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Swiss Re and IBM partnered on a hackathon Dec. 5 and 6 at The Rise in New York. Participants were tasked with using IBM's BlueMix cloud platform to develop an app with the theme of "My Personal Risk Advisor." Read on for more details.
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Each app had to incorporate at least one Watson cognitive component in the IBM Bluemix suite and be delivered in working order. The function was to help enable individuals or small business owners to assess their total risk profile and learn about various product offerings.
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"The primary reason for the hackathon was IT recruiting," said Jayne Olsen, Swiss Re Americas analytics enabling manager, who lead the hackathon. "We haven’t been hiring a lot of IT people here in the US, and we want to change that. But we need to first raise the awareness out in the tech community that Swiss Re is investing and involved in big data technology. "
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The prize for the best app was $10,000, and the ability to present the project to Swiss Re corporate leaders and interview for a job.
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The hackathon was a priority of senior management. Pictured: Eric Smith, president and CEO of Swiss Re Americas.
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Riccardo Baron, big data and analytics leader, also came to help guide hackers.
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IBM BlueMix was selected as a partner due to its ability to incorporate data with a top-notch end-user experience, Olsen says. "It’s really a matter of how can we use the data in the best way possible within our normal business," she explains.
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Over the course of the two days, teams with a maximum of five members strategized and coded.
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Eventually a team of judges, through two rounds of evaluation, settled on first and second place.
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The winner was Team Ultima.