UIPATH X AIC COLLABORATION IDEATHON AND HACKATHON IN AY2021 ACTIVITY REPORT

Every Friday from 18:15 to 19:45 for 4 weeks starting October 15, 2021,  Keio AIC and UiPath collaborated to hold the “Automation Development Contest with UiPath” and “Ideathon to Create Automation Ideas Using UiPath.” This event concluded with final presentations from participants on Tuesday, November 16, 2021.

Comments from Participants

I think we were able to create something interesting from the consumer’s point of view!

Through the Ideathon, I enjoyed discovering new ideas and concepts about automation using UiPath.

I think the way the discussion was conducted was well executed. I was a beginner, but I was able to learn more about automation by looking up information on it.

Through this contest, I was able to expand my knowledge by searching and compiling information on wearable devices as well.

At the event, a hackathon-style contest was held in which participants created an automated workflow using UiPath Studio, an automation software provided by UiPath, with the help of its employees, and competed in creating the content of the workflow. An ideathon was also held in which participants competed in coming up with ideas to create automation, also with the assistance of UiPath employees.

In the Hackathon, participants competed to see how well each individual workflow was done, and in the Ideathon, participants were divided into two groups and competed to see which team could come up with the best ideas. In this contest, the participants were able to finish their workflows in a short period of time with the help of mentors Tatsuhiko Suzuki and Soto Takeuchi, and many UiPath employees who closely monitored their progress.

Contest Results

Ideathon

Winner: Team 1

Abstract: Today’s world is overflowing with information. However, it is time-consuming to select the information we want. Therefore, we wanted to easily collect viral content by evaluating the number of views on Twitter and YouTube and finding posts that are highly rated. Next, using machine learning, we will create a list of viral posts by evaluating and excluding duplicate content from the text data. In addition, a human will create a list of viral content in a supplementary role. Furthermore, it will be linked to Google Maps and other applications to make it more user-friendly.

Judges’ Comments

The fact that the presentation was not based on the viewpoint of improving efficiency and shortening tasks through automation, but rather on the creation of added value from a student’s perspective, shows promise as a new approach. The contents of the presentation are good enough to be implemented as an actual business idea. We hope to see its practical application. The presentation was well-organized and incorporated students’ perspectives, with a variety of opinions expressed. The UiPath product was also well-researched and its feasibility was well-evaluated.

Team 2

Practicing good health care is key to leading a better life. Therefore, creating a health management system using wearable devices will improve people’s quality of life.

Previously, data could be collected in hospitals, but the data could not be constantly measured and used. Therefore, if data is constantly collected using wearable devices, and can be processed using UiPath, it will enable early detection and prevention of diseases.

Judges’ Comments

It was good to see an early-stage, deep, and aspirational discussion for the benefit of society.

Awareness of what UiPath can do was demonstrated.

It was good that the School of Medicine was able to confirm the technical details.

The question of whether there was any use for the data collected by wearable devices was raised. The data can be diverted to corporate health checkups, etc., and can also be provided in case of an emergency.

Hackathon

WF (workflow) implementation and quality awards

Hiroshi Omichi, third year student, Graduate School of Science and Technology , Faculty of Science and Technology “Job Hunting Support RPA”

In my third year, I started job hunting. Of course, I had to make my own decisions, but there was so much information to consider that I wanted to automate the job hunting process. Specifically, I would enter the name of the company I wanted to research on, and then do a search on a job hunting site. Then, from the data collected by Scrape, the desired information is extracted and summarized in an easy-to-read format.

One area where we would have liked to have done more was that we could not fully automate the selection of data on the job hunting site because there were parts that required manual operation.

Judges’ Comments

Although it was meant to support job hunting, the workflow is highly versatile because it can be used in other situations besides job hunting, such as corporate sales activities.

Yasushi Shinomiya, Master’s Program, Graduate School of Science and Technology, “Automation of Importing Experimental Data and Data Organization”

We created a workflow that automatically organizes data from experiments conducted in the laboratory. The difficulties we faced were that the experimental data was unique and we were using little-known software that were only used in experiments. Despite that, we were creative and managed to automate the process.

Judges’ Comments

Although the software could not utilize object recognition, it is wonderful that they succeeded in automating the process with their ingenuity. The workflow shows evidence of creativity and resourcefulness, and I took note of the actual questions they asked as they worked on the project. I think they did a great job. I hope that RPA will catch on in laboratories as well, as it can be an avoidable time sink for students to collect data manually.

AI Collaboration Award

Rikiya Kashiwagi, first year student, Faculty of Science and Technology, “Emotional Analysis of Movie Reviews”

We created an automated workflow by combining the ability to collect data using UiPath with the analytical power of AI’s natural language processing. We were able to retrieve movie reviews from movie review sites, use AI to analyze whether the impressions were negative or positive, and automatically summarize in CSV data how emotionally reliable the reviews were.

Judges’ Comments

UiPath is promoting advanced automation combining AI and RPA as the next stage of RPA. This entry’s  workflow creation initiative with an eye on human emotions is in line with UiPath’s philosophy as well.

I think it is amazing that they have created an advanced workflow that incorporates AI collaboration in a small amount of time. The quality is such that it could be used for business purposes.

After the presentation session, a group photo was taken with all the participants in the award ceremony, including UiPath employees, Keio AIC staff, and students.

UiPath’s RPA and AI-based automation technologies covered in this event are areas that have been garnering significant attention in recent years as technologies for eliminating the wastefulness and pointlessness of tasks that are hidden in our daily lives. At this event, participating students came up with a wide range of ideas, from things familiar to students such as research and job hunting, to ideas that could be applied in the real world, such as emotion analysis, buzz lists, and the medical field. It was a very valuable experience to create an actual automation workflow from scratch in this way.

Thank you to everyone who planned and managed the contest, and thank you to all the participants who took part in the contest to the end while balancing their studies! 

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our sincere gratitude to Daisuke Kajio, Ken Natsume, and all the employees of UiPath Corporation for their tremendous support.

Keio AIC Coordinators

akahiro Yakoh, Shigeki Ishikawa, Hiroyuki Ito, Hizuru Ikawa, Mayuko Takesako

Student Administrators

Ken Kaji, Mikinao Tsugawa, Moemi Kashiwagi, Taiyo Yoshida