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April 6, 2017

Rise Up and Meet the Data Science Competition

(kentoh/Shutterstock)

Data scientists love challenges. So when a group of data scientists get together, it’s natural that a little good-natured competition breaks out, to see who can best solve a particular challenge, for both ever-lasing glory and cash prizes.

At any given time, there are a handful data science competitions taking place. And with Kaggle now under Google’s wing, the landscape of data science competitions is due to get more diverse, especially as recent graduates look to differentiate themselves from other job applicants.

Here are nine on-going data science competitions that might interest data scientists:

Spark Streaming Innovation Contest

Impetus Technologies is giving away $20,000 in prize money to data science teams that can best utilize Spark Streaming within the construct of its StreamAnalytix product to build real-time streaming applications. The winner of the Spark Streaming Innovation Contest will show the highest skill in utilizing StreamAnalytix components, and will be announced later this month (with some judging help from your humble Datanami editor). The contest organizers just added an extra week, making the new deadline April 9.

Data Science Game

Data Science Game 2016 competitors

You’ve heard of The Hunger Games, where hungry citizens fight each other in a battle for survival. Now the French give us the Data Science Game, an international competition that pits 20 teams of students against one another in a fierce, multi-stage competition for data science supremacy (no swords, please). Only one team per university is allowed entry, and there are limitations on the number of PhDs. A team from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology won in 2016. Who will win this year? The opening round starts April 15 and last until May 31. Let the games begin!

Machine Generation of Analytic Products

Machines are writing business and sports stories, but how are they at distilling collected intelligence into a compressible briefing? InnoCentive is sponsoring this challenge by behalf of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) and the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence (OUSDI) to determine “just how far along we are toward achieving the goal of machine-generated finished intelligence.” A half-a-million dollars is on the line for this challenge, which runs through July 5.

Data Science Bowl

The third annual Data Science Bowl is hosted by Kaggle and targets lung cancer. One million dollars in prize money is up for grabs for the data scientists who can most accurately detect cancer from high-resolution lung scans. Nearly 2,000 teams are competing, and there are just six days to go.

Satori Challenge

MZ is putting up $1 million in prize money for its Satori Challenge, which pits developers against one another in a competition to build the most impactful live data channel on Sartori, the name of MZ’s new open data platform. As open streaming data becomes more pervasive, data scientists will find more ways to use it. Interested parties have until July 3 to submit an entry.

Free Drug Concentrations

(Igor Petrushenko/Shutterstock)

How much of a drug is present in a target tissue, i.e. the “free drug concentration,” is critical to determining pharmacological efficacy. However, conducting this measurement in a non-intrusive way can be difficult. Innocetive is hosting this challenge, which includes $25,000 in prize money and goes through April 22.

Identifying Themes from Mobile Case Images

CrowdAnalytix is putting up $4,500 in prize money this competition, which pits data scientists against each other to find out who can more accurately identify a theme from a group of images. The baseline classifier accuracy is 82%, but teams must score above 90% to even be considered. Bonus: anybody getting 95% or better gets $500. The competition ends May 27.

Pump it Up: Data Mining the Water Table

There’s no prize money in this DrivenData competition, just ever-lasting glory for those keen data types who can figure out how to identify which Tanzanian water pumps are working and which aren’t from telemetry data consisting of about 40 distinct variables. The intermediate-level competition lasts until September 28.

Fishy Algorithms

Enforcement of fishing regulations is critical to preserving fisheries around the world. To give enforcement a technological boost, the Nature Conservancy will award $150,000 to some smart folks who can develop novel algorithmic methods of detecting and categorizing species of tuna, shark, and other fish types from video fees. This ship is expected back in the dock on April 12.

Related Items:

Google Buys Data Science Competition Site Kaggle

Elusive Seizure Signal the Subject of Kaggle Competition

Kaggle Tackles Whale of an Identification Problem

 

 

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