Distinguished Recognition
Ten Additional Teams Earn Distinguished Recognition for Their Innovations
Award Type: Distinguished Recognition – Impact to Business
Innovation: Tetra Pak Plant Secure
Organization: Tetra Pak
Primary Contact: Petra Andersson (LI)
Sasha Ilyukhin (LI) , Petra Andersson (LI) , Gary Whitehead (LI) , Jonas Daberkow (LI) , the Services Solution Team (LI)
Summary: Tetra Pak® Plant Secure is an Advanced Agreement designed to optimise the entire factory, with guaranteed outcomes at a fixed, predictable cost. It combines traditional maintenance with advanced digital tools, World Class Manufacturing methodologies, workforce trainings and long-term improvement initiatives to address operational gaps. Through close collaboration and a shared-risk model, Plant Secure guarantees results such as Operational cost, Overall Equipment Effectiveness (OEE) or Time Utilisation (TU) by increasing throughput, reducing waste, resources and CO2 footprint. Beyond improving operational KPIs, it is designed to improve financial performance; Return on Capital Invested (ROIC) and cash flow. For food and beverage producers, it aligns factory performance directly with long-term business growth and ambitions.
Award Type: Distinguished Recognition – Impact to Business
Innovation: uKnowva HRMS – AI-driven HR Software for Smarter Workplaces
Organization: uKnowva HRMS
Primary Contact: Vicky Jain (LI) (DC)
Vicky Jain (LI) (DC), Priyank Jain (LI) (DC), Abhay Talekar (LI) (DC)
Summary: uKnowva HRMS for Humanising HR Tech with an AI and skills-driven platform that redefines how organizations manage, engage, and empower their workforce. Its uniqueness lies in combining empathy with intelligence‚ offering predictive insights, skill mapping, and adaptive automation through a smooth-as-butter, intuitive UI/UX. Designed for all‚ whether enterprises or startups‚ fully paperless, go-green, and cost-effective. Its voice-assisted, accessibility-first interface ensures inclusivity for visually impaired users, while AI chatbots, auto-suggestions, and smart analytics simplify every HR task. The modular, low-code framework enables organizations to innovate quickly without technical complexity. Certified for data security and privacy (SOC 2), uKnowva stands for ethical, sustainable, and human-centric innovation‚ where technology works for people, not the other way around.
Award Type: Distinguished Recognition – Impact to Business
Innovation: Obase, AI AI-Powered Quality Assurance at AssisTT
Primary Contact: Dilek Aksu (LI) (DC)
Utku Can Aytaç (LI) (DC), Ekin Olkan (LI) (DC), Aynur Seskir (LI) (DC), Ferhat Ayhan (LI) (DC), Büşra Çiftçi (DC), Recep Sakman (LI) (DC), Mehmet Fatih Sertoğlu (LI) (DC), Emre Yiğit (LI) (DC), Orkun Ateş (LI) (DC), Selda Çağlayan Sağır (LI) (DC), Fatma Tuncer (LI) (DC), Gülşen Özkaya (DC), Adem Nergiz (LI) (DC), Fırat Büyükçolak (LI) (DC), Mustafa Çolak (LI) (DC), Halil Aktaş (LI) (DC), Atilla Saz (LI) (DC), Enes Macit (DC), Tolga Yavuz (LI) (DC), Emre Emir (LI) (DC)
Summary: AssisTT’s AI-Powered Quality Monitoring System developed in collaboration with OBASE uniquely automates end-to-end call quality assessment using a hybrid AI model that blends LLM-based semantic analysis with rule-based business logic. The system evaluates over 450.000 calls monthly, compared to 5,000 manually, reducing per-call cost from 49 TL to under 0.5 TL while improving accuracy and objectivity. It detects nuanced issues such as improper expressions, missing authentication steps, and incorrect service process execution using Turkish NLP models like BERT and cosine similarity algorithms. The solution‚ architecture integrates seamlessly with AssisTT’s Qline quality monitoring interface and data warehouse systems, transforming subjective human evaluation into a scalable, auditable, and fair process that sets a new industry standard for AI-driven quality management.
