Atos IT Challenge 2016: 3 apps supporting the “Right to be Forgotten” reach the finals

Paris, May 23^rd 2016 – Atos, an international leader in digital services, reveals the 3 shortlisted teams in its IT Challenge, an international student technology competition now running for the fifth year. On this year’s theme “How to manage our own personal data on-line and protect our Right to be Forgotten”^[1], 53 teams of students from 19 countries submitted their ideas, 15 were pre-selected and 3 are now on the road to the finals.

The 3 finalists’ projects are, by alphabetical order:

Breadcrumb ― Loughborough University (UK)

The team presented an app that makes it easy for you to manage your online reputation through a sentiment analysis algorithm and "credit scoring" features.

Go n Gone ― Asia Pacific University of Technology and Innovation (Malaysia)

The team built a cognitive app that helps you better manage your Twitter account, delete tweets and prevent cyber-bullying through text analysis and deep learning.

WebSight ― ENSEIRB-MATMECA (France)

The team presented an app that searches the web for your personal data and notifies you in real time, displaying the traces found in an interactive smart dashboard and giving you advice on corrective actions.

Gilles Grapinet, Senior Executive Vice President, Global Functions at Atos, said: “We were once again really impressed by the diversity and quality of the submissions and by the enthusiasm of the students. This year’s theme around the “Right to be forgotten” is an emerging and exciting topic that has triggered some very diverse and often fascinating approaches from the various teams. It is also a subject which raises a lot of questions and opportunities for the present and the medium term and we will for sure carry on working on it in the future. On behalf of the Atos IT Challenge jury, I congratulate the 3 finalist teams for their already outstanding achievement, and we warmly thank all the other participating teams for their remarkable submissions.”

The teams were chosen by a jury made up of members of the Atos Executive Committee and external experts: Frédéric Simottel, Chief Editor 01BUSINESS, Editorial writer High Tech BFM BUSINESS ; Pr. Wilhelm Schäefer, President of the University of Paderborn ; Dr. Shamal Faily, University of Bournemouth ; Mathias Moulin, Deputy Director CNIL ; Dominique Peccoud, Academician, French Academy of Technologies.

The winner of the 2016 II Challenge competition will be announced on June the 14_th at the Palais de la Découverte in Paris and for the first time the winner and runners up will receive cash prizes - €10,000, €5,000 and €3,000 respectively - to help bring their app to market, along with gaining support from numerous Atos top executives. All participants in the IT Challenge will be invited to apply for an internship to work as part of the Atos organization.

[1] Under certain conditions, the “Right to be Forgotten” gives individuals the right to request to have their data completely deleted by an information society service provider.