T-AIM, Wells Fargo offer jobs, prize money to winners of Academic Grand Challenge

HYDERABAD: The Telangana AI Mission, on Friday, announced winners of the nationwide Academic Grand Challenge which was organised in association with Wells Fargo. Telangana AI Mission is an initiative of the Government of Telangana that is powered by NASSCOM. Prizes for the winners ranged from job offers to prize money and merchandise. Final-year students of various colleges were offered full-time job opportunities with Wells Fargo.

The challenge received over 5,000 team entries that comprised over 15,000 students affiliated to 500+ colleges and universities across India. Student participants were expected to build innovative solutions to address specific business problems given by Wells Fargo.

Launched in August 2022 by T-AIM, student teams were asked to build solutions for two areas. One involved building a futuristic, pure digital bank that integrated modern technologies to enable banking wherever and whenever. The other required building a predictive analytics model to estimate the performance of financial markets during the year.

Arindam Banerrji, EVP and Managing Director, Wells Fargo India and Philippines, said, “Congratulations to all the winners and runners-up of the nationwide Academic Grand Challenge, which we were proud to present in association with the Telangana AI Mission. Witnessing students from Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities participate and perform on par with Tier-1 cities boosts our belief that India is on track to becoming a knowledge superpower. Some of the most innovative young minds in the country took part in the challenge, and we hope to see some stellar digital-banking solutions from them in the days to come.”

Speaking at the virtual felicitation ceremony, Jayesh Ranjan, Principal Secretary, Government of Telangana, said, “Innovation and collaboration are the key ingredients for success in today's fast-paced technological landscape. The partnership between Wells Fargo and the student community is a shining example of this, with the students not only honing their skills but also being given the opportunity to turn their ideas into real-world solutions using emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence. The full-time job offers made by the bank are a testament to the value that these students immediately bring to the industry.”