Holland College | Holland College launches $3,000 data and AI innovation competition for PEI students

From left: Ross Midgley, Program Manager, Culinary Institute of Canada; Jonathan Matters, Research Associate, Business Analytics Centre; and Chris Stewart, Instructor, Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics (AIDA) Post-Graduate Certificate.

PEI post-secondary students are invited to tackle a kitchen operations challenge, with pitch day and awards on Dec 4.

What could data and artificial intelligence do to make commercial kitchens more efficient? Holland College is inviting post-secondary students across Prince Edward Island to find out through IMPAC, a new competition offering $3,000 in cash prizes.

IMPAC, which stands for Innovation, Modelling, Prediction and Analytics Competition, is open to PEI post-secondary students from any discipline and provides an opportunity for students to develop portfolio-worthy projects and showcase their ideas to industry partners.

Students can compete in one of two streams. The Insights stream challenges participants to use data, analytics and AI to develop evidence-based recommendations. The Innovation stream invites students to develop a new product, service, business concept or prototype. Each stream offers a $1,000 first-place prize and a $500 runner-up prize.

This year’s competition is being held in cooperation with the Culinary Institute of Canada, Canada’s Smartest Kitchen and the College’s Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics (AIDA) program. The theme of the challenge is improving operations in commercial and institutional kitchens.

Jonathan Matters, Research Associate with the College’s BAC, said the theme was a natural fit to launch the inaugural competition. “We share a building with The Culinary Institute and CSK. Being in close proximity, we see the challenges that food service operations face. They feed us each day, we figured it was our turn to bring something to the table."

Matters said the competition gives students an opportunity to apply their skills outside the classroom, while building experience solving real problems faced by small- and medium-sized businesses.

"Island businesses need practical data and AI solutions that fit their needs. IMPAC gives students a real problem to solve and gives industry a look at what local talent can do," says Matters.

Registration for IMPAC is now open. The competition officially launches on Nov.6 at The Culinary Institute of Canada, when participants will receive the competition brief and access to datasets.

For more information or to register, visit HollandCollege.com/IMPAC

Applied Research The Culinary Institute of Canada General