Danish Contractor is a research scientist at IBM Research India where he develops innovative research solutions with real-world applications using machine learning and natural language processing in the areas of education, tourism, social media & customer relationship management, information management & noisy data cleansing. He has over nine years of experience in various aspects of software development and research. He has published fifteen papers in top-ranked analytics conferences and has ten US patents for his work. Danish holds a B.E. (Computer Engineering) from the Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology, New Delhi, India and an M.Phil (Advanced Computer Science) from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom.

Aditya Telang has been a researcher at IBM Research India's Information & Analytics Department since 2011. He has worked in the area of spatio-temporal, social-media and data analytics over large datasets in domains ranging from banking to telco, and from social media to intelligence & law enforcement agencies. His expertise is primarily in the area of databases, data mining, ranking and analytics over large-scale data. Prior to joining IBM, he completed his PhD at the University of Texas at Arlington, USA and his master's at the University of Buffalo (SUNY), New York, USA.

Chapter 1. Introduction.- Chapter 2. Research Papers.- Chapter 3. Hackathon Applictions.- Chapter 4. Watson Cognitive Challenge Applications.- Chapter 5. Conclusion.

This book presents reports and methods that demonstrate the ease with which cognitive applications can be built using IBM Watson application program interfaces (APIs). It includes application reports from two IBM Watson API-based competitions - Hackathon (24 hours) and a Challenge task (~3 months). It also features a selection of papers presented at I-CARE 2016, the IBM Collaborative Academia Research Exchange event, from the areas of "Theory and Cognitive Computing", "Data Platforms and Systems," and "Societal Applications." IBM has a long tradition of research collaboration with colleagues in academia, and I-CARE is an annual event initiated in 2009 to promote collaborative innovation and learning, and explore new ways of fostering a culture of innovation. I-CARE's main goal is to "amalgamate" the thought leadership in Indian academia with that in industry, and foster a symbiotic environment for establishing a rich research culture in India.

The 8th edition of I-CAREpresents a collection of thought-provoking ideas and novel Indian research projects related to three crucial areas: cognitive computing, systems and platforms that support large-scale data processing and practical systems that are designed for the public good.