Competition: Machine Learning (Moscow)

Deadline for application: February 10, 2018

For students who combine an interest in data with an interest in Russia, this could be a very enriching experience. Students interested in math and computer sciences are invited to participate in the first ever international contest in Data Analysis.

The IDAO (International Data Analysis Olympiad), created by leading experts in data analysis for their future colleagues, aims to bring together analysts, scientists, professionals, and junior researchers from all over the world on a single platform. This is the first time an event of this scale will be held in Russia. The HSE Faculty of Computer Science, Yandex and Harbour. Space University organize the Olympiad with the support of Sverbank.

For winners, valuable prizes will be awarded, with both Higher School of Economics and Harbour Space University offering special awards. Students from outside of Russia will have an opportunity to join a Master’s degree programme at HSE, within the Faculty of Computer Science, free of charge. From Harbour.Space University, a 29,000 EUR scholarship will be offered, which also covers living costs in Barcelona, for graduate and undergraduate degrees.

Special prizes might be awarded at the discretion of the jury. Registration is open online.

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, 2018, 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 IDAO website will publish a table with the results and a list of finalists no later than February 18, 2018. Thirty teams that are ranked highest on at least on one of the tracks will be invited to compete in Moscow. The olympiad organizing committee will covers finalists’ accommodation and board expenses.

The second, onsite tour will be held in Moscow in April 2018 at the central headquarters of Yandex. Over the 36 hours of competition, participants will try not only to get up to speed on the model, but to create a full-fledged prototype that will be tested both in terms of accuracy and performance.

As part of the onsite round of the olympiad, speeches and workshops by international experts in machine learning and data analysis are also planned.

Registration is open.