The 2nd International MERIThON, co-organized by the MERIT and SustAInLivWork projects, concluded with the video pitch session and winner ceremony, marking another milestone in the field of artificial intelligence (AI) solution boosting to increase the EU innovation level. Over four evenings, teams from diverse backgrounds and institutions united to tackle AI-driven challenges, showcasing creativity, problem-solving skills, and technological expertise.
The MERIThON, which took place at VILNIUS TECH, culminated on November 22nd, with the presentation of the top seven ideas in a pitch-style finale. From a pool of 13 participating teams, four winners were recognized for their work results, demonstrating the potential of AI to address real-world problems.
The Most Mature Idea: Team EVALA
Team EVALA earned the award for the Most Mature Idea with a proposed solution for real estate price estimation. Their AI-powered model integrates multiple data sources, including:
- Extracted real estate formal report data
- Real estate photos (to analyze materials and construction completion levels)
- Additional contextual data
By synthesizing these inputs, EVALA offers insights and price recommendations for the real estate market, supporting the property valuation process.
The Most Innovative Ideas: Farmers Fellow & Teach Me
Two teams shared the spotlight for the Most Innovative Idea category
- Farmers Fellow:
This team created a platform aimed at empowering young farmers. The proposed idea was dedicated to help a young farmer, by gathering his or her owned land properties, location, history of its utilization and comparing it with other similar land properties with farming experience, available agricultural data (soil conditions, crop types, etc.). Farmers Fellow provides tailored recommendations, offering a sustainable way to optimize agricultural practices. - Teach Me:
Focused on improving English language learning, Teach Me introduced an AI-driven tool that evaluates a user’s pronunciation skills, identifies issues in speech patterns and offers targeted rules for improvement. This idea has the potential to redefine language education with personalized learning paths. In comparison to existing solution, this one mainly would concentrate on clear pronunciation rule gathering and provision.
The Most Contextual Idea: Team TrustDeal
Team TrustDeal took home the prize for the Most Contextual Idea by addressing a growing concern in the e-commerce sector: trust. Their AI solution evaluates an e-shop’s credibility by analyzing:
- Publicly available data about the e-shop
- Product descriptions (photos, specifications, prices) in the e-shop
- User comments and its metadata
- Other relevant data points on web traffic
TrustDeal’s idea enables consumers to make informed decisions, ensuring safer and more reliable online shopping experiences.
Beyond Competition: A Platform for Collaboration
MERIThON is not just a contest; it’s a platform for innovation, networking, and future development. We plan to share some of the generated ideas, their video pitches with industry professionals, research groups, and potential investors. We hope it will allow to increase the idea visibility and propel it toward implementation, commercialization, or even employment opportunities.
One of the teams already got a proposal to provide an infrastructure for the prototype testing. While in another team, one person got a job proposal, based on the demonstrated skills and communication during the mentoring sessions. The success of the 2nd MERIThON is a testament to the collaboration between different parties of the event. Together we provide a friendly and dynamic environment where each participant can explore AI’s transformative potential, address challenges in various fields of industry as well as daily life.
Looking Ahead
As AI continues to evolve, platforms like MERIThON play an important role in fostering innovative solutions to global challenges. The organizers and participants alike look forward to scaling these ideas and exploring their real-world applications.
Stay tuned for updates as the MERIThON team plans to connect the newly generated ideas with industry leaders, developer communities and global society, trying to make sure they reach their full potential!