2024 Call for Code Global Challenge Winners Improve Equitable Access to Essential Needs with Solutions Using IBM watsonx

December 10, 2024

Winning teams from Georgia Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, Persistent, and independent consultants developed AI-powered solutions to help improve equitable access to essential resources and opportunities

BOULDER, CO., Dec. 10, 2024 – Today, in alignment with United Nations Human Rights Day, Call for Code, the largest tech-for-good initiative of its kind driven by creator David Clark Cause, Founding Partner IBM (NYSE: IBM), Charitable Partner United Nations Human Rights, and Program Affiliate the Linux Foundation announced the winners of the annual Call for Code Global Challenge. Developers and problem solvers across the globe were invited to create AI-powered technology projects that address specific challenges of equitable access to essential needs. This year’s top prizes went to teams GoBang, Kind Threads and T-Chai, which used IBM watsonx AI technologies and AI models like IBM Granite, to help improve access to education, learning resources, and essential needs like clothing and income.


"There is no better moment than UN Human Rights Day to announce this year’s Call for Code Global Challenge winners," said David Clark, founder and CEO of Call for Code. "These AI-powered technologies tackle the pressing challenge of equitable access to essential needs—a cornerstone of human rights rooted in the principles of equality, dignity, and fairness. Equitable access drives social justice by breaking down systemic barriers and ensuring marginalized communities are not left behind.”


2024 Call for Code Global Challenge Winning Teams 

The Grand Prize-winning team will receive $50,000 USD, as well as solution implementation support from the Call for Code ecosystem, as applicable. The runners-up will receive $25,000 USD and $10,000 USD. All three teams have the opportunity to receive assistance from the Linux Foundation to open source their application.


  • The 2024 Call for Code Global Challenge Grand Prize Winner is GoBang, a group of students from Georgia Institute of Technology and University of Michigan addressing educational inequality, especially for under-resourced schools in their home country of Taiwan. They used IBM watsonx.ai to develop an application to provide educators with a customizable AI dashboard for course planning, including lesson plans, worksheets and recommendations. As the top scoring university team, they also are the recipients of the 2024 University Grant, receiving $30,000 USD for their schools and eligibility for an opportunity to explore job opportunities at IBM, alongside the option to be matched with an IBM mentor.


  • The 2024 Call for Code Global Challenge First Runner-up Winner is KindThreads. The team from Persistent created an IBM watsonx.ai-powered platform that helps local communities turn clothing waste into essential resources and income opportunities. The app uses watsonx.ai Prompt Lab to identify and categorize the clothing item, assess its wearability, and provide data-driven recommendations on how it can be reused, recycled, or donated based on its condition.


  • The 2024 Call for Code Global Challenge Second Runner-up Winner is T-Chai. The team developed an AI-powered homework tutor based on IBM watsonx.ai and the IBM Granite large language model that adapts the level and complexity of its responses to match the student’s age and profile. The application can also assist parents in understanding their child's curriculum, finding age-appropriate educational resources, creating practice tests, and providing effective memorization techniques on computers and smartphones, to provide underserved families access to right-fit learning resources.


“Call for Code continues to inspire some of the brightest and most creative problem solvers worldwide to develop solutions that tackle global social and humanitarian issues, such as equitable access to resources,” said Kate Woolley, general manager, IBM Ecosystem. “I would like to congratulate today’s winners and thank all the 2024 Call for Code teams and IBM partners that participated in this year’s challenge, demonstrating how Generative AI technologies such as IBM watsonx and IBM Granite models can be utilized to drive change around the world.”


"The challenge is not just an opportunity to demonstrate how technology can truly make a difference, but a call to action for those passionate about using their skills to solve real-world problems. It is a reminder that innovation can drive meaningful change, and through collaboration, we can make an impact that matters," said Anwar Mahfoudh, Chief, Innovation and Analytics Hub, UN Human Rights. "This year's impressive winners used AI-powered technologies to address community challenges that tackle big SDG and human rights related problems. Their remarkable solutions not only inspire hope but also reaffirm our shared commitment to leaving no one behind in the fight for justice and equality."


2024 Ecosystem Engagement Award

Since 2019, the Call for Code Ecosystem Engagement Awards have recognized organizations that have answered the call and exhibited a deep commitment to Call for Code. For 2024, Call for Code is honoring Persistent with this award for their collaboration in this year’s program. Persistent has partnered with and sponsored Call for Code for several years, and once again they are a Gold Sponsor of Call for Code in 2024. In September, Persistent held their third annual in-person Global Challenge Kickoff event in Pune, India. 11 teams from Persistent were inspired to submit projects to this year’s Global Challenge and one team, KindThreads, was a finalist in this year’s competition. The challenge provides a great opportunity for skills development and team building for Persistent employees, and it aligns with Persistent’s culture of innovation and commitment to societal contribution. Persistent’s support continues to be invaluable to the success of Call for Code.


