On the Hunt for the IT Stars of the Future – Atos Announces Shortlist for Global IT Challenge on Smart Mobility

Paris, December 21, 2011 -- Atos, an international IT services company and Worldwide IT Partner for the International Olympic Committee, today announced the shortlist for its inaugural IT Challenge; a competition looking for the IT talents of the future from more than 25 universities worldwide, started on October 17th.

77 entries have been received since the competition launched in October and the quality of submissions is impressive. 14 shortlisted teams have been selected by a judging panel including representatives from the Atos Scientific Community – a global network of around 90 of the best business technologists within Atos. Palindrome is the 15th shortlisted team and it was selected by receiving over 1700 votes on Facebook.

Atos believes the IT Challenge will foster and encourage innovation within the future generation of IT professionals, and will host the competition every two years, to coincide with the Olympic Games and Olympic Winter Games.

The theme for the first Atos IT Challenge is ‘Smart Mobility’. In teams of up to five students, participants were tasked with finding new, innovative and useful context aware applications that can be used anywhere, anytime and on any device to add value to a business or an individual.

The shortlisted entries are:

• Azerteam from INP ENSEEIHT in France
• City Scout from RVCE in India
• Dimappers from University of Warwick in the UK
• eDesign from University of Van Tilburg in the Netherlands
• EirbMove from ENSEIRB-MATMECA in France
• Flame on from Fontys Hogeschool Eindhoven in the Netherlands
• Galois Dev. from Universidad Politécnica de Cataluna in Spain
• MIAGE of the Caribbean from Université Lille in France
• MultiLens from Fontys Hogeschool Eindhoven in the Netherlands
• NoteVote from De Haagse Hogeschool in the Netherlands
• nUCLeus from University College London in the UK
• SNACKIUM from DHBW Mannheim in Germany
• Skip the line from University of Van Tilburg in the Netherlands
• The Warwick App-rentices from University of Warwick in the UK
• Palindrome from Fr. C. Rodrigues Institute of Technology in India

On the selection of the shortlist, Gilles Grapinet, Senior Executive Vice President, Global Functions at Atos, said; “As business technologists who power progress, we are excited to see how these shortlisted students have brought their knowledge and creativity into Smart Mobility applications that are both innovative and commercially viable. We believe this competition is a fantastic learning experience for the students, the universities and ourselves, and firmly believe the IT Challenge will give students of today a chance to write the technology story of tomorrow.”

One Atos Challenge Coach from the Atos Scientific Community will be assigned to each shortlisted team to help them to take the idea through to a fully functional proof of concept. The Challenge Coach will provide help with technical and business insights, as well as advice to improve their all-important presentation skills necessary for business in the technology world.

The three finalists will be announced in April 2012, and the overall winner at an awards ceremony in May 2012. Finalist prize winners will be awarded an Atos Diploma demonstrating outstanding achievement and the chance to apply for highly sought after internships at Atos. Each member of the overall winning team will also win a trip of a lifetime to the London 2012 Olympic Games. The prestigious prize will include return flights, accommodation, tickets to Olympic events, as well as a behind-the-scenes tour including a visit to the Technology Operations Centre, and meetings with Atos executives.

Each year Atos recruits around 7000 engineers globally. The IT Challenge forms part of Atos’s Wellbeing@work initiative and supports its objective to encourage and develop talent.

About Atos
Atos is an international information technology services company with annual revenues of €8.6 billion and 74,000 employees in 42 countries. Serving a global client base, it delivers hi-tech transactional services, consulting and technology services, systems integration and managed services. Atos is focused on business technology that powers progress and helps organizations to create their firm of the future. It is the Worldwide Information Technology Partner for the Olympic and Paralympic Games and is quoted on the Paris Eurolist Market. Atos operates under the brands Atos, Atos Consulting & Technology Services, Atos Worldline and Atos Worldgrid.

More information about the contest (rules, prizes, partner universities, the Coaches & the Jury, smart mobility, Atos and the London 2012 Olympic Games) see www.atositchallenge.net.

The list of participating universities includes:

France (9):	SUPELEC (Gif sur Yvette/Paris) ESIEE (Marnes la Vallée/Paris) INSA Rennes, ENSEEIHT (Toulouse) INSA Lyon UST Lille ENSEIRB-MATMECA (Bordeaux) ENSIMAG (Grenoble) UPMC (Paris)
Germany (1):	DHDW Manheim
India (6):	College of Engineering Pune NIT Rourkela NIT Surat RVCE Fr. C. Rodrigues Institute of Technology Pune Institute of Computer Technology (PICT)
Netherlands (5):	Universiteit Twente Universiteit van Tilburg Fontys Hogeschool Eindhoven Hanze Hogeschool Groningen Haagse Hogeschool
Spain (6):	Universidad Politécnica de Madrid Universidad Carlos III Universidad de Deusto Universidad de Sevilla Universidad Politécnica de Barcelona Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona
UK (4):	Imperial College London Warwick University Nottingham University University College London

Individual prizes:
The Jury will select 1 winner and 2 finalists:

1st Prize- Gold Medal:

• Diploma
• Experience at the London 2012 Olympic Games for the winning team and University Sponsor (including return flights, tickets for some events, accommodation and “behind the scenes tours” (visit to Technology Operations Centre, presentations and meetings with Atos and IOC top executives)
• E-tablet

2nd Prize – Silver Medal:

• Diploma
• E- tablet

3rd Prize – Bronze Medal:

• Diploma
• E- tablet

Prizes for all participants:
All participants in the IT Challenge will also receive a set of gifts to thank them for their participation in the contest and will be invited to apply for an internship to work as part of the Atos team in the delivery and the operation of the IT solution for the London 2012 Olympic Games (between June-September 2012). For information on the Atos-London 2012 internship opportunities and how to apply, please visit the “Atos-London 2012 internships” section on the website.

For more information:
Caroline Crouch
+ 44 20 7830 4233
caroline.crouch@atos.net