IE Sustainability Datathon Kicks off with Partner Ryanair

The IE School of Science and Technology and IE Sustainability have partnered with Ryanair to launch this year’s Sustainability Datathon, revealing this year’s corporate challenge on Oct. 6 to the masters and bachelors students who will be working with the company for three weeks. 

During this data competition, Ryanair, the largest European airline, will provide a dataset and state a sustainability problem to be solved with the use of predictive modelling. Master in Big Data students, along with selected students from the Bachelor in Data & Business Analytics, Computer Science & AI and Information Systems Management will form teams to create original solutions.

Key findings will be summarised in a visionary document which intends to contribute to the public conversation in the tech policy field.

“Ryanair is very happy to commence this partnership with a global leader in education in science and technology,” said Ryanair’s Chief Technical Officer John Hurley. “Data and Machine learning research is at the heart of Ryanair’s strategy to come up with sustainable and effective solutions for our everyday challenges. I am very much looking forward to the results of this research and I wish the best of luck to all participants.”

“We’re excited to partner with Ryanair and allow our students the opportunity to solve a real challenge facing the industry, while helping Ryanair meet its sustainability objectives.”
Ikhlaq Sidhu, Dean of IE School of Science and Technology

During the kick-off event, Michael Mourie, Ryanair’s Head of Data & Analytics and David Simon, Ryanair’s Head of Public Policy in Spain, explained this year’s challenge. Students learned Ryanair has a strategy to reach net zero emissions by 2050 driven by investment in new technologies and the increased use of sustainable aviation fuel—as much as 12.5% by 2030. Ryanair recently invested more than $22 billion in new aircraft technology which uses 16% less fuel and reduces noise emission by 40%.

Many students participating highlighted one of the main reasons they chose to study at IE’s School of Science and Technology was specifically for this kind of experience– to widen their network and engage with real professionals.

The three winning teams will be announced at the awards ceremony Oct. 28, with the team with the best solution taking the 3,500 top prize. After the event, findings will be published in a report and shared with experts and policymakers.

“We need to work on strategies to reduce the amount of gas emitted and adapt to a new reality,” said Isabela Alcazar de Benjumea, Director of IE Sustainability. “We’re here because Ryanair is thinking of new ways of doing things. I’m very happy to have the collaboration with Ryanair.