Saskatchewan Polytechnic’s Digital Integration Centre of Excellence (DICE) and BetterCart Technologies Inc., a leading grocery-tech company widely known as BetterCart Analytics, have secured
funding for a groundbreaking applied research project. This multi-year artificial
intelligence project is funded for $675,000. Funding sources include BetterCart Analytics
and grants from Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC)
and Mitacs.
In collaboration with the DICE team, including two student interns funded by Mitacs,
BetterCart Analytics is exploring alternative AI techniques to enhance their processes,
systems and operations. This three-year partnership will encompass requirement analysis,
design, implementation and prototype testing conducted by DICE. The partnership will
also focus on developing data visualizations for customers, improving the flexibility
of data parsing technologies and expanding the capabilities of machine learning models.
“We are thrilled to collaborate with Sask Polytech’s DICE to unlock the full potential
of our grocery-tech solutions,” says Dr. Melanie Morrison, BetterCart Analytics founder
and CEO. “This applied research partnership will not only enhance our current operations
but also provide us with an accelerated competitive advantage in the market. Working
with Sask Polytech has many benefits, including access to their digital expertise,
equipment and the ability to leverage grant support from NSERC and Mitacs.”
A key objective of the project is to enable BetterCart Analytics’ software to differentiate
between regularly priced items and sale-priced items using machine learning. This
functionality, if successfully implemented, will empower businesses to predict when
a product will go on sale, how a product’s pricing may be expected to change several
months in advance, and the moves retailers may make with that product futuristically.
Another focus of the project is to help improve price differentiation functionality.
The applied research project is expected to yield significant benefits for both BetterCart
Analytics and DICE. BetterCart Analytics will gain valuable insights into the grocery
retail domain and access to the Mitacs intern training program, potentially leading
to employment opportunities for Sask Polytech students after graduation. DICE stands
to learn from BetterCart Analytics’ AI expertise and gain a deeper understanding of
the grocery retail industry.
A remarkable aspect of the BetterCart Analytics project is that the team, comprised
of BetterCart and Sask Polytech staff and students, is 50 per cent women. Typically,
women represent only 20 per cent of the technology workforce. For Sask Polytech the
women on the team include two student interns, a technician and two project managers.
“We are excited to have a strong female team for the BetterCart Analytics project
and are ready to share our expertise to support their growth and success,” says Dr.
Terry Peckham, director and research chair at DICE. “This collaboration will not only
enhance our research capabilities but also provide our students with valuable industry
experience working with artificial intelligence and machine learning.”
DICE aims to help BetterCart Analytics revolutionize the grocery retail industry and
drive profitability for their business. “With the integration of additional cutting-edge
AI technology and machine learning, our clients will have better pricing data and
competitive intelligence at their fingertips, simplifying the decision-making process
and increasing their market share,” says Morrison.
BetterCart Analytics utilizes advanced price analytics and deep behavioural insights
to provide value for independent grocery retailers, consumer packaged goods (CPG)
manufacturers and food and beverage processors. By leveraging their vast reservoir
of pricing data across multiple vendors using machine learning and AI, BetterCart
Analytics empowers businesses to make real-time data-driven decisions. The goal is
to help food industry companies make data-driven decisions to achieve peak performance
and profitability and help consumers’ dollars go even further. BetterCart Analytics
is determined to take their product to the next level by working with DICE to better
harness the power of AI and machine learning.
Organizations partnering with DICE gain access to exceptional computational facilities,
faculty expertise, student researchers, research and development funding and a vast
network of connections. DICE, funded by NSERC and Innovation Saskatchewan, is Saskatchewan’s
first Technology Access Centre (TAC) and specializes in applied research related to
data manipulation, analysis, storage, transmission, and display.
Learn more at saskpolytech.ca/dice.
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