Since its launch in 2018, Call for Code has become an annual rally call for developers around the world to come together and think creatively about how to help solve the world’s largest problems with technology. Call for Code helps participants gain skills in AI and hybrid cloud technology by offering access to build with technology like IBM watsonx,Red Hat OpenShift and IBM Cloud. IBM Ecosystem partners provide subject matter expertise that can help teams advance their solutions, as well as encourage employee participation.


About Call for Code 

Developers are the visionaries of progress, shaping the way humanity lives, connects, and thrives in an ever-changing world. Where others see obstacles, developers see solutions. Recognizing this potential, David Clark, CEO of David Clark Cause, launched Call for Code in 2018 with IBM as Founding Partner, United Nations Human Rights as Charitable Partner, and The Linux Foundation as Program Affiliate. Since then, Call for Code has mobilized developers from over 180 countries to address the world’s most pressing challenges—from disaster response to combating climate change. In 2022, Call for Code it was named the preferred innovation platform for the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance, the largest public-private initiative addressing climate change, supported by United Nations Human Rights and the University of Oxford. This collaboration underscores Call for Code’s unparalleled impact in mobilizing developers worldwide to drive meaningful change on a global scale.

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BOULDER, CO, January 3, 2022 -- The United Nations Human Rights-supported Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance, an international initiative to promote climate change as a human rights crisis, extends its deepest sympathies to the victims of the historic Boulder, Colorado fires that were fueled by record dryness and 100+ mph winds. In light of over 35,000 evacuations and destruction of 1,000 homes, the alliance applauds first responders, as well as the local, state, and federal response, while calling upon civic leaders and organizations to address widespread human rights implications from this and other catastrophic climate change-related events rapidly increasing around the world. As global warming accelerates climate change, expert scientists and meteorologists suggest the Boulder fires are yet more evidence of the climate emergency intensifying natural disasters and their impact on people’s human rights. The alliance is launching a worldwide initiative to focus on climate change as a human rights crisis, since it disproportionately affects the poor and marginalized, and vulnerable populations including people of color, women, children, the elderly, indigenous peoples, minorities, migrants, rural workers, and persons with disabilities, among others. “Our heart goes out to victims of the Boulder fires and the innocent people suffering from this crisis. It’s critical that we view climate change through a human rights lens and address obligations of society to respect, protect, fulfill and promote human rights for all persons without discrimination, especially communities on the frontline of climate change,” said David Clark, Founder of Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance. With generous support from Global Partner United Nations Human Rights, the alliance is working with academic institutions, policymakers, NGOs, corporations, scientists, technologists, and the art and entertainment communities on initiatives that address limiting greenhouse gas emissions, ensuring equal access to housing and resources, innovation in early-warning systems, adaptation and mitigation planning, and much more. United Nations Human Rights represents the world’s commitment to the promotion and protection of the full range of human rights and freedoms set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Under the leadership of the High Commissioner, and with a staff of 1,500 working in more than 90 countries, United Nations Human Rights aims to make human rights a reality in the lives of people everywhere. United Nations Human Rights and the University of Colorado at Boulder (CU) will also host the inaugural Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit in Boulder on December 1 – 4, 2022. The summit is being designed to engage human rights, scientific, political, educational, cultural and industry leaders to commit to specific goals that will help to slow climate change and address its adverse effects on human rights. As media around the world reported on these historic Boulder, Colorado fires that razed entire communities to the ground, the setting of Boulder as the destination for this summit is more poignant than ever. Ranked #1 in the world in earth science and atmospheric science, CU was selected by the alliance to host the global summit. For more than half a century, CU Boulder has been a leader in climate and energy research, interdisciplinary environmental studies and human rights programs, and has engaged in sustainability practices on campus and beyond. CU Boulder is co-hosting the event as part of its comprehensive public research mission and global leadership in research related to the environment, behavioral sciences and issues related to human rights. In November 2021 major celebrities including Leonardo DiCaprio, Cher, Quincy Jones, Billy Porter, Camila Cabello, Pitbull, Cyndi Lauper, and Ellen DeGeneres teamed up in a social media blitz to help launch the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance and support United Nations Human Rights with an urgent plea for leaders assembled at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow to view climate change as a human rights crisis. Leonardo DiCaprio, an Academy Award®-winning actor and advocate for environmental issues, tweeted, “Homes, lands, health, and lives of those most affected by climate change are at risk. Join the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance and global partner @unhumanrights in calling for the UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow @cop26uk to treat #ClimateChange as the #HumanRights crisis it is. By working together and supporting inclusive rights-based climate action for people and the planet, we can realize a better, more sustainable future for all.” # # # Contact: Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance Rebekah Alperin reb@gostoryboard.com +1.310.770.1045