QLD AI Labs and ACS Queensland Collaborates extended!
07 July 2021
Highlights
- We sat down with the QLD AI Labs team recently, a volunteer organisation who are running some great corporate challenges to facilitate opportunities for business and emerging professionals to develop tangible AI skills. Find out more about their program and how you can get involved.
Who is Queensland AI Labs?
QLD AI Labs connects AI enthusiasts in the QLD community with technology-driven businesses and industries throughout QLD. Corporate sponsors present challenges every month, and solutions are funded by local entrepreneurs and commercialised, creating a single ecosystem of innovation. With the goal of co-working spaces in Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Mackay, Toowoomba, and Townsville, anyone that is willing can have a go at solving a problem.
How long have you been established and how big is your team?
QLD AI Labs is one year old now and we are a small team volunteering our time after hours for this great initiative. We are passionate about serving this amazing community and thrive on the increasing engagement from Qld. Meet our team here:
Natasha Lam – Chief Community Officer
Ronak Mathur – Chief Operating Officer
Vishnu Katta – Media Director
Sushmita Seshan- Content Strategist
Eric Lee – Website Engineer
How many challenges have you launched so far?
We have launched three challenges so far. Our first one was with Heritage Bank, second one was with Workpac and the third and ongoing challenge is with Containers Exchange. We have received a good response from the community in solving those challenges. Our previous challenge with Workpac was praised by all the leadership team and the winning participant was offered a job at Workpac.
We have several challenges scheduled for the next 12 months with iconic QLD companies such as Hastings Deering and Bank of Queensland to name a few.
Is there any active challenge and how can participants register for it?
Yes, our challenge with Containers for Change is live now and participants can register for it here . For more information about the challenge and the problem statement, you can visit our website link https://qldailabs.com.au/challenge/containers-for-change/. The challenge kicked off on June 15th and the tentative submission date is July 23rd 2021. We encourage everyone to participate in this exciting challenge and be part of such a great initiative.
What is your main purpose/goal?
Our primary goals are to facilitate opportunities for our community to develop tangible skills that can be utilised in their future careers, to connect with potential employers and emphasise the importance of a well-rounded candidate through undertaking personal and professional development activities A large focus of our work is to spread awareness in the regional Queensland and provide them opportunities to upscale on emerging technologies like AI and Machine Learning. We do this by hosting a range of challenges in partnership with corporate partners, giving participants an insight into the enterprise of the business world.
Tell us about the collaboration with ACS Queensland? How is this collaboration benefit the QLD AI Labs?
ACS Queensland and QLD AI Labs collaboration supports the wider community of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. Collaboration with ACS Queensland would help AI Labs participants to gain knowledge about new and demanding skills in the market thorough ACS newsletters and digital pulse report. ACS has large membership base across Queensland specially in regional areas would align to our mission to involve more regional businesses and participants. We are very thankful to ACS Queensland for supporting this initiative.
Can you tell us of any QLD AI Labs participant’s success stories?
The proven success with all challenges is that we notably connect c-suite executives to AI participants in the community. The ability to network with QLD corporate executives and well known QLD entrepreneur is a money can’t buy experience! More recently…..We have an exciting success story from Workpac Challenge. Nithin, participated in the Workpac challenge and he won the winner’s title. We spoke to Nithin after the challenge and this is what he shared with us “In this competitive era, QLD AI Labs has chosen a distinctive approach to link brains to real-world problems. The WorkPac challenge was released last November and the time frame was ideal for me to spend my time understanding the WorkPac challenge and produce a solution. After the primary round, I was allowed to propose the solution to the senior management at WorkPac. After a few discussions, I was offered a part-time role at WorkPac to implement the same. I would like to thank WorkPac and QLD AI Labs for providing me with the opportunity to showcase my skills.”
Who can participate in QLD AI Labs challenges and how can they register?
QLD AI Labs is open to all aspirants who live, work or study in QLD who have a zeal to learn, network and grow. We have our participants from different domains but are very keen to learn about Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and data analytics.
We encourage all students, technology professionals across Queensland to join QLD AI Labs and help in building this ecosystem stronger. We strive hard to provide our community with a good platform which adds value to their career. If you are interested to join us, you can follow us on the below channels:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/qldailabs/