ICICI Bank Launches Virtual Mobile Appathon with IBM Cloud

ICICI Bank launched a virtual mobile app development challenge hosted on the IBM Cloud platform. Its India’s largest mobile app development initiative by a bank. Christened ‘ICICI Appathon’, the programme aims to attract developers, technology companies, startups, technopreneurs and students to create the next generation of banking applications on mobile.

Hosted on the IBM Bluemix cloud based platform, 'ICICI Appathon' will offer a diverse set of over 50 APIs from ICICI Bank and its group companies namely ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, ICICI Lombard General Insurance and ICICI Securities. As a first, payment APIs from 'Visa' and the 'Unified Payment Interface' API from NPCI will also be available for the app development challenge. Using these APIs, participants will have to create innovative working prototypes of mobile applications that provides a superior customer experience.

Three 'ICICI Appathon' champions will be selected by a jury of eminent leaders from the BFSI segment and startups. All participants will be judged on five criteria that include uniqueness, functionality, business potential, user experience and scalability.

The top three winners will win prizes from a pool of over INR 20 lakh along with a potential engagement opportunity with ICICI Bank. They will also be given a chance to be mentored by the event partners. Additionally, winners of the 'ICICI Appathon', who apply to the '10,000 Startups' of NASSCOM will get a fast tracked entry into it. Moreover, two members of the winning team shall also have access to the network and coworking community of 91springboard (a co-working community of freelancers, startups and established small to large businesses) across India.


Cloud has reached the tipping point as a platform for business, led by developers

IBM InterConnect 2016 is well underway, brimming with developers, entrepreneurs, startups, and a roster of truly revolutionary technologists, speakers and presenters! People from all occupations have gathered here and are focused on the future. Whether it’s the future of their craft or company, or the future of the Cloud, they can all agree that Cloud’s at a tipping point.

Right now, only 1% of developer teams today are utilizing cognitive in their apps. According to the IDC, that number will rise to over 50% by 2018, providing U.S. enterprises $60+ billion in annual savings by 2020! That’s a staggering change in the business landscape in such a short period, but not expected when you see the transformations and disruptions several industries are facing today. This is especially true when you consider the changes in Cloud.

80% of CxOs are thinking about, or experimenting with, different business models and 85% of hybrid leaders report that hybrid cloud is accelerating digital transformation in their organization. Cloud, mobile, and social are revolutionizing the way people deal with data, the way people interact with customers, and the way people go to market with their products. As a result, industries and their leaders realize we’re on the brink of a massive change in HOW we deal with this data.

That’s what InterConnect 2016 is all about, showcasing the latest and greatest in our mission to gather the best offerings and partnerships for you: The developers, startups, and entrepreneurs innovating tomorrow on the Cloud today! Here are just a couple examples of what startups in the IBM Developer Ecosystem are creating:

  • Alpha Modus is challenging the status quo, delivering alpha directly to end-users through a marketplace of investment technologies they call ‘mods.’
  • JKool uses a real-time operational intelligence SaaS with streaming log analytics, metrics and transactions so developers (and folks in DevOps alike) can observe Java transactions as they occur together with a consolidated visualization of all logs and metrics on a single pane of glass in real-time.

Stay tuned for more breaking news and partnerships that will continue IBM’s trend of shaping the future of Cloud developmental success.


Sunday – Kickoff, anticipation, and critical Ecosystem

Greetings from IBM InterConnect 2016!

The air feels electric here at the first day of InterConnect 2016, with the anticipation from developers, startups, entrepreneurs and more excited to learn, grow, and show with IBM Cloud and the Developer Ecosystem. We’ve made so many amazing, critical strides for the Ecosystem to make it the best it can be for you, and I’m excited to share all the news with you over the next several days.

I’ve talked with so many amazing devs who have experienced the Ecosystem firsthand and understand how now, more than ever, its critical place in developmental success and the future of how devs will create the next game changing apps, services, and more. Devs want cognitive, they want the future, and they want to be a part of an Ecosystem that can empower them to build for tomorrow, today. The InterConnect experience over the next 5 days is all that and so much more.

We’ve gathered an assortment of sessions, lightning talks, labs, AMAs (Ask Me Anything) and so much more to give you every opportunity to learn HOW to use the wide array of options available to you on the IBM Cloud. It’s far too much to write here and just barely fits into 5 days; you have to experience it all for yourself!

