Showing posts with label SAS. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SAS. Show all posts

SAS and VESIM Collaborate to Leverage Data Analytics for Solving Mental Health Challenges

SAS and VESIM hosted the second edition of “Data Quezt”, a specially curated hackathon that leveraged data analytics to solve a very pertinent problem prevalent amongst many students across India today.

The second edition of Data Quezt focused on potential of depression and suicide especially amongst the university students in India and how analytics could help to detect patterns of depression and suicide amongst students, and prevention measures for stakeholders using SAS tools.

Data Quezt witnessed record participation, an increase of 180% over last year. After two rounds of eliminations, 80 students were selected to be a part of a 24-hour hackathon held at the VESIM campus. The championship kicked off with a keynote address by Dr. Satish Modh, Director, VESIM who spoke on the importance of data-based decision making.

“As data turns into a commodity it is crucial for students to learn how data can be an important tool for decision making and how data should be interpreted. The way to approach this would be through developing skills like analytics, judgmental diversity management and understanding & responding to diversity. These skills should be incorporated in management school curriculum, and hackathons offer that additional avenue for students to implement their theoretical knowledge and solve real-world challenges.”

At the end of the 24 hours challenge, the participants submitted their analysis reports to the jury and 10 groups were shortlisted to present their findings. The participants were given an interesting problem statement on a humanitarian issue pertaining to depression levels and suicides. They were allocated two datasets: one on the number of suicides for various age, profession groups for men and women across the states over 14 years. The second data set was on depression levels in students and their demographical and behavioral patterns collected through a survey of around 14,000 students.

All teams managed to do a very in-depth analysis, however; there were top three teams that stood out with well thought analytical models and approach to problem solving. The winners of Data Quezt were: Group 1: Palak Davda, Mohit Badve and Vinal Bagaria; Group 2: Parth Jardosh and Shloka Shah and Group 3: Ronak Jain, Shubham Dalvi and Shubham Mawande.

Bhuvan Nijhawan, Director Education - Asia Pacific, SAS Institute India Private Limited said, “Data in right hands has the capabilities to inform and inspire those in a position to make a difference. The hackathon’s mission is to provide opportunities to young minds to use data for good of the society and harness its power to formulate potential solutions."

About DataQuezt

Data Quezt, a competition on Data Analytics was organized jointly by VESIM B-School and SAS (India). Under-graduates and post-graduate students from various states participated in the competition to win three prizes worth INR 9,30,000, INR 6,25,000 and a consolation prize of INR 20,000. The prizes were sponsored by SAS (India).

SAS Sees 105% Growth in AI Revenue, per Analyst Report

While the overall artificial intelligence (AI) market saw steady growth last year, SAS experienced growth at a rate nearly four times faster than the overall market, at 104.6% according to the IDC report, Worldwide Artificial Intelligence Software Platforms Market Shares, 2018: Steady Growth — Moving Toward Production1. SAS ranked second overall in 2018 in the AI software platforms category.



“SAS had impressive growth in the artificial intelligence market, no doubt as a result of its leadership in analytics,” said David Schubmehl, Research Director, Cognitive/Artificial Intelligence Systems at IDC. “As organizations move from experimentation to production in AI to solve their business problems, many are looking for a trusted vendor that offers analytics expertise and domain knowledge. SAS’ embedded AI capabilities and integration with open source technologies allows organizations to take advantage of the technology to automate processes, without the heavy lifting of training AI models.”

To continue fostering innovation and progress in an expanding market, SAS has committed to invest $1 billion in AI over the next three years. The $1 billion investment focuses on three main areas:


  1. research and development (R&D) innovation to continue to build on the success of SAS’ global AI efforts

  2. education initiatives addressing customer and partner needs to better understand and benefit from AI

  3. expert services to optimize customer return on AI projects.



Devoting 26% of its overall revenue to R&D, SAS reinvests more than twice the average for major technology firms.

“AI has been an integral part of SAS software for years,” said Jim Goodnight, CEO of SAS. “Today we continue to move beyond the hype to make AI real for our customers, building on our strong foundation in advanced analytics. From machine learning, deep learning, computer vision and natural language processing to forecasting and optimization, SAS helps customers in many industries benefit from AI technologies and the intelligence they create.”

Customers using AI from SAS include Lockheed Martin, Royal Bank of Scotland and Honda. Learn more about how SAS delivers AI, empowering organizations to make more intelligent and automated business decisions. One of the key technologies for doing this is SAS® Viya®, transparent, interpretable technology that helps users at all skill levels automate complex tasks to build world-class analytical models.

“SAS is today leveraging AI to help governments become more citizen centric, combat fraud in financial services, identify quality issues in manufacturing & even protect wildlife,” said Noshin Kagalwalla, VP & MD, SAS India. “The potential is enormous and as AI gains popularity in India, we are passionately working with our customers to enhance human ingenuity with our AI solutions and take their experimental AI initiatives out of the labs and make it work in the real world.”

1 IDC #US45262419, Worldwide Artificial Intelligence Software Platforms Market Shares, 2018: Steady Growth — Moving Toward Production, David Schubmehl, June 2019 

About SAS

SAS is the leader in analytics. Through innovative software and services, SAS empowers and inspires customers around the world to transform data into intelligence. SAS gives you THE POWER TO KNOW®.

SAS and all other SAS Institute Inc. product or service names are registered trademarks or trademarks of SAS Institute Inc. in the USA and other countries. ® indicates USA registration. Other brand and product names are trademarks of their respective companies. Copyright © 2019 SAS Institute Inc. All rights reserved.

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