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Sysco LABS Powers SLIIT CODEFEST 2024: ‘AI Sprint’

Sysco LABS recently partnered with the Sri Lanka Institute of Information Technology (SLIIT) as the Platinum Sponsor of SLIIT CODEFEST 2024: AI Sprint. The event offered students a platform to demonstrate their AI competencies and engage with complex, industry-relevant challenges. For the first time in the event’s history, Sysco LABS introduced an AI-theme to proceedings, requiring teams to resolve real-world problems within the trillion-dollar, global foodservice industry using artificial intelligence.

The finale event, held at the SLIIT university premises, brought together a total of almost 200 participants who competed in teams of 10, with 19 teams out of 156 registered teams making it to the finals. 7 teams from the University of Moratuwa, 5 teams from the SLIIT, 3 teams from the University of Ruhuna, 2 teams from IIT, 1 team from the University of Colombo and 1 team from NSBM battled it out for the win in a hackathon-based setting mentored by Sysco LABS experts.

Speaking about the partnership, Rasika Karunatilake, Managing Director at Sysco LABS, said: “The Tech sector in Sri Lanka is emerging as a key source of foreign exchange and talent is at the heart of the industry’s push to be established as a global innovation hub. Our decision to focus on an AI-centred competition at the SLIIT CODEFEST event was based on the direction that technology is moving in, with the use of AI rapidly spreading across every domain. In this context, Sri Lanka’s next generation of tech talent needs to be exposed to AI and other emerging technologies early in their careers in order to increase the sector’s overall global competitiveness. Our hope is that the contestants will continue to explore the many applications of AI.”

At the finale, after a shark-tank themed pitching contest, adjudicated by a 6-person panel of Senior Sysco LABS experts, Team CTRL from NSBM won 1st place, with Team Inception from the University of Ruhuna placing 2nd and Team AI Alchemists from IIT and Team Data Wizards from SLIIT sharing a joint 3rd place.

Nishantha Hettiarachchi, Director of Engineering and Architecture at Sysco LABS, commented: “We are proud of the effort all the participants put into the competition. SLIIT CODEFEST 2024 AI Sprint powered by Sysco LABS was designed to provide contestants with the opportunity to not just learn about and utilise AI in developing solutions but also spend quality time with Sysco LABS technologists who work day-to-day using AI to solve real-world problems in the trillion-dollar, global foodservice industry. We believe that the knowledge of AI technologies should be paired with an AI mindset that enables them to be industry-ready by the time they enter the workforce. Partnering with this platform is an extension of Sysco LABS’ efforts to elevate the industry’s AI capabilities to bolster the Sri Lankan tech industry’s earnings potential.”

About Sysco LABS

Sysco LABS is the Global In-House Center of Sysco Corporation (NYSE: SYY), the world’s largest foodservice company. Sysco ranks 54th in the Fortune 500 list and is the global leader in the trillion-dollar foodservice industry.

Sysco employs 76,000 associates, has 340 smart distribution facilities worldwide and over 14,000 IoT-enabled trucks serving 730,000 customer locations. For fiscal year 2024 that ended June 29, 2024, the company generated sales of more than $78 billion.

Sysco LABS Sri Lanka delivers the technology that powers Sysco’s end-to-end operations. It’s enterprise technology is present in the end-to-end foodservice journey, enabling the sourcing of food products, merchandising, storage and warehouse operations, order placement and pricing algorithms, the delivery of food and supplies to Sysco’s global network and the in-restaurant dining experience of the end-customer.