Welcome to change. Welcome to the future. Welcome to InterConnect 2016.

 


A Must See at IBM Interconnect -- Our Serious Games for Real Companies including MindCraft, Unity, and more!

A few years ago I started IBM's gaming movement -- Serious Games -- through a Bschool pitch competition with a young student at the time that has really impacted IBM and the industry on Gaming -- Phaedra!

We are showcasing all our gaming work at IBM Interconnect and you will NOT want to miss it!

IBM is leveling up on systems of engagement via the Intersection of Cognitive Computing and Games.

We all know that we live in an attention economy and it is critical that we develop applications that are engaging with a focus on people centric-design. Well, at this year's InterConnect we will be showcasing serious games projects that were built on our game development ecosystem.  Come by our dev@ arcade to play the serious games yourself and meet their creators. For those that do not know, Serious games are when you use games to do more than entertain. OUR serious games intersect the world of games with cognitive computing. At the arcade we will be showing off a patient engagement app called Mevi, a Cyberdefense strategy game, and The Suspect, a game that uses behavioral insights to get into the mind of a murder suspect...

We are Out-Thinking Old School! At InterConnect we will be unveiling a very special project of ours that we did with a high school for disadvantaged teens in Austin, Texas.  The students at Connally high school modded Minecraft so that you are flying nanobots through a human body. We helped them integrate their entire experience with Watson to explore the treatments of different diseases. We call it Medical Minecraft. On Day 3 Mainstage at the show, the very special teacher David Conover and our very own Global Lead for Serious Games Phaedra Boinodiris will be telling you about the project.  We are helping the US Dept of Education with their EdSim challenge to enable developers to create new serious games like this one to be formally integrated into the public school system. If this high school can do it, your enterprise can do it! Its that simple.  Get your sneak peek here.

But wait, there is more!!   You cannot miss the cognitive game design lab, our Unity 3D lab showing how to introduce Watson Tradeoff Analytics into a strategy game, our lightning talk, and several panels about Cognitive Games and Education.   Have an interest in corporate learning, cultural transformation, employee engagement, customer retention, strategic optimization? Come by the Expo Hall and meet our serious games team, or follow them on Twitter @Innov8game."


Happy Valentine's Day!

Hi Friends!

Valentine's Day is just around the corner and I want to thank you for the comments and notes you've sent me throughout the years.  Really, you are the best readers any blogger could have.
startups
Sandy

Join Me at Dev@ at InterConnect 2016!

Starting on February 21st in Las Vegas, over 24,000 tech enthusiasts and professionals will be joining the IBM team along with other industry leaders and experts at InterConnect 2016 – The Premier Cloud and Mobile Conference!

If you have attended InterConnect before, you know how jam-packed the curriculum is going to be to help you transform your business in the era of cognitive !   Check it out!
This year at InterConnect, you can expect to gain over a year of professional education in just a few days with 2,000+ sessions, 200+ labs and keynotes, plus several certification opportunities.
When it comes to developers and startups, I’m very excited to announce that I will be kicking off Dev@ Interconnect on Tuesday February 23 from 5 pm to 7 pm.
Dev@ is where all of the innovation happens, featuring lightening talks and labs, demo stations and a plethora of “techtivities” to keep your skills vibrant and your networking efforts on par!
I’m also leading a couple of other exciting sessions at Dev@ InterConnect including, “Geek Girls are Chic,” where I will help you empower yourself as a female developer and a “Women’s Luncheon,” where we will talk about the role of women in technology and how we can welcome them to this exciting, ever-changing field.
Click here  http://www.ibm.com/cloud-computing/us/en/interconnect/devat/  to explore the world of Dev@ and continue to see more session information
If you can’t make it to InterConnect, not to worry, I’ll be sharing the story on my Twitter account, and you can always watch a live stream of the general session content on the main InterConnect webpage

Lessons from Startups !

These start up lessons are among the most valuable!  Did you know that the top 4 startup lessons make up 80% of struggles that startups have?

I love the fact that being an entrepreneur is a club -- sharing is part of it.   And that makes the startup nation lessons even more powerful and drives all boats to rise !

Let me know what you think of these lessons or others that have taught you!

 


Girls in Tech, ESPN - W, Galvanize, and IBM Sponsor Hackathon for Football Apps!

This weekend was a cool Hackathon for the upcoming sport in San Fran -- the SuperBowl Football game!

Nubee WON!