Award Type: Distinguished Recognition – Impact to Society
Innovation: Trade & EduBridge
Organization: TurkExpo USA
Primary Contact: Meltem Cinar (LI) (DC)
Meltem Cinar (LI) (DC), Goktug Cinar (LI) (DC)
Summary: Trade&EduBridge – Turkey-USA Pathways is a first-of-its-kind initiative that merges international education, trade, and cultural exchange under one platform. Unlike traditional student placement services, it leverages Turk Expo USA‚ established network of business expos and trade partnerships to build direct relationships between Turkish students, American schools, and industry leaders. This approach creates not only academic opportunities but also exposure to innovation, entrepreneurship, and global business ecosystems. The program integrates technology-driven matching tools, personalized mentorship, and cross-sector collaboration to ensure that education becomes a bridge to both professional growth and international cooperation. By combining educational mobility with trade and innovation networks, EduBridge introduces a holistic model that nurtures future global leaders while strengthening economic and cultural ties between Turkey and the United States.
Award Type: Distinguished Recognition – Impact to Business
Innovation: Obase, AI Smart Procurement with AI at Turkcell
Organization: Turkcell Technology, OBASE
Primary Contact: Dilek Aksu (LI) (DC)
Tuğçe Karagöl (LI) (DC), Aynur Seskir (LI) (DC), Burcu Oral (LI) (DC), Uğur Civelek (LI) (DC), Ömer Faruk İşbilen (LI) (DC), İlker Gürses (LI) (DC), Aleyna Nur Aksu (LI) (DC), Burak Emre Küçük (LI) (DC)
Summary: The uniqueness of the service innovation lies in its hybrid AI-driven architecture tailored specifically for procurement data standardization at enterprise scale. Unlike traditional rule-based or standalone machine learning systems, it combines deterministic validation rules with LLM-assisted semantic understanding and classification. This enables the creation of correct product attributes and accurate UNSPSC mapping, even if product and service descriptions are incomplete, inconsistent or entered as free text. Additionally, the system actively guides users during purchase order entry by suggesting standardized product names, categories, and mandatory attributes, preventing errors at the source. Its ability to detect and eliminate duplicate definitions in real time creates a single, consistent procurement data foundation. Designed as a reusable and scalable platform, the solution can be deployed across organizations and industries, making it a distinctive and impactful innovation in intelligent procurement.
Award Type: Distinguished Recognition – Impact to Business
Innovation: AI-Enabled Predictive Retention & Offers
Organization: Sound Credit Union, University of Washington Tacoma
Primary Contact: Yekaterina Stark (LI) (DC)
Disha Shetty (LI) (DC), Amrit Raj (LI) (DC), Yekaterina Stark (LI) (DC), Mikaela Rabago (LI) (DC), Zyaire J Fullwiley (DC), Denis Mun (LI) (DC)
Summary: Most churn initiatives treat “leaving” as a single event and produce one blunt risk score. This service innovation reframes retention as a multi-dimensional problem – addressing savings churn, loan churn, and personalized member offers as connected but distinct challenges.
In its first phase, we delivered a validated machine learning model for savings churn using Sound Credit Union’s existing data warehouse and BI infrastructure. This enables proactive outreach to at-risk members without requiring new tools or major system changes.
The solution is designed to be modular and scalable. Loan churn detection and a Next Best Offer engine are planned as natural extensions of the same framework, allowing a mid-sized institution to gradually build a full retention capability without needing a large in-house data science team.
