Page 18 - SAMENA Trends - April 2020

REGIONAL & MEMBERS UPDATES SAMENA TRENDS

fish as they pass by. VASP uses AI, powered in Accenture’s Communications, Media & convolutional neural network and a
by Intel Xeon, Intel FPGA Programmable Technology practice and the company’s backup power supply. They are also
Acceleration Cards and Intel Movidius client lead for Intel. “Our ecosystem of looking into infra-red cameras which will
VPU, to count and classify the marine corporate and social partners for this enable videos at night to create a complete
life. The data is then sent to a surface ‘AI for social good’ project proves that picture of the coral ecosystem. Additional
dashboard, providing analytics and trends strength in numbers can make a positive uses could include studying the migration
to researchers on the ground in real- environmental impact.” Engineers rate of tropical fish to colder countries
time, enabling them to make data-driven from Accenture and Intel are already at and monitoring intrusion in protected or
decisions that will help the reef progress. work on the next-gen Project: CORaiL restricted underwater areas.
“The value of your data depends on how prototype, which will include an optimized
quickly you can glean insights to make
decisions from it,” said Athina Kanioura,
Accenture’s chief analytics officer and
Accenture Applied Intelligence lead. “With
the ability to do real-time analysis on
streaming video, VASP enables us to tap
into a rich data source — in effect doing
‘hands on’ monitoring without disrupting
the underwater environment.” Since being
deployed in May 2019, the solution has
collected roughly 40,000 images, which
researchers have used to gauge reef health
in real-time. “Artificial intelligence provides
unprecedented opportunities to solve
some of society’s most vexing problems,”
said Jason Mitchell, a managing director

Accenture and Springboard Enterprises Expand Collaboration to Increase

Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs

Accenture and Springboard Enterprises, a network of influencers, with large enterprises. “Continuing to bring our unique industry
investors and innovators dedicated to building high growth connections within the ventures ecosystem to the Springboard
companies led by women, are expanding their alliance to bring network enables us to promote women founders and innovators,
complementary people and capabilities together to increase connecting them with the right resources to secure funding and
opportunities for female entrepreneurs. Building on Accenture forge strategic business partnerships,” said Annette Rippert,
and Springboard’s existing collaboration, this expanded alliance Group Chief Executive of Strategy & Consulting at Accenture.
will focus on emerging market opportunities in women’s health “Accenture and Springboard share a common commitment to
innovation, with the goal of connecting Springboard portfolio gender parity and together we’ll help propel the growth of women-
companies that offer digital health solutions with Accenture led companies.” As part of the expanded alliance, the two most
clients in the healthcare industry. Accenture Ventures — which impactful industry-transforming innovators in the Springboard
serves as a bridge to the global innovation ecosystem by bringing network — a community of nearly 800 women founders and
clients together with best-in-class, enterprise relevant startups— leaders of emerging growth companies spanning the globe and
will now tap into Springboard companies to help women across all industries — will be named Accenture Springboard
innovators expand their industry network and effectively engage Innovator of the Year. One honor will recognize the most
promising industry newcomer, and the other will recognize a more
established company that is transforming the landscape of their
industry. Honorees will be selected by a committee of Springboard
and Accenture judges and announced at Springboard’s 20th
Anniversary Winners’ Circle Honors Dinner in New York in October.
Kay Koplovitz, Springboard Chairman and Co-founder, added,
“Over the past 20 years, Springboard has a virtually unmatched
record of recruiting and qualifying some of the most talented
women-led technology and life science companies. Our expanded
relationship with Accenture will help unlock untapped potential
and economic value.”

18 APRIL 2020