1 February 2019

DIKU and BARC core researchers receive the 2019 Grand Solutions Prize

The Grand Solutions Prize 2019

Stephen Alstrup, Søren Dahlgaard and Mathias Bæk Tejs Knudsen, all having a background in algorithmic research at the Department of Computer Science, University of Copenhagen and all being co-founders of the company Supwiz, are awarded this year's prestigeous Grand Solutions Prize by the Innovation Fund Denmark for the remarkable results gained by their research project AMAOS: World class customer service.

Grand Solutions Prize by the Innovation Fund Denmark

A big award party is anticipated when the Innovation Fund Denmark, the largest governmental funding agency that promotes large scale innovation and research projects, for the third time pays homage to excellent research and innovation that has created added value for the Danish society. The winners of the Grand Solutions Prize, the Innovator Prize as well as the Industrial Researcher Prize 2019 are honoured on 1 February 2019. The event is attended by Denmark's Minister for Education and Research Tommy Ahlers, by professor and chief physician Anders Perner, as well as by associate professor Natalie Schlüter.

Computer Science researchers from University of Copenhagen receive the Grand Solutions Prize

The prestigious Grand Solutions prize is awarded to three renowned algorithmic researchers Stephen Alstrup, Søren Dahlgaard and Mathias Bæk Tejs Knudsen for their ground-breaking research project AMAOS, which has in less than eleven months from project start provided operational software for the project partners as well as for further clients not originally part of the project.

Professor Stephen Alstrup,
Professor Stephen Alstrup,
DIKU, BARC and SupWiz
Søren Dahlgaard, PhD
Søren Dahlgaard, PhD
Chief AI Officer and Co-Founder of SupWiz
Mathias Bæk Tejs Knudsen, PhD
Mathias Bæk Tejs Knudsen, PhD
CTO and Co-Founder of SupWiz

AMAOS translates algorithms and artificial intelligence into state-of-the-art customer support

AMAOS (Advanced Machine Learning for Automatic Omni-Channel Support) brings cutting edge research within algorithms, artificial intelligence (AI) and information retrieval into play with the purpose of reaching new solutions and unprecented performance within customer service systems. The three award winners have definitely succeded beyond expectations! The recommendation text from the Innovation Fund a.o. says:

The 2019 winners of the Grand Solutions Prize have in less than a year developed an artificially intelligent customer service system that can chat with the customer, answer complicated questions and with large precision pass the customer on to the relevant service

desk staff member. The solution is today used by thousands of supporters that help millions of users worldwide.

From the press release by the Innovation Fund Denmark 1 February 2019.

- The AMAOS project delivers a unique insight into the potential that AI software can add to customer service systems. The large dissemination efforts delivered by the project's main driving forces, viz. Stephen Alstrup, Søren Dahlgaard and Mathias can, moreover, be credited the success of AMAOS and its outreach to more companies and stakeholders than originally accounted for in the project description. Large Danish based companies like Copenhagen Municipality, NNIT and One.Com have already obtained solid returns on investment from AMAOS being implemented in their operational systems. 

The award not only applies to the research results, but also the award winners' qualities as role models in the research environment.