Comillas ICAI wins a Hewlett Packard contest

Students and lecturers from Comillas ICAI are in luck after winning first prize in the second edition of the HPE CDS Tech Challenge, the biggest Hewlett Packard Enterprise programming contest in Spain, which has put the cap on the celebration of a 25-hour hackathon at its offices in Madrid. In the final, “Team Socket”, the nickname of the Comillas ICAI team, won thanks to the design of an intelligent energy management system to reduce the carbon footprint of energy generation and transport, while optimising the balance between ethics and cost in the generation of the supply.

Antonio Muñoz San Roque, director of the School of Engineering (Comillas ICAI) highlighted how this close relationship between universities and companies is still the main driver of young talent towards the new areas of professional development. “In the current scenario of digitisation of industry and communications, of the explosion of artificial intelligence, this collaboration is key for academia and business to move in the same direction,” Muñoz said.

The director of Comillas ICAI added that "the HPE and CDS Tech Challenge is the best example of an initiative that builds bridges to universities, through a challenge that brings together some of the best engineering students from all over Spain. Without skimping on effort but squandering motivation and talent, the final phase shows that an experience as competitive as this can be a very valuable milestone for the learning of future professionals, but also a clear support, from the practical application to the academic training”.

Carme Artigas, Secretary of State for Digitalisation and Artificial Intelligence, also attended the closing ceremony and showed her support for the initiative by encouraging participants to continue working to build a more sustainable planet through technology. “The potential of the Spanish universities that have presented themselves and the quality of their proposals are unquestionable. The promotion of digital skills and the attraction of talent are two priorities for the digitalisation strategy in Spain,” he said.

In the II HPE CDS Tech Challenge 251 IT students participated in 56 teams from 27 universities and vocational training centres from all over Spain. They faced technological challenges for six months to overcome tests oriented to the world of software development, networking, Artificial Intelligence, algorithms and logic. Only 24 students from five teams made it to the finals. Prizes for the winners include a scholarship programme to work at Hewlett Packard Enterprise Group, and for the winning university an annual subscription to the HPE Customer Technology Centre Madrid, along with 100 hours of use of an HPE Ezmeral platform for the development of an AI model.