Positive energy

Imagine an app for rural health workers that uses artificial intelligence to reduce maternal mortality rates? A tool to help stroke survivors relearn speech and language? Or a solution to prevent primary-school children from going hungry?

These are the three winning solutions that our colleagues worked on as part our internal Tech4Positive Futures Challenge 2020.

Launched in January 2020, the initiative invited Capgemini colleagues around the world to apply innovation and technical knowledge to some of the problems facing society today.

After months of preparation under COVID-19 restrictions, and with mentoring from senior business and technology leaders, 13 finalists were selected. These teams came up with projects that ranged from fighting digital exclusion and violent crime, to addressing water scarcity, providing access to affordable medical assistance, and reducing carbon emissions.

Capgemini went on to provide the resources necessary to bring these winning ideas to life – delivering social impact, at scale.

Tech4PositiveFutures Challenge

The 2020 winners.

Team MAATR: Reducing maternal mortality in India

Team MAATR focused on addressing maternal mortality rates in India. According to UNICEF, 2017 saw 35,000 mothers lost to pregnancy and childbirth-related complications, with many of these deaths being avoidable with the right information and guidance. The team proposed a digital mechanism based on AI and machine-learning to enable real-time data sharing, with the intention of helping rural health workers to intervene in time, and save lives.

Team SpeechFirst: Helping stroke survivors relearn speech

The next winner was a UK team that designed a solution to help stroke survivors continue their speech and language therapy at home. Globally, 50 million people suffer a stroke every year, of whom around four million later require speech training. SpeechFirst is an accessible and economical alternative that uses AI to detect incorrect facial movements and pronunciation, providing real-time tips and recommendations for patients.

Team Zero Hunger in Schools: Preventing hunger among school-children

The final winner was the Zero Hunger in Schools team, from Australia. According to the World Food Program, 66 million primary-school children in developing countries go to school hungry every year. To address this problem, the team from Australia created Yum-Yum, an app and web-based platform driven by secure, cloud-based technology, that uses machine-learning algorithms and analytics to improve food supply and distribution to children.

Inside stories

Future-shaping projects

Hunting for dragons

Sarah Gonçalves wasn’t always a data engineer. She began her career as an archaeologist, unearthing the secrets of the past in sites across France before retraining as a data engineer. She brings the same curiosity to her new vocation at Capgemini, using artificial intelligence (AI) to uncover what lies beneath the surface.