International Data Analysis Olympiad (IDAO) to Be Held for the Second Time
The HSE Faculty of Computer Science and Yandex with the support of Sberbank are to organize the 2nd International Data Analysis Olympiad (IDAO). The Olympiad is held by leading experts in data analysis for their future colleagues and aims to bring together analysts, scientists, professionals, and junior researchers.
Dmitry Vetrov, Chairman of IDAO Judging Commission, HSE Professor and Head of Bayesian methods research group comments: 'Data Science is becoming one of the most important domains of human knowledge. Our civilization is at the point when we are able collect and store large amounts of data but still do not fully realize what we can do with them. There is a clear need in professionals in data science and machine learning and this need will only grow in next years. Such olympiads are excellent ways to encourage more gifted young people to become data scientists. The more data scientists we will have, the faster we will move towards AI and the creation of new post-industrial future for humanity.'
However, the methods that are proposed in articles or that are used in machine learning competitions are often not effective enough to find use in real applications. Many of them work too slowly or require too much memory, which prevents them from being used in a mobile application, for example. The IDAO is prepared to answer this challenge. Participants will try to outdo each other not only as predictions, but also in the practical effectiveness of the models used.
Complex tasks in data analysis and additional requirements for a model's performance will make the IDAO attractive for both participants in machine learning competitions and for sports programming enthusiasts. Moreover, people with different training – analysts and developers, for example – will be able to serve on teams together to create more advanced and relevant solutions.
The International Data Analysis Olympiad (IDAO) consists of two stages. The first, remote online qualifying round will be held on the Yandex.Contest platform from January 15 to February 11, 2019, and will feature two tracks. The first track is a traditional competition in machine learning. Based on the submitted data with the labels assigned to them, participants will need to make new predictions and load them into the automatic verification system. The task of the second track is to develop a solution for the same problem that fits into a tight timeframe and the memory used. The results will be released by February 18, 2019.
Only 30 best teams will receive invitations to the second stage, which is to take place at the central headquarters of Yandex on April 4-6, 2019. Over the 36 hours of competition. As part of the onsite round of the Olympiad, speeches and workshops by international experts in machine learning and data analysis are also planned. IDAO winners will receive valuable prizes. It also will be a serious advantage for students applying to the master’s degree programs at the HSE Faculty of Computer Science.
The registration is officially open now.
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