Rush Digital founder and CTO Danushka Abeysuria’s focus for the past year has been on its R/VISION computer vision platform and development of the subsequent health and safety AI product.

It all started, says Abeysuria, with a simple question: “How might we use technology to enable people to make faster and better decisions to prevent harm?”

In collaboration with the Downer Construction zero harm team, Abeysuria ran an agile and iterative pilot which took initial discussions to the first live Mobile AI Unit on site within just two months, and then to over five live sites piloting this technology within the first 90 days. 

This pilot places mobile AI camera units on construction and traffic management sites to enable adjustments to be made based on data via alerts, predictive analytics, and auto-risk assessments.

The iterative development of the mobile camera unit is now up to generation four; a process of prototyping and refinement to reach a scalable unit which can be easily deployed at varying site locations and configurations without specialist training or prohibitive costs. With each iteration, the unit was designed to be more compact with a lower overall weight, requiring fewer people to lift and configure it.

“This world-leading use of AI in a lifesaving and harm preventing use case not only keeps Rush as a forerunner of technology, but wholeheartedly lives up to our mission statement of ‘designing and building technology to better serve humankind’,” says Abeysuriya. 
 
“We are now starting to recognise a number of other use cases where R/Vision can be applied to Kiwi organisations and businesses, and we hope this example of the work we’ve completed with Downer will show others what’s possible with the power of this innovative AI product,” he adds.

Purpose-led vision

As a business whose vision is to design and build technology to better serve humankind, social influence is also critical to how Rush delivers value to customers and the organisation, according to Abeysuriya.

An example of this is Rush’s evolving engagement with Unicef, the UN agency responsible for providing humanitarian and developmental aid to children worldwide.

“I’ve personally been a donor to Unicef for the past three years and was struck by their mission to deliver three billion vaccines to 92 low and lower middle-income countries to help end Covid-19 worldwide,” says Abeysuriya.

“The global Covax programme needed support, and as New Zealand’s tech companies have gained immensely from a diverse workforce of skilled immigrants, I reached out to Unicef with the intention to develop an initiative to support this cause.”

He personally reached out to dozens of New Zealand tech leaders and entrepreneurs and brought ten of them together to raise over $70,000, generating awareness through media and events.

Off the back of this Rush were invited as a business to join a collaborative global Unicef ideation session for digital and virtual donor experiences, which led to further strengthening our relationship with the New Zealand Unicef team and an invitation to develop solutions for them.

“So out of philanthropic influence, we’ve supported a valuable cause and onboarded a new customer, which not only delivers business value, but demonstrates our commitment to our purpose-led vision,” says Abeysuriya.