Tata Consultancy Services’ Challenge Encouraged and Empowered Students to Ideate on Increasing Representation of Women in STEM Education; President Halimah Yacob Witnessed Presentation Pitches
PRESS RELEASE
SINGAPORE, 25 August 2023: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS) announced that the winners of the third edition of TCS Sustainathon Singapore are Team STEMBlazers, comprising of students from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Singapore Management University (SMU). The event and prize presentation ceremony were graced by Guest of Honour, President Halimah Yacob.
TCS Sustainathon aims to inspire and empower young minds to solve real-world environmental and societal challenges through technology. This year, addressing challenge statements issued by Dell Technologies, Citi, and LinkedIn under the theme of ‘Empowering Women in STEM’, TCS Sustainathon Singapore saw 25 proposal submissions from tertiary level students from pre-university to university cohorts. The finals saw six shortlisted teams presenting innovative and creative pitches to develop practical solutions.
“STEM is one of the fastest growing and most influential segments in the world, offering opportunities for transformation, accessibility, agility and impactful growth and change. Singapore faces a significant gender imbalance, with only 35% of girls in Singapore pursuing STEM-related fields upon graduation. TCS Sustainathon brought together the private and public sectors to collaborate and inspire students to address the current underrepresentation and bolster technological growth and innovation. We were pleased to see the innovative ideas presented by the finalists and congratulate the winners on their achievement,” said Girish Ramachandran, President, TCS Asia Pacific.
The top three teams, STEMBlazers, Solarpunk Go! and InclusiTrack who were crowned Grand Winner, First Runner-Up, and Second Runner-Up respectively, were awarded a total cash prize of S$10,000. They will also have the opportunity to execute their ideas under the mentorship of the TCS Digital Garage Team.
Team STEMBlazers, comprising of students from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) and Singapore Management University (SMU), clinched first place for their project ‘HerSTEMBlazers’, a transformational educational platform that supports students at every step of the learning journey. The platform aims to inspire and spark every girl’s interest in STEM through gamification, metaverse and virtual reality experiences, and personalised recommendations for future career options.
Team Solarpunk Go!, an all-girls team from the National University of Singapore (NUS) Computer Science Faculty, were conferred as the first runner-up for their project – an AR-powered mobile app that teaches young girls everyday STEM tasks, making it more fun and relevant. Through storytelling, Avatar Customisation and Female Role Models, the team hopes to bring out the wonder of everyday situations and interest more girls to join the STEM field.
Other interesting ideas include online STEM escape rooms for learning leveraging artificial intelligence in the virtual world, a website that enables women to pursue or advance their careers in STEM by providing them a platform to look for job openings/events and obtain mentorship, and an AI-based HR analytics system.
TCS Sustainathon was launched in Singapore in 2020, to give students the opportunity to interact with like-minded partners across government, private, academic and non-profit entities to conceptualise ideas and sustainability-focused solutions by leveraging digital technologies to tackle challenge statements. In 2023, it was organised in collaboration with Dell Technologies, LinkedIn, GLP, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, in support of IMDA’s Digital for Life – Play It Forward.
TCS Sustainathon is now a successful global initiative, with editions across Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, United Kingdom, Ireland and Middle East.
For more information about TCS Sustainathon Singapore 2023, please visit https://www.sustainathon.tcsapps.com/events/ongoing/SG2023 .
