barrick’s BaTTleborn Series AWARDS $20,000 for Solutions Improving Mining ChallengeS
Las Vegas, NV — Over the weekend, a high-intensity programming competition for participants, part of Barrick Gold Corporation’s BattleBorn series, bought together over 110 students, entrepreneurs, professionals and industry leaders to solve innovation challenges in the mining industry.
BattleBorn, made possible by Cisco, Switch and Unearthed, provided Nevada’s innovation and technology community with an opportunity to build skills, scale ventures and engage with talent via boot camps, a hackathon and a startup exchange.
Hackathon participants were given 54 hours to develop new analytical solutions to assist with one of the four real world challenges Barrick Gold Corporation currently faces.
The judging panel was comprised of Barrick chief innovation officer Michelle Ash, Cisco ventures manager Daniel Fischer, Arundo Analytics chief technology officer Jeff Jensen and Natilus chief executive officer and co-founder Aleksey Matyushev.
Candidates were judged based on creativity, potential impact, ease of use and viability to scale.
Prizes totaling $20,000 were awarded to the top teams. Winners, were selected from 19 submissions, including:
· 1st place ($10,000 cash prize): Developed a predictive model that informs shovel operators on mine sites, the optimum time required to begin digging in preparation for the arrival of a haul truck. Their system has the potential to significantly improve efficiency on Barrick’s sites. This team, from Modular Mining Systems in Tucson, Arizona include Megan Pinela, Avinash Tiwari, Christopher Utter, Daniel Kapellusch and Marcelo Cabral.
· 2nd place ($5,000 cash prize): Developed a durable box that connects to sensors on mining equipment, allowing workers to easily identify equipment via RFiD tags and view data output. Their product service provides a streamlined process for submitting work orders, alerting Barrick’s operators when maintenance is required on equipment. The team, comprised of students from the Colorado School of Mines, include Ethan Bond, Seth Jacob Asadi, Josh Rands and Matt Wojnoski.
· Young Innovator Award ($2,500 + present on stage at Mining & Exploration International Conference & Expo 2018, September 6-8 cash prize): Developed a scheduling system for use of fans in Barrick’s underground Cortez mine. Using sensor data for monitoring real-time carbon monoxide, oxygen, humidity, temperature and diesel particulate matter in air, their system can significantly reduce costs and energy use for Barrick. Team members, comprised of students from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas include Saju Varghese, Julio Figueroa, Cristina Hernandez Castro and Maria Ramos Gonzalez.
· Barrick BattleBorn Award ($2,500 cash prize): Developed a Business Intelligence Dashboard that provides real-time insights and key indicators to make it easier for Barrick’s risk managers to assess and predict social, economic and political risk associations with mining ventures. Team members were Sukriti Sharma, Saurabh Thakur and Bhavya Gulati. Two of the three students arrived at the hackathon by bus from the University of Southern California at 2:00 a.m. on Saturday, missing the first key night of the event. Their tremendous effort and persistence helped them win the BattleBorn Prize.
Silicon Foundry, an innovation platform with deep ties in Silicon Valley, offered the winning team exposure to its network and startup best practices.
“The ultimate goal of BattleBorn help grow Nevada’s technology and innovation community” said Michael Brown, President, Barrick USA. “The resource industry is ripe for disruption and Barrick wants to be the leader in innovation. Barrick is grateful to our technology partners who made the BattleBorn series possible, and we appreciate the talented innovators who participated in the hackathon and helped generate fresh ideas for our industry.”
On March 12, the Startup Exchange, an exhibition-style event, showcased early-stage ventures from around the world.
All events took place from March 3 – 12 at Rob Roy’s Innevation Center, powered by Switch, located at 6795 S Edmond Street, Las Vegas, NV 89118.
Cisco representatives Brad Bechtold (far left) and Daniel Fischer (far right) award the BattleBorn hackathon winners InteliMine with a $10,000 prize. The event is held at Rob Roy’s Innevation Center in Las Vegas Sunday, March 11, 2018.
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Editor’s Note:
Members of the media are encouraged the reference the Startup Exchange to the public. Interviews with BattleBorn representatives are available. Email Jennifer.Lopez@rrpartners.com to coordinate. For b-roll of Barrick’s November 2017 hackathon in London, England visit http://bit.ly/BarrickLondonHackathon.
About Barrick Gold Corporation
Barrick’s vision is the generation of wealth through responsible mining – wealth for our owners, our people and the countries and communities with which we partner. The company operates three gold mines in Nevada, providing more than 4,000 of the state’s highest-paying jobs. Barrick is the state’s largest foreign investor and is also Nevada’s largest exporter. Barrick and its employees are active supporters of causes in education, conservation, the arts and other local community organizations in both Northern and Southern Nevada. In partnership with other Nevada businesses, Barrick has taken a leadership role in working to establish best practices and promote corporate giving in Nevada through the Nevada Corporate Giving Council.
About Unearthed
Unearthed is a resources technology group out of Western Australia running open innovation programs and competitions around the world, connecting innovators, entrepreneurs and startups to opportunities and challenges facing the resources sector. Visit http://unearthed.solutions.
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DENVER — Ahead of Tuesday’s planned oil and gas lease auction covering 46,000 acres of public land in Montana, including a parcel bordering Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, the Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Advocacy Director Jesse Prentice-Dunn:
“Selling oil leases at the doorstep of national monuments reveals again that Secretary Zinke’s Interior Department is no longer managed by best practices and hard science. Instead of making policy by tweet and listening exclusively to oil and gas companies, Secretary Zinke should take time to hear from the public and work to find a solution for our nation’s public lands. Right now there is no rational framework for decision-making in place. America’s parks and public lands deserve better.”
Interior Secretary Zinke tried to earn himself a round of good headlines when he took a small portion of Montana leases off the table last week. But he is still moving ahead with drilling near Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument, Hovenweep National Monument, Bears Ears National Monument, and Great Sand Dunes National Park.
In a statement postponing the lease of 17,000 acres near Livingston, Montana, Zinke said, “…there are places where it is appropriate to develop and where it's not. This area certainly deserves more study,” a characterization that just as easily describes much of the land he is still leasing this week.
As the online auction begins on Tuesday, Zinke is scheduled to testify before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. His testimony comes with the Interior Department under fire for omitting the comments of more than 100,000 Americans from its report on sage-grouse conservation, and on the heels of Secretary Zinke making several false statements that have been fact-checked in the past two weeks.
Axios: Fact-checking Zinke’s claim that wind turbines kill 750,000 birds a year
TIME: Trump's Interior Secretary Claimed Wind Power Leads to Global Warming. His Numbers Are Wrong
PolitiFact: Ryan Zinke wrong that gas prices are down 40% under Trump
Washington Post: Almost 100,000 comments missing from federal sage grouse conservation report
Jesse Prentice-Dunn is available for interviews. To speak with an expert on public lands and energy, contact Aaron Weiss at 720-279-0019 or aaron@westernpriorities.org.
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