The annual ACS Digital Disruptors Awards made a long-awaited return this week after a two 12 months Covid-induced hiatus, to rejoice the most effective in tech.
The recognise the achievements and expertise of particular person ICT professionals and teams in 9 classes
There have been 28 finalists. ACS President Dr Nick Tate stated all of the entries had been spectacular.
“The prime quality of entrants this 12 months confirmed how the Australian expertise sector tailored nicely and thrived regardless of the impression of the pandemic and reveals we’re nicely positioned as a worldwide tech hotspot with the finalists displaying the best way we are able to lead the world,” he stated.
Among the many winners had been the social impression ticketing platform Humanitix, named greatest new tech platform, and auticon, a social enterprise and IT consulting agency that solely employs neurodiverse folks.
Auticon labored with Woolworths on how greatest to assist autistic employees and a six-month pilot program has seen auticon consultants embedded into the Provide Chain IT High quality Assurance and Testing group.
Auticon CEO Bodo Mann stated the intent of the pilot was to cut back testing occasions and enhance software program, however Woolworths obtained much more than they anticipated when the consultants had been in a position to automate a big a part of the bar code scanning course of.
“This program demonstrated the actual energy of considering in another way, the group take a look at the issues wholistically and uncover each alternative to reinforce the answer,” he stated.
“This challenge was an amazing instance of our group working with an organisation like Woolworths to create an autism pleasant surroundings that enhanced the talents and strengths of individuals on the spectrum.”
Woolworths has now signing a 12-month settlement with auticon.
Mann paid tribute to all concerned in serving to the corporate to win the ACS Digital Disruptors Award.
“It’s improbable to obtain this award, nevertheless it wouldn’t be potential with out the arduous work of our Job Coaches, Consultants and naturally Woolworths,” he stated.
“I’d actually wish to take this chance to thank everybody that made this potential and sit up for constructing our continued relationship collectively.”
The 9 class winners of the ACS Digital Disruptors Awards are:
Finest New Tech Platform: Humanitix
What makes Humanitix particular is that it not solely takes out the frustration for a buyer when reserving a ticket for an occasion, the founders made it their mission to convey folks collectively to encourage and spend money on humanity. Humanitix is the world’s first not-for-profit ticketing platform.
Via the usage of good tech and agile innovation, Humanitix redesigned each the expertise for the client and vendor by eradicating inefficient processes and making the ticketing course of pleasurable. On the plus facet all earnings go to serving to deprived children all all over the world.
Rising ICT Professionals of the Yr: Chelsea Abel and Siddhant Shrestha
Chelsea is an automation, knowledge and Synthetic Intelligence skilled with over 5 years’ multidisciplinary expertise, together with in IT consulting and now as Senior Answer Marketing consultant with ServiceNow. Diploma-qualified in psychology, after an early profession in Human Sources, Chelsea transitioned to the IT sector in early 2019, levering selftaught technical expertise. In her comparatively brief journey in tech, she has demonstrated many achievements.
With a ardour for selling gender variety in expertise, Chelsea is a member of the ACS, Ladies In ICT, and the Australian Academy of Science and STEM Ladies. Chelsea additionally volunteers as a mentor for varied packages that intention to construct ladies’s and women’ programming and digital expertise, encourage them into roles within the trade, and assist them to advance their careers.
Siddhant is an ICT entrepreneur who has labored within the trade for 10 years, founding two Australian start-ups — Bodhi Tech and Varicon, a VC-backed development tech firm the place he’s the Chief Product Officer.
Siddhant describes “a humble background” in Nepal, the place he started his IT journey in consulting after which based his personal trend eCommerce enterprise in addition to a non-profit, The Rose Basis Nepal, earlier than transferring to Australia to pursue a Grasp’s diploma, graduating in 2018. Siddhant volunteers as an Innovation Bootcamp mentor with the Melbourne Enterprise Faculty, and likewise mentors graduates searching for their first position within the IT sector.
Over his profession up to now he has demonstrated a robust trade session strategy, entrepreneurial drive and important enterprise achievements, and a sustained contribution to the trade and neighborhood.
ICT Skilled of the Yr: Dr Mahendra Samarawickrama
Dr Mahendra Samarawickrama (GAICD, MBA, SMIEEE, ACS(CP)) is a senior chief within the AI and knowledge science sector with wealthy expertise throughout a variety of individuals, cultures, applied sciences and governance.
