Niall O’Hara, a Staff Machine Learning Engineer at Rent the Runway has taken home the Technology Innovation Award at the prestigious “itag” (Innovation Technology AtlanTec Gateway ) Excellence Awards held in The Hardiman in Galway at the weekend.
Rent the Runway’s European Software and Technology hub employs almost 70 people at its base in the Piscatorial School in the Claddagh area in the heart of Galway. At the awards, Rent the Runway was shortlisted four times across three separate categories.
Founded in 2000, itag’s mission as a non-profit tech association is to develop technology innovation along the AtlanTec Gateway. The itag awards showcase the top talent in technology in the West of Ireland.
The Technology Innovation Award was won by Niall O’Hara, a Staff Machine Learning Engineer at Rent the Runway. This award was given to Niall in recognition of his work in developing a new Machine Learning algorithm which is built on user garment fit feedback from 18 million rented items in the US.
The success of this innovation will improve customer retention, drive effective utilisation of inventory and enhance the customer experience. It has also inspired the Rent the Runway teams to start working in other deep learning technology areas, such as computer vision, which has innumerable potential applications for the field of fashion.
Collecting the prestigious award in front of business and technology leaders in the west of Ireland, Dorothy Creaven, Vice President, Managing Director and site lead at Rent the Runway in Galway said “Rent the Runway strives for excellence and innovation from all our talented team members, and I am delighted to see the team’s efforts recognised and rewarded by the wider tech community across so many categories including Technology Innovation.
“We are also especially delighted to have been shortlisted in both the Leadership and Digital Women’s award categories, as Diversity, Equity and Inclusion are key to our success at Rent the Runway. I am proud to work for a company so willing to shine a light for other women to follow in the wider tech industry.”
Founded in 2009, Rent the Runway (RTR ) is disrupting the trillion-dollar fashion industry and changing the way women get dressed through the Closet in the Cloud, the world’s first and largest shared designer closet. RTR’s mission has remained the same since its founding: powering women to feel their best every day.
Through RTR, customers can subscribe, rent items a-la-carte and shop resale from nearly 800 designer brands. The Closet in the Cloud offers a wide assortment of millions of items for every occasion, from evening wear and accessories to ready-to-wear, workwear, denim, casual, maternity, outerwear, blouses, knitwear, loungewear, jewellery, handbags, activewear, ski wear, home goods and kidswear.
RTR has built a two-sided discovery engine, which connects deeply engaged customers and differentiated brand partners on a powerful platform built around its brand, data, logistics and technology. Under CEO and Co-Founder Jennifer Hyman’s leadership, RTR has been named to CNBC’s “Disruptor 50” five times in ten years, and has been placed on Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies list four times, while Hyman herself has been named to the “TIME 100: Most Influential People in the World’” and as one of People Magazine’s “Women Changing the World.”
