During the 24-hour competition, participants were tasked with building a working solution to a real-world challenge. Anan Ashrabi Anonna chose a case from Atlas Copco, which aimed to improve production processes by reducing waste, machine downtime, and costs.
“At first, the problem seemed manageable, but I quickly realized it was far more complex than I’d anticipated,” Anan admits.
Unlike most participants, who competed in teams of four or five, Anan ended up working alone. He had registered as part of a team called “Production Soldiers,” but no one else showed up.
“I was originally assigned to the development of the optimization engine, with others handling front-end, back-end, and AI tasks. But since I was the only one in my team, I had to adapt and cover everything myself,” he explains.
The complexity was overwhelming at times — I nearly gave up.
Despite the challenge, Anan’s solution stood out. His project received the highest votes from a jury of 23 industry leaders, including executives from Siemens Energy, Artex, SICK Sensor Intelligence, ACTIA, Linköping City Airport, and several tech startups.
Atlas Copco’s challenge involved two key problems: determining the optimal batch size based on demand forecasts and optimizing the production sequence for approximately 500 different products across six machines. Solving both optimization problems concurrently added to the difficulty.
Anan leveraged Google’s Gemini AI in his solution, a tool that converts natural language into code commands, making complex software accessible even for non-technical users.
“For instance, someone could ask, ‘One of the machines is down — can you replan next week’s production?’ and the AI would adjust the schedule automatically,” he says.
Since the competition, Anan has been approached by multiple companies interested in his approach or consulting expertise.
“Several jury members mentioned they hadn’t realized AI could already handle tasks like this. That was really encouraging,” he shares.
Atlas Copco has expressed interest in further developing his solution.
“They called it a pre-study—validating that the concept works. Turning it into a full product will take more resources, but it’s a promising start,” Anan notes.
For him, the biggest reward wasn’t the trophy but demonstrating the real-world impact of academic research.
“There’s sometimes a perception that hiring more engineers outweighs hiring a PhD, but I wanted to highlight the kind of innovative thinking researchers bring to real-world challenges. This experience reinforced that,” he says.
