In an effort to apply data-driven insights to one of the most fundamental aspects of running a health care system, UPMC announced today that it has formed Pensiamo, an independent company that aims to help hospitals improve supply chain performance through a comprehensive source-to-pay offering, including cognitive analytics with IBM Watson Health technologies. IBM (NYSE:IBM) is a minority owner of Pensiamo. Supply chain costs are the second-largest and fastest-growing expense behind labor costs for health care providers [1]. The Institute of Medicine estimates that nearly one-third of health care spending is waste [2]. In today's dynamic environment, providers face mounting pressure to improve the effectiveness of patient care while controlling costs.

In the coming decade, as X Prize strives to achieve its impact mission through incentive competitions and crowd-sourcing, we see tremendous opportunity in this emerging generation of problem solvers to use AI to solve humanitys grandest challenges," X Prize CEO Marcus Shingles said in a statement. "The IBM Watson AI X Prize is intended to promote and progress the notion of AI for impact among the global bold innovator crowd, both the established community of practitioners, as well as encourage newcomers to experiment and ultimately demonstrate how AI can be used as a tool for good.

June 23--Olli, a 3D-printed, self-driving minibus powered by IBM's Watson supercomputer, could be tested on the streets of Miami-Dade County before the end of the year. IBM Watson, the company's artificial intelligence platform, announced last week that it power services in Olli -- an electric-powered vehicle that can carry up to 12 people designed by Local Motors, an Arizona-based automaker well-known for using newer technologies such as 3D-printing, TechCrunch reported. The companies will begin testing these autonomous vehicles in Maryland but plans call for these vehicles to hit the road in Miami-Dade County and Las Vegas in larger pilot tests before the end of the year. Florida International University is reportedly on the short list for the pilot testing as well. "We must do more to improve transit and mobility in our community and the deployment of autonomous vehicles is a big step in the right direction," said Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez, in a statement.

On June 25 IBM ISTC Startup Challenge competition DemoDay will be held which was launched in April this year and lasted 10-weeks. SeedStar competition will be held in the same place (American University of Armenia, Manoogian Hall), which is implemented jointly with Microsoft Innovation Center and Enterprise Incubator Foundation. More than 40 applications were received for IBM ISTC Startup Challenge and only 10 passed to the competition stage, 6 of which reached the final round. Various workshops were conducted for the teams during these 10 weeks, ranging from concept design and development, through access to the market. The teams used the services provided by the IBM Watson artificial intelligence in their work, which allows them to make "smart" solutions without much effort.