Gabriel Fuentes second in UN software programming competition

container ship. Photo: UN Statistics Division / UN Global Pulse
Photo: UN Statistics Division / UN Global Pulse

14 October 2020 12:41

Gabriel Fuentes second in UN software programming competition

PhD Research Scholar Gabriel Fuentes led his team to second place in the UN software programming competition "AIS Big Data Hackathon". Fuentes is employed at SNF and has office space at the Department of Business and Management Science at NHH.

The UN Global Working Group (GWG) on Big Data for Official Statistics is an intergovernmental body active under the UN Statistics Division. The GWG has just conducted a Hackathon in the use of AIS data on the UN Global Platform, hosted for the first time on 3-6 September 2020.

The ship automatic identification systems AIS is real-time data, which tracks the position of ships around the world, and the UN Global Platform is a cloud-based collaborative environment for the GWG community of statisticians and data scientists. 

During the Hackathon 17 teams used AIS data to develop new applications, which can help in the COVID-19 response or in Climate Action. The 17 teams were selected from a pool of 43 applicants from around the world.

The top two teams of this contest will present their application during a webinar on Thursday, 15 October 2020.