<p><i>This article was originally published on June 6, 2024</i></p> <p><span class="p-body">Congratulations to the winners of the NYU School of Professional Studies Division of Programs in Business' inaugural AI Accelerator Challenge in partnership with Microsoft Education! We had nearly 150 students submit 55 seed ideas on how to use generative AI to resolve gaps or needs across a variety of industries. From this extremely competitive pool, 10 exceptional teams were selected to work with mentors from Microsoft and develop their seed ideas into viable pitches for minimum value products. After pitching to a panel of industry professionals on Tuesday, the following four teams were awarded First Place Overall, Best Innovative &amp; Unique Idea, Best Viable &amp; Scalable Product, and Best Presentation: </span></p> <ul class="p-list"> <li><span class="p-body"><b>First Place Overall: </b>WasteLess AI (Prince Gregorio, Porsha Seechung, Manisha Singh; mentored by Anurag Karuparti) </span></li> <li><span class="p-body"><b>Best Innovative &amp; Unique Idea: </b>MelodyCraft AI (Kaitlyn Marer, Samuel Rodriguez, and Zhiyi Zhao; mentored by Zach Warcola) </span></li> <li><span class="p-body"><b>Best Viable &amp; Scalable Product: </b>LinkedIn Edge (Moneera Alateek, Phung Anh (Alex) Do, Maria Gabriela Garuz, Elamparithi Elango, and Rhythm Malhotra; mentored by Con Antonakos) </span></li> <li><span class="p-body"><b>Best Presentation: </b>OptiDesk (Alexandra Mejia, Laura Mikic, Yulissa Valencia; mentored by Craig Loewen) </span></li> </ul> <p><span class="p-body">We are so proud of every student who participated and can't wait to see where these ideas go from here!</span></p>