News – Announcement
Announcing the 10 finalists of the first Manchester Prize (21/05/24)
May 21, 2024
The Manchester Prize has announced the 10 finalist teams who have been awarded £100,000 to develop their solutions over the next eight months
The Prime Minister announced the Prize’s first ever finalists at the AI Seoul Summit today, followed by an event for the finalists in Manchester’s Whitworth Gallery, where they will be given the opportunity to pitch their ideas to a room full of industry leaders and potential investors.
To find out more about each of the finalists and their AI-based solutions, read on…
Who are the finalists?
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Aiolus by the University of Warwick
Aiolus leverages AI and creates digital twins to enhance wind farm operations and predict maintenance needs, boosting energy capacity, lowering the average cost of electricity for people and accelerating the UK towards its Net Zero target.
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AssetScan by CC Informatics
AssetScan by CC Informatics is an AI system which aims to identify defects in buildings and infrastructure assets from large photographic datasets, such as those collected by drones, using an image-to-image processing technique.
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CRE.AI.TIVE by Phytoform Labs
With the impacts of climate change threatening global food security, Phytoform Labs uses its proprietary CRE.AI.TIVE platform to discover drought tolerant, disease resistant and yield boosting traits for a diverse variety of crops. CRE.AI.TIVE is a ‘foundational genomics model’, that learns about the genome of plants and accelerates the search for useful mutations to increase the resilience of crops.
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EvoPhase Explore by Evophase
EvoPhase Explore is an innovative AI-driven solution designed to optimise the design and operation of industrial equipment. It leverages evolutionary algorithms to reduce energy consumption, minimise waste, and enhance overall efficiency in manufacturing processes.
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gAIn Water by UKCRIC
gAIn Water leverages advanced predictive AI technologies to integrate real-time sensor data from the UK’s water network with environmental and demographic inputs, including weather, soil conditions, pipe integrity, and population trends. The system dynamically optimises water flow and maintenance schedules to significantly reduce leaks and lower energy consumption, offering measurable benefits to water utilities, governing bodies, and communities across the UK.
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Greyparrot Insight by Greyparrot
The Greyparrot AI waste analytics system “sees” and tracks every piece of waste entering a sorting or recycling plant via monitoring units positioned over conveyor belts.
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Polaron by Polaron
Polaron uses AI algorithms to rapidly analyse potential material designs and identify the best manufacturing processes to maximise performance. Applied to battery electrodes, Polaron’s technology can yield a 10% increase in power, while reducing the cost by more than 50%, revolutionising battery manufacturing and unlocking the next generation of materials.
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Quartz Solar AI Nowcasting by Open Climate Fix
This entry uses AI to forecast cloud formation hours ahead of time, allowing solar energy to be more efficiently integrated into the electricity grid through better prediction of periods of intermittent supply. By leveraging satellite imagery and live solar generation data, it helps better manage solar energy resources and balance a renewables-heavy grid.
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Sapphire by HR Wallingford
Sapphire will be an AI tool to help reduce water pollution from storm overflows, agriculture, and urban spaces. It aims to enable water companies to better understand the impact of storm overflows and manage flows more effectively, ultimately resulting in better water quality across the nation.
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TraffEase by Transhumanity
TraffEase AI integrates transport and urban mobility data to provide predictive traffic analytics that can inform decision making for efficient and green mobility. The platform supports intuitive natural language queries, making it accessible for non-experts. This empowers city authorities to effectively manage transport to enhance the journey experience for the public.
What’s next?
The ten finalists will each receive prizes of £100,000, as well as a package of support including up to £90,000 for compute, investor readiness, support for scaling up, and access to a supporter network to develop their solutions over the next eight months for the chance to win the £1 million grand prize in spring 2025.
