Data Science Community elite honoured at DatSci Awards 2016

Over 200 industry leaders and specialists gathered at the Aviva Stadium yesterday for the inaugural DatSci Awards 2016. Twenty-one finalists were recognised for their contributions to the field of Data Science and technology.  The awards took place in association with Next Generation and the National Centre for Applied Data Analytics Research (CeADAR)

To support the sector, all the ticket sales went to fund a scholarship to give a deserving Data Scientist the chance of a Master’s programme in Data Science/Business Analytics commencing during the academic year of 2017/2018.

Co-founder of the DatSci Awards, Edward McDonnell, Director of CeADAR stated “The CeADAR centre is delighted to be part of this great initiative in recognising and celebrating Ireland’s talent in the field of Data Science. So many companies are centering their global analytics centres of excellence here because of this wealth of talent and expertise and this event celebrates this bright future for the industry. Today I promise you will be walking away with a feeling that a new data addiction is growing inside you.”

All finalists gave short video intros into their projects and the winners announced throughout the event are as follows:

Data Scientist of the Year (Sponsored by Optum)

Winner: Dave Sheehan, AIB

Student of the Year (Sponsored by Deutsche Bank)

Winner: Kevin Brosnan, University of Limerick

Team of the Year for Academic Research (Sponsored by Dun & Bradstreet)

Winner: CeADAR

Multinational Company of the Year Award (Sponsored by Accenture Digital)

Winner: Pramerica

Indigenous Irish Company of the Year (Sponsored by Pegasus)

Winner: Corvil

Best Start-up of the Year (Sponsored by CarTrawler)

Winner: Kinesis Health Technologies

Closing the ceremony was Laura Kennedy, Head of Data Science Recruitment at Next Generation.

Laura stated “Until recently the value of data has not been recognised. However, businesses big and small are now moving into a digital age by harvesting this data and incorporating it into their decision making throughout their business. The DatSci Awards, we believe, will be one of the building blocks for Ireland to become the European Data Science Hub”.

And to close there was a big reach out thanking the sponsors for their support including Title Sponsor Optum, Silver Sponsors Accenture Digital, Deutsche Bank, Dun & Bradstreet, Cartrawler, Pegasus and Associate Sponsors Enterprise Ireland, IDA Ireland and Zalando.

For more information on the DatSci Awards or to keep up to date on the scholarship programme, please visit www.datsciawards.ie

Pictured above:  Left to Right – CarTrawler Start Up of the Year Award Winner; Barry Greene, Chief Technical Officer at Kinesis Health Technologies; Deutsche Bank Student of the Year Award Winner, Kevin Brosnan, University of Limerick; Optum Data Scientist of the Year Award Winner, Dave Sheehan, Data Scientist at AIB; Dun & Bradstreet Academic Research Team of the Year Winner, Oisin Boydell, CeADAR and Jing Su, CeADAR; Pegasus Indigenous Irish Company of the Year Award Winner, Fergal Toomey, Chief Scientist at Corvil; Accenture Digital Multinational Company of the Year Award Winner, Abhishek Kumar Singh, Pramerica.