After a nationwide search and entries from all corners of the UK, the Manchester Prize has awarded £1 million to 10 groups of superior AI innovators at Manchester’s Whitworth Gallery. The Manchester Prize is a multi-million-pound problem prize from the UK’s Division for Science, Innovation and Expertise to reward UK-led breakthroughs in synthetic intelligence for public good.
Introduced by Chancellor Jeremy Hunt final Spring and launched in November 2023, The Manchester Prize calls on innovators, teachers, entrepreneurs and disruptors to submit their concepts, notably associated to vitality, the atmosphere and infrastructure. It obtained nearly 300 entries from UK-led groups, with concepts starting from renewable vitality options to superior supplies manufacturing, agritech improvements to move administration instruments.
Lots of the finalists are targeted on utilizing AI to unravel sustainability challenges, together with:
- Greyparrot Insights (by Greyparrot.ai) – The Greyparrot AI waste analytics system “sees” and tracks each piece of waste getting into a sorting or recycling plant through monitoring models positioned over conveyor belts. The AI identifies seven layers of element about every waste merchandise – together with the fabric kind, model and carbon footprint primarily based on its finish of life – and does this sooner, extra precisely, and round 250 occasions cheaper than handbook alternate options. It goals to create a whole digital map of the world’s waste flows to trace what occurs when waste is discarded and assist the worth chain to enhance packaging design, policymaking and recycling charges.
- Polaron: Accelerating the design of superior supplies with generative AI (by Polaron) – Growing superior supplies is a historically sluggish and inefficient course of. Polaron makes use of AI algorithms to quickly analyse potential materials designs and determine the very best manufacturing processes to maximise efficiency. Utilized to battery electrodes, Polaron’s know-how can yield a ten% enhance in energy, whereas lowering the associated fee by greater than 50%, revolutionising battery manufacturing and unlocking the subsequent technology of supplies.
- CRE.AI.TIVE (by Phytoform Labs) – With the impacts of local weather change threatening world meals safety, Phytoform Labs makes use of its proprietary CRE.AI.TIVE platform to find drought tolerant, illness resistant and yield boosting traits for a various number of crops. CRE.AI.TIVE is a ‘foundational genomics model’, that learns concerning the genome of crops and accelerates the seek for helpful mutations to extend the resilience of crops.
The ten finalists – introduced in late Might – will every obtain prizes of £100,000 to develop their options within the subsequent eight months, in addition to a package deal of assist together with as much as £90,000 for compute, investor readiness, assist scaling up, and entry to a supporter community to advance their concepts to working prototypes able to profitable the £1 million grand prize in spring 2025.
To seek out out extra concerning the Manchester Prize and comply with the progress of all ten finalists, go to manchesterprize.org
