TCS Announces Winner of UK Sustainathon Competition at TCS Innovation Forum

LONDON : Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS), a leading global IT services, consulting, and business solutions organisation, announced that University College London team, ‘Biophilic’, will present their winning idea for TCS’ UK Sustainathon, at its 2021 Innovation Forum on Tuesday 16th November at the Design Museum in London.

The Sustainathon is a problem-solving competition that empowers and inspires UK higher education students to address urgent environmental challenges using new digital technologies. The winning idea was submitted in response to a challenge set by the Improvement Service, the ‘go-to’ organisation for local government improvement in Scotland. The challenge was to explore how to effectively empower individuals to change to more sustainable behaviours using digital technology by expanding the scope of the National Entitlement Card and rewarding users when they make more environmentally sustainable choices.

The students collaborated with TCS’ customers, non-profit organizations, and government agencies, to develop their technology-driven ideas that address this challenge.

K Ananth Krishnan, Chief Technology Officer, TCS: “We are pleased to see the innovative ideas that young students presented at the TCS UK Sustainathon and congratulate the team from University College London for their hard work in building out their solution. This competition as well as our Innovation Forum represent our commitment to accelerate effective collaboration between businesses, governments and academia, inspire the younger generation and build long-lasting, inclusive and sustainable futures for everyone.”

Martin Brown, Head, Digital Public Services, the Improvement Service: “The IS exists to provide leadership to Local Government and improve peoples’ lives across the Scotland, and it has been a great experience working with TCS and the brilliant young minds involved in the Sustainathon, to show how the power of digital transformation can help members of our local community make better sustainable choices.”

Felicia Peto-Madew, Team Biophilic, University College London: “We were looking at ways we could increase community awareness and engagement on sustainability by enhancing the accessibility and digital functionality of the NEC app. It is great to have won and we hope to encourage people from all demographics to support local businesses and make more sustainable choices, so we can help Scotland reach net-zero by 2045.”

The Innovation Forum is an interactive event that enables senior leaders across enterprise, industry, government, and academia, to share insights on technology and sustainability as part of an inclusive ecosystem of digital innovation and collaboration. The theme of this year’s UK Innovation Forum is Building Sustainable Futures by Creating New Collaborative Ecosystems.

Attendees will have the opportunity to hear unique perspectives on how organisations can harness the power of digital technology to build more inclusive and sustainable futures for everyone.

After a keynote speech from TCS’ K Ananth Krishnan, a series of panel sessions by experts will discuss how technology can address ongoing global sustainability challenges. This will provide an opportunity to discover how new technologies including data science, robotics, machine learning and artificial Intelligence are already being implemented across different industries to address the effects of global climate change, reduce carbon emissions pollution, and minimise or recycle waste.