Award Type: Distinguished Recognition – Impact to Business
Innovation: AI Insights with John Roese
Organization: Dell Technologies
Primary Contact: Deb Stokes (LI) (DC)
John Roese (LI) (DC), the Dell Communications Team (LI) (DC)
Summary: AI Insights with John Roese is unique in its sustained, executive-level treatment of AI as a scalable business capability rather than a discrete technology trend. Unlike one-off reports or vendor announcements, the service provides a continuous, evolving narrative that integrates strategy, infrastructure, governance and real-world deployment lessons. Its credibility stems from direct engagement with enterprise-scale challenges learned through Dell’s own adoption of AI and from positioning AI innovation within broader service systems, ecosystems and societal contexts. The offering bridges technical depth and executive relevance, enabling leaders to make informed, long-horizon decisions about AI adoption and value creation.
Award Type: Distinguished Recognition – Impact to Business
Innovation: CardGenie, AI Smart Rewards Companion
Organization: Sound Credit Union, University of Washington Tacoma
Primary Contact: Riddhi Bajaj (LI) (DC)
Summary: CardGenie is a first-of-its-kind intelligent financial companion that instantly recommends the optimal credit card for every purchase, helping users maximize rewards, reduce financial waste, and improve credit health with zero effort. While existing tools track spending, CardGenie transforms that data into actionable, real-time guidance. Its uniqueness lies in its end-to-end ecosystem – card portfolio tracking, real-time merchant-category intelligence, loyalty point aggregation, expiration alerts, credit utilization monitoring, and a smart recommendation engine all within a single interface. Unlike traditional apps, CardGenie evaluates both actual and optimal card usage, quantifying missed opportunities and dynamically adjusting recommendations. It is built for inclusivity – usable by rewards beginners, busy families, and expert optimizers alike. By turning complex financial rules into simple, personalized instructions, CardGenie redefines how everyday consumers interact with financial benefits.
Award Type: Distinguished Recognition – Impact to Innovation
Innovation: HuskyHack
Organization: Sound Credit Union, University of Washington Tacoma
Primary Contact: Michael Turek (LI) (DC)
Jennifer Reed (LI) (DC), Michael Turek (LI) (DC), Lindsey Kealoha (LI) (DC), Ozge Kantar-Boyraz (LI) (DC), Thanh Thai (LI) (DC), Raihab Baig (LI) (DC), Haluk Demirkan (LI) (DC)
Summary: HuskyHack is a two-phase fintech innovation challenge co-hosted by Sound Credit Union and the University of Washington Tacoma. It brings together college students across Washington State to design, build, and pitch fintech solutions that improve financial health and enhance the credit union member experience. Unlike traditional hackathons that focus only on ideas, HuskyHack emphasizes working proofs of concept, user-centered design, and real-world feasibility. Participants receive mentorship and expert feedback while developing solutions that address practical financial challenges such as organizing and maximizing benefits, rewards, and opportunities that often go unclaimed. Submissions are evaluated on innovation, impact, execution, user experience, scalability, and clarity, ensuring outputs are both creative and implementable. The program is designed to be repeatable and scalable, serving as a sustainable model for university‚ industry collaboration in service innovation.
Award Type: Distinguished Recognition – Impact to Business
Innovation: EverRise Now
Organization: EverRise Now
Primary Contact: Steven Brown (LI) (DC)
Summary: EverRise Now is unique in that it operates as a purpose-built service innovation at the executive layer, bridging the gap between strategy, technology, and execution. Unlike traditional consulting or technology services, EverRise Now embeds executive operating leadership, governance structures, and AI-enabled execution directly into client decision-making and delivery processes. The service is designed around co-creation with client leadership teams, shared accountability for outcomes, and sustainable capability transfer. Advanced technologies are used intentionally as service enablers—supporting prioritization, performance governance, and insight—rather than as standalone solutions. This integrated, executive-led model enables organizations to translate strategy and technology investments into measurable performance improvement, margin expansion, and enterprise value creation, while establishing a repeatable system for sustained execution and reducing dependency on fragmented external interventions.