Created to combat water quality-related deaths, the Saaf
Water sensor and analytics platform for rural localities wins 2021
Call for Code Global Challenge
Technology using AI, Blockchain, and Cloud to verify, track,
and reward waste removal in outdoor areas wins Call for Code
University Edition prize
ARMONK, N.Y., Nov. 17, 2021 /PRNewswire/
-- Today, Call for Code founding partner IBM (NYSE: IBM)
and its creator, David Clark Cause, announced the winner of
the fourth annual Call for Code Global Challenge, which invited
innovators across the globe to combat climate change with open
source-powered technology. Call for Code is the largest and most
ambitious effort to bring together the world's software developers
to take on pressing societal issues by using the latest advanced
technologies to problem solve and create cutting-edge solutions.
The top prize this year went to Saaf Water, an accessible water
quality sensor and analytics platform created, in particular, for
people living in rural localities.
In Bihar, India, nine members
of the same family died over the past 20 years due to sicknesses
linked to arsenic contamination of groundwater. More have
experienced illness, including the mother of one of the Saaf Water
team members, who lives in Goa,
India. Moved to prevent further suffering in their community
and around the world, Saaf Water built a solution using IBM
Cloud and IBM Watson services to address the need for making water
quality information accessible and easy to understand. The
hardware-software platform, once installed, is designed to monitor
groundwater and provide a water quality summary along with
suggested purification methods.
Saaf Water will receive $200,000 and support to incubate,
test, and deploy their solution from the IBM Service Corps and
expert partners in the Call for Code ecosystem. The India-based team will also receive assistance
from The Linux Foundation to open source their application so
developers around the world can improve, scale, and use the
technology.
"The groundwater quality monitoring tool developed by Saaf Water
is promising, timely, and appears to have great potential for use
by communities relying on groundwater for domestic use," said Dr.
Annapurna Vancheswaran, Managing Director, The Nature Conservancy –
India. "This open-source
technology could help avoid water-related health risks by
indicating unsafe water quality. We certainly Look forward to the
tool being scaled up for the benefit of communities."
A panel of some of the most eminent leaders in sustainability,
business and technology, including former President Bill Clinton, awarded Saaf Water the grand
prize. Four runners-up were also recognized. Each finalist created
a solution to problems addressing the climate change competition's
three sub-themes: clean water and sanitation; zero hunger; and
responsible production and green consumption.
To date, more than 20,000 Call for Code applications have been
built using open source-powered software such as Red Hat OpenShift,
IBM Cloud, IBM Watson, and IBM Blockchain, as well as data from
IBM's The Weather Company and developer resources and APIs from
partners like Esri and Twilio. Fourteen Call for Code
projects have been adopted into open governance by the Linux
Foundation.
"It's incredibly inspiring to see the Call for Code global
movement continue to grow, now with more than 500,000 developers
and problem solvers participating across 180 nations," said
Bob Lord, senior vice president,
worldwide ecosystems, IBM. "What makes Call for Code unique is the
impact it is making on the ground through our deployments in
communities around the world. The potential of these technologies,
like Saaf Water, are vast and have the potential help save
lives."
2021 Top Solutions Tackling Climate Change
Four climate solutions were honored in addition to Saaf Water:
Green Farm, an app to make agriculture more sustainable by, among
other things, connecting local producers and consumers to each
other, was awarded second place and $25,000; Project Scavenger, an app to enable
individuals to responsibly dispose of their devices, was awarded
third place and $25,000; Honestly, an online browser extension
aimed at passing supply chain transparency to consumers, was
awarded fourth place and $10,000; and Plenti, a mobile
application designed to make inventory tracking and waste
measurement processes user-friendly and easy to do at home, was
awarded fifth place and $10,000.
"Since we launched Call for Code in 2018, developers
and innovators from around the world continue to answer the call,"
said David Clark, Call for Code
creator, and CEO of David Clark Cause. "I continue to be amazed by
the impact of Call for Code, in no small part thanks to the global
reach and passion of IBMers driving it forward around the world,
and to the support of our dedicated partners including The Linux
Foundation and United Nations Human Rights."
In total, 42 regional finalists and the local winners among them
from Asia Pacific; Europe; Greater
China; India; Latin America; the Middle East and Africa; and North
America were celebrated at the event.
Winner in the University Category
Chelsea Clinton, vice
chair, The Clinton Foundation, announced the winner of the
Call for Code University Edition, a collaboration between IBM and
the Clinton Global Initiative University.
Trashtag, technology using AI, blockchain, and cloud to verify,
track, and reward waste removal in outdoor areas, took the top
prize and will receive $10,000 as well as an invitation for
team members to interview for potential roles at IBM.
Bringing Call for Code solutions to life through real-world
deployments
The Call for Code ecosystem brings solutions to life through
incubation and real-world deployments. Since winning the 2020 Call
for Code Global Challenge, Agrolly has scaled its personalized
farming technology app to more than 1,600 rural farmers across
India and Mongolia.
In 2021, Prometeo, the winner of the 2019 Call for Code Global
Challenge, open sourced its firefighter health monitoring and
safety technology through the Pyrrha project governed by The Linux
Foundation.
Additionally, during National Voter Education Week in October,
IBM and the YMCA of Metropolitan Los Angeles deployed Call for
Code for Racial Justice project Five Fifths Voter, a web-based
application to help educate, empower and enable voters who are part
of underrepresented and disenfranchised communities, in
the United States.
Today's announcements came during a virtual event, the "2021
Call for Code Awards: Solving the world's problems with tech."
Watch the event replay here.
About IBM
IBM is the global leader in hybrid cloud
and AI, serving clients in more than 170 countries. More than 3,500
clients use our hybrid cloud platform to accelerate their digital
transformation journeys and, in total, more than 30,000 of them
have turned to IBM to unlock value from their data — this client
list includes nine out of ten of the world's largest banks. With
this foundation, we continue to leverage Red Hat OpenShift as the
leading platform to address our clients' business needs: A hybrid
cloud platform that is open, flexible and secure. Guided by
principles of trust, transparency and support for a more inclusive
society, IBM also is committed to being a responsible steward of
technology and a force for good in the world. For more information,
visit: www.ibm.com.
About Call for Code Global Challenge
Developers have
revolutionized the way people live and interact with virtually
everyone and everything. Where most people see challenges,
developers see possibilities. That's why David Clark, the CEO
of David Clark Cause, created Call for Code in 2018, and launched
it alongside Founding Partner IBM and global partner United Nations
Human rights.
This $30 million global initiative is a rallying cry
to developers to use their mastery of the latest technologies to
drive positive and long-lasting change across the world through
code. The Call for Code community includes United Nations Human
Rights, The Linux Foundation, United Nations Office for Disaster
Risk Reduction, Clinton Foundation and Clinton Global Initiative
University, Arrow Electronics, Ingram Micro, Intuit, Caribbean
Girls Hack, Kode With Klossy, World Institute on Disability, Esri,
Samsung, Black Girls Code, Heifer International, The Nature
Conservancy, charity:water and many more.
Call for Code global winning solutions are further developed,
incubated, and deployed as sustainable open source
projects with support from the community to ensure they can
drive positive change.
IBM Media Contacts:
Chris Blake
blakechr@us.ibm.com
415-613-1120
Mike Sefanov
Mike.sefanov@ibm.com
650-281-8099
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