

The learning curve at this event was steep for me personally, too. One thing I took away, is that the re-use of our API's (ours, but actually any), truly helps developers THINK. It gave them time to build out on their distinct, innovative approaches and focus on the outcomes & results . Even on experience: The winning teams had enough time to build visually attractive presentations. Further, business, functional SMEs and developers have been able to collaborate on the solution in a more simplistic language, driven by a joint goal. 

The need to innovate at the core of the industry's business is imminent. That said, I love this example, as it truly delivers on the promises of a platform-based approach, collaborating across multi-functional teams and pushing the practices of rapid innovation. All this supported by a truly passionate executive team. Thanks #creditsuisse for this experience! 

To co-innovate and work with great people at Credit Suisse on some of the toughest challenges (and opportunities) enterprises face today, supports our ambition to partner and combine strengths to shape the future of Fin and related Tech.

The entire team is keen to continue to engage on the journey to continue help create and capture value through digital capabilities.

*All views are my own.