Rijkswaterstaat and market explore AI opportunities for V&R task

Under the name High5 Hackathon, Rijkswaterstaat is working with IT partners CGI, Esri and Microsoft to explore the possibilities of AI to efficiently tackle the large-scale renewal and renovation (V&R) task. During an initial five-day hackathon, ideas were floated and even made concrete already. 

Much infrastructure is in need of refurbishment due to increasing traffic loads over the years. "We face a huge maintenance challenge as a result, where cooperation and the right technology are more important than ever," said Louis Schouwstra, Chief Operation Officer at Rijkswaterstaat. "Our infrastructure was largely built after the 1930s and what we are seeing is that it is reaching its technical lifespan."

Scope High5

Collaboration, innovation and investment in digital infrastructure is needed to meet the challenges of the coming years, notes Ron Kolkman, Chief Information Officer at Rijkswaterstaat. "The task for the coming years is enormous. Digitization is essential and AI is an important part of that. And Rijkswaterstaat certainly cannot do that alone." During an initial five-day High5 Hackathon, CGI, Esri and Microsoft worked intensively with Rijkswaterstaat to answer the following central question: how can AI help to quickly get a picture of the information for the V&R task on behalf of Decision Moment 1?

Results High5

So what do you get when you lock a group of AI developers and asset managers in one room for five days? An unforgettable hackathon full of innovation, collaboration and new insights! "The click with the experts and the density with which you sit down with the experts on the problem is obviously a lot of fun," is how CGI's Tom Rozekrans looks back on the hackathon. "Over five days, different teams worked hard on different solutions. The end result is a dashboard that nicely displays the solutions. One of the solutions involves looking up the name, tax class and foundation year in drawings and documents. With the help of AI, this takes a few seconds instead of dozens of minutes of searching through different documents." 

The results of the first High5 Hackathon are inspiring and save time and money. "It's great to see that during such a hackathon you get quick results when you're around the table with an experienced team of developers," says Jelke Heemskerk, Management & Maintenance specialist at Rijkswaterstaat. All the other ideas will be worked out in the coming period and the next hackathon is already planned. To be continued, no doubt!