Students Partner With Walmart Canada To Implement AI Solutions

Students at Northeastern Toronto, including MS information systems students, participated in a hackathon with Walmart Canada to use AI to develop tools to help the retailer determine what products to stock and sell amid space constraints. Winning teams were accepted into a four-week incubator program to refine and implement their ideas.


This article originally appeared on Northeastern Global News. It was published by Cyrus Moulton. Main photo: Courtesy photo

Using AI, Northeastern students in Toronto partner with Walmart Canada to implement solutions

Two winners can be better than one — at least when it comes to a recent event at Northeastern University in Toronto.

Last month, Walmart Canada and Northeastern University collaborated on a hackathon — an event in which people gather over a set period of time to propose solutions to a problem. During the event, 82 students on 19 teams had two days to develop tools to determine what Walmart Canada stores should stock and sell amid space constraints. The winners were then accepted into a four-week incubator program to refine and implement their ideas.

Walmart Canada was impressed with the students.

“They originally had agreed to take on one winning team,” says Montse Sanzsole, director of strategic partnerships at Northeastern Toronto. “But they were so impressed that they took on two.”

Students sitting in a room on red and yellow chairs listening to a speaker at Northeastern's Walmart Hackathon. Student speaking into a microphone in front of a projector with a title slide that says "Walmart Hackathon".
Group of people sitting around a conference table in a room with glass doors.

Walmart Canada and Northeastern University Toronto collaborated on a hackathon in October. Courtesy photos

And this was no ordinary hackathon.

First, the students were given data from Walmart Canada, enabling them to work on a real problem rather than a hypothetical one.

Read full story at Northeastern Global News

Related Faculty: Omar Badreldin

Related Departments:Multidisciplinary Masters (IT Areas)