He’s an writer, inventor, mentor and common speaker in varied tech boards, conferences and occasions worldwide. Within the Australian Pink Cross, he leads AI and knowledge science technique whereas constructing capabilities for social justice and sustainability with variety, fairness and inclusion in AI and knowledge science by mobilising the facility of humanity. He helps training as an honorary visiting scholar at UTS and an trade mentor at UNSW.
CXO Disruptor of the Yr: Bob Sharon
There are not any limits to what we are able to do or obtain, aside from those we place in our personal minds”. Bob Sharon is a passionate and tenacious ‘disruptor’ and innovator. Bob had the privilege of conducting the primary NABERS Information Centre Vitality score again in 2013.
Bob was an honorary member of the corporate that equipped and carried out ‘Checkpoint FireWall 1 ver. 1.0’, the primary industrial firewall in Australia, in 1994. He has delivered speeches at quite a few respected conferences throughout Asia. He’s an eminently certified international knowledge centre choose since 2015
ICT Analysis Venture of the Yr: College of Know-how, Sydney
The group from the College of Know-how Sydney (UTS) are world leaders within the improvement of Synthetic Intelligence (AI)-based options for trade. The UTS group partnered with American multinational e-commerce company – eBay. Certainly one of eBay’s enterprise priorities is rising Gen Z engagement with their merchandise. This challenge developed cutting-edge social media monitoring expertise to assist eBay perceive trending subjects in social media, together with from influencers and through hashtags by endeavor content material evaluation and development discovery.
The challenge included cuttingedge AI applied sciences to take care of multi-modal knowledge utilizing graph neural
networks and deep mining. Along with high-quality educational outputs and worldwide recognition, this software gives eBay with new capabilities to ship focused advertising methods for his or her Gen Z prospects. It illustrates the numerous significance of translating analysis from universities to ship actual advantages to trade.
ICT Service Transformation for the Digital Client (Company): Overtly
Overtly turns your good telephone right into a distant medical monitoring gadget. It does this by understanding who you’re by a wellness evaluation, then it permits clinic distant monitoring by means of utilising the telephones sensor and superior AI algorithm. It permits higher data to the clinician which in the end permits higher service to the shopper. That is what innovation is about.
ICT Service Transformation for the Digital Client (Authorities): East Metropolitan Well being Service – Information & Digital Innovation
COVID introduced many challenges, none so extra evident than within the medical sector and hospitals. The group at EMHS got an issue, the best way to reply and reply rapidly to an occasion that no-one had responded to earlier than.
There was no bodily clinic or current workflow to make use of as the premise, so interactive role-playing and what-if situations had been the premise for the preliminary ideas. These had been validated all through the three days of MVP improvement, and nimbly up to date as new data grew to become accessible.
ICT Service Transformation for the Digital Client (NFP/NGO): Missions Join
Missions Join is the primary immersive and interactive technological software of its type in Australia that’s efficient as a software for truth-telling and elevating consciousness a few important interval of Australian Aboriginal historical past.
Missions Join creates a VR mannequin as a digital report of at-risk heritage websites which might function a digital repository for storytelling and private narratives documenting occasions, locations and people which are fading from collective reminiscence. Missions Join serves to inform the historical past of the Stolen Generations in partnership with the Survivors who are usually not solely sharing their tales but additionally figuring out how these are informed.
Missions Join gives necessary visible context and connection between the tales and locations. It seeks to doc, interpret and disseminate tangible and intangible heritage property concurrently in collaboration with the Stolen Generations Survivors themselves.
Abilities Transformation of Work Groups (below 100): auticon
auticon is a worldwide social enterprise on a mission to offer equal employment alternatives for autistic folks. A big Australian retailer engaged auticon to discover the impacts of neurodiversity in its IT challenge groups. auticon’s autistic IT consultants had been onboarded to work alongside the retailer’s workers on a key software program challenge. This mannequin enabled the retailer’s workers to grasp the advantages of neurodiversity and one of the simplest ways to assist autistic colleagues within the office, whereas the blended group achieved larger innovation and more practical challenge outcomes.
The judges famous the constructive impacts for the retailer, whose workers embraced completely different considering and problem-solving expertise, and along with auticon consultants obtain measurable enterprise profit and sustainable innovation practices. Judges recommended auticon for reaching “important outcomes for the trade and society on the whole” by means of its neurodiversity expertise transformation program.
