Students on the Master in Data Analytics for Business excel in the Artificial Intelligence Challenge, developing solutions to detect fake voice fraud and analyze ad traffic

The Artificial Intelligence Challenge, held on May 9 at the offices of Adevinta Spain, was a great success. The students of the UPF Barcelona School of Management’s (UPF-BSM) Master in Data Analytics for Business showcased their skills in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by tackling two challenges set by Fotocasa and Telefónica, two leading brands within the group.

The first challenge consisted of predicting the traffic of visits to Fotocasa’s real estate advertisements using AI. The students had access to a large dataset including information on 125,000 ads previously published on the portal.

Meanwhile, the challenge set by Telefónica focused on detecting fake voices for Telefónica from a dataset containing 85,000 audio recordings with various Spanish accents, which is a crucial task for combating fraud and enhancing the customer experience.

Divided into groups, the students tackled each of the challenges with originality and creativity, applying the knowledge acquired on the program. Under the supervision of David Solans, the Professor of the Master and Associate Researcher at Telefónica Research, and with the guidance of Ana Freire, the Director of the Master, they all conducted a thorough analysis of the data, including data cleansing, variable processing and visualization techniques, as well as applying analytics and modeling strategies.

A jury of three experts from Adevinta and two from Telefónica evaluated the solutions presented by the students, asking questions based on their professional experience. The panel congratulated the students for their dedication and ability to overcome the challenges they had been set, underlining the added value of working with real data from large companies as part of the learning process.