Topcoder adds new data science and AI features to the Topcoder Platform
Topcoder, a Wipro company, and the world’s largest technology network and on-demand digital talent platform, announced the addition of new data science and AI features to the Topcoder Platform.
Highlights include native GPU support and the ability to develop advanced analytic solutions with any tool, library or cloud application service. Topcoder Platform enhancements empower companies with unprecedented ways to process and secure data, increase analytics speed, and avoid costly recruitment and retention challenges associated with IT staffing.
Harvard Medical School and the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard, the Northumbrian Water Group, SpaceNet, Zurich Insurance Group and other global organizations that use the Topcoder Platform for on-demand access to top IT and data science talent, report high quality results.
Topcoder addresses the need to have skilled technologists immediately available to collaborate with internal staff, so companies can quickly move from ideation to deployment without disrupting operations.
“Only a small segment of technologists in the world have the skills to design, build and test intricate data science algorithms, and even fewer companies understand how to find and hire them,” said Michael P. Morris, Global Head of Crowdsourcing, Wipro Limited.
“Topcoder is a bridge between IT talent and the enterprises that need them most with a fast, scalable, flexible outcome-based software development model that makes groundbreaking design, development, data science and testing possible through the gig economy workforce.”
Technical highlights
Native GPU support – Topcoder Community data scientists can contribute GPU native solutions that are tested in near real-time for ranking on a public leaderboard and receive significant peer review to ensure quality.
Container-based solution evaluation system – the Topcoder Platform allows for work with any tool, API, cloud-native features or library to develop solutions. Customers save time and resources, receiving viable solutions in days not months.
Multi-layer privacy, security – a proprietary Topcoder methodology that protects all data, IP and the challenges that touch them, whether housed on-premises or in the cloud, and upholds the integrity of proven development processes.
Contest casting – the new Challenge API allows customers to run development contests on the Topcoder Platform or their own systems. This increases security by allowing organizations to keep data within their four walls. It also improves workforce capabilities, and provides flexibility in applying access and restriction controls.
Crowd powered analytics – an extension of the Topcoder Platform that adds dedicated data scientists, business analysts, architects and deployment experts on-demand. Benefits include unlimited scalability, open tool selection for the right fit to any analytics problem, lower IT staffing/turnover risks and increased project speed.
On-demand, gig economy talent is a competitive advantage
Forward-thinking companies innovate faster than competitors to maintain leadership. Anadarko, one of the world’s largest independent oil and natural gas exploration and production companies, understands the need for next-generation solutions and experience without sacrificing quality.
“Wipro’s expert data science teams and Topcoder crowd models create a complementing, synergetic and differentiated business model for our clients. This innovative model allows companies to leverage the power of innovation and crowdsourcing at scale, as well as increase productivity and efficiencies to solve new classes of problems,” said Jayant Prabhu, VP & Global Head of Data, Analytics & AI, Wipro Limited.
Working with Topcoder and Wipro, Anadarko leveraged the data science capabilities of the Topcoder Platform to develop a crowd-powered Open Analytics Team. Benefits included:
- Immediate project start – Anadarko had on-demand access to a qualified pool of technologists (data science, development, UI/UX design, etc.) that could begin work right away (no hiring or ramp up delays).
- Improved employee productivity – Anadarko used crowdsourcing to empower employees to address problems impacting them at an individual level that otherwise would not be addressed by enterprise resources.
- Measurable, repeatable results – Anadarko’s Analytics and Consulting team has run more than 318 competitions and reports an average opportunity return on investment of 20x.
“Through our open innovation program, we have been able to solve problems in a new way,” said Jose Silva, Emerging Technologies Manager for Anadarko Petroleum, within the Advanced Analytics and Emerging Technologies (AAET) organization.
“AAET is tasked with incubating and implementing innovative ways of working in a changing digital landscape and open innovation is an important part of this strategy. Access to top-tier talent, a pay-for-performance model and the ability to scale resources on-demand has delivered meaningful value to Anadarko, and we see this model as the way of the future.”