IEEE Announces Winner of Retail Digital Transformation Grand Challenge

Contest co-sponsored by IEEE Standards Association, Product Innovation (PI) Apparel and the 3D Retail Coalition helps drive technology innovation to transform retail and brand industries

PISCATAWAY, NJ, 21 June 2018 – IEEE, the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology for humanity, and the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA), today announced its participation in naming the winning entry of the Retail Digital Transformation (DT) Grand Challenge during the regional PI Apparel conference held 19-20 June in New York. The winning entry from Shimmy Technologies was selected from amongst many outstanding submissions that included end-to-end solutions as well as products and solutions addressing body capture and scanning, digital raw materials, digital product creation, supply chain enhancement and customer engagement and immersion.

The Retail DT Grand Challenge was the latest initiative associated with IEEE SA’s engagement with the retail/apparel industry exploring technology applications and standards enabling next generation consumer experiences. The project originated with the IEEE SA Industry Connections (IC) 3D Body Processing (3DBP) program, a collaborative effort to assess standards opportunities intersecting emerging technologies such as 3D scanning to enhance industries such as retail, medical, health and wellness, and sports and athletics. The IEEE SA IC EDBP program is focused on designing and implementing scalable and robust immersive experiences in these industries through standardization of 3DBP technologies. IEEE SA approved a standards project, IEEE 3141™ – Standard for 3D Body Processing (3DBP), in October 2017.

“It’s exciting to see the potential value of digital transformation in the retail sector, as evidenced by a wide variety of highly innovative products, services and solutions put forward in the Retail DT Grand Challenge,” said Rudi Schubert, director, New Initiatives, IEEE SA. “IEEE is committed to supporting the digital transformation that retailers and brands will need to accomplish in order to ensure their ongoing success, while also building capabilities for the future of retail.”

Participants in the Grand Challenge were judged on the following criteria:

• Collaboration – the degree and/or diversity of stakeholders that collaborated on developing the submission
• Social Impact – the extent to which the submission addressed social and environmental impacts and implications
• Business Impact – extent to which the submission addressed saving and/or making new value for customers and/or consumers
• Technology Impact – extent to which the submission delivered improvements on existing and/or new capabilities

The Retail DT Grand Challenge top prize submission, the Shimmy Upskill application, is a gamified learning environment that upskills garment workers in areas such as computer literacy, digital patternmaking, and 3D modeling fundamentals so they can stay relevant as sewing automation becomes more prevalent in garment factories. To learn more about the winning submission, please visit the Shimmy Technologies video.

To download complimentary white papers on 3D Body Processing topics, please visit the IEEE SA Industry Connections (IC) 3D Body Processing program web page.

To learn more about IEEE SA or about any of its many market-driven initiatives, visit us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, connect with us on LinkedIn, or on the Beyond Standards Blog.

IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA) is a collaborative organization where innovators raise the world’s standards for technology. IEEE SA provides a globally open, consensus-building environment and platform that empowers people to work together in the development of leading-edge, market-relevant technology standards, and industry solutions shaping a better, safer and sustainable world. For more information, visit https://standards-qa21.ieee.org.

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