The CSCSI/Precarn Intelligent Systems Challenge

• Call for Challenge Problems

• Call for Challenge Solutions (TBD)

• Call for Sponsors

The Canadian Society for Computational Intelligence and Precarn Incorporated are soliciting proposals for challenge problems for the 2008-2009 CSCSI/Precarn Intelligent Systems Challenge.

>> Announcement

CALL FOR CHALLENGE PROBLEMS 

Why should your company participate in the Intelligent Systems Challenge?   

There are many very good reasons, including:  

• The company will get significant media attention at very little cost. Experience from other programming and problem solving competitions around the world shows that there significant interest by the media and by the general public in this type of event. The CSCSI/Precarn Intelligent Systems Challenge will be a highly publicized event with a significant cash prize. Given the general interest in the areas of artificial intelligence (AI) and intelligent systems, we expect substantial media coverage. The company contributing the challenge problem will be prominently mentioned in all press releases and at all events related to the competition.
• The company whose challenge problem is selected will have opportunities to interact with some of Canada's best and brightest students in AI and intelligent systems; representatives of the company will be invited to participate in the competition announcement at the 2008 Intelligent Systems Collaborative Conference in Windsor, Ontario and in the award ceremony, to be held in conjunction with the 2009 Intelligent Systems Collaborative Conference in Victoria, BC.
• The company contributing the challenge problem will have access to the results achieved for its problem by the winning teams; although intellectual ownership remains with the team members and their institutions, Precarn Incorporated will facilitate IP transfer to the company if desired.
• By submitting a challenge problem proposal, the company will support an event that has many benefits to Canadian students, industry and society as a whole. All supporters, including submitters of challenge problem proposals, regardless of whether their submission is selected for the competition, will be acknowledged on the competition web site.
  

What makes a good challenge problem? A good challenge problem ... 

• will be of interest to Canadian industry or society (in particular, it should be of direct interest to the organization or company submitting it);
• can be attacked by using techniques from the fields of intelligent systems and artificial intelligence;
• is clearly and concisely described, so that the objective to be achieved by the participants is defined unambiguously;
• is easy enough to understand that even high-school students have a chance of providing a solution;
• provides a real challenge in the sense that finding good solutions is difficult (an example is combinatorial optimization problems);
• can be solved using relatively modest hardware and software requirements.

What should a proposal look like? A challenge problem proposal should provide the following information: 

• A brief outline motivating the problem and situating it in a broader context - why is the problem relevant to Canadian industry and/or society?
• A concise description of the challenge problem - what is the input data, what is the objective to be achieved? How are solutions evaluated?  What constitutes a good solution?  Ideally, the description should be accompanied by data for one or more sample instances of the problem.
• References to known solutions to this problem or similar problems (e.g., from the literature) - only if available or known, otherwise this can be omitted.
• Information about the company (can be pasted from existing materials, such as a company web page), including contact information for the submitter.
• Indication whether and to which extent the company would be willing to sponsor the competition by means of a cash contribution (see separate sponsorship information) - sponsorship is not a requirement for having a proposed challenge problem selected for the competition and no firm commitments are expected at the time of the competition, but an indication of willingness to also support the competition financially is requested.
  

These materials should be submitted via e-mail to competition@precarn.ca by 25 April 2008. The challenge problem selection committee will evaluate all submissions received and may contact submitters for further discussion of their proposals. The result of the selection process will be communicated by 9 May 2008.  

If you are considering to submit a proposal and have any questions, please email competition@precarn.ca.  We will email you or call you back.

CALL FOR CHALLENGE SOLUTIONS

- To be determined 

CALL FOR SPONSORS

The Canadian Society for Computational Intelligence and Precarn Incorporated are soliciting sponsorship the 2008-2009 CSCSI/Precarn Intelligent Systems Challenge.   

Why should your company become a sponsor of the Intelligent Systems Challenge?   

In a nutshell:  

•  Your company will get significant media attention at a modest cost. Experience from other programming and problem solving competitions around the world shows that there significant interest by the media and by the general public in this type of event. The CSCSI/Precarn Intelligent Systems Challenge will be a highly publicized event with a significant cash prize. Given the general interest in AI and intelligent systems, we expect substantial media coverage. Sponsors will be prominently mentioned in press releases and at events related to the competition.  
• Sponsors will have the opportunity to interact with some of Canada's best and brightest students in AI and intelligent systems; they will be invited to participate in a reception following the award ceremony, to be held in conjunction with the 2009 Intelligent Systems Collaborative Conference in Kelowna, BC.  
• Sponsors will support an event that has many benefits to Canadian students, industry and society as a whole. All sponsors will be acknowledged on the competition web site.  

To become a sponsor for the 2008-2009 CSCSI/Precarn Intelligent Systems Challenge, or if you have any questions regarding sponsorship, please contact competition@precarn.ca. We would like to hear from you by 25 April 2008. While some sponsorship opportunities may be available past this date, we would like you to enjoy the full benefits that sponsorship has to offer.

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