Machine Learning Hackathon Briefing Session

The Centre for Machine Intelligence in collaboration with SparkCognition, invites students to participate in its first Machine Learning Hackathon Competition. The hackathon is open to all students from all backgrounds and aims to help them:

• learn about machine learning
• develop their teamworking skills
• develop entrepreneurial skills
• improve their presentation skills. 

No prior experience in Machine Learning is required but having some basic coding skills and some understanding of statistics will definitely give you a head start. Over the span of two weeks, you and your team will apply Machine Learning to solve a problem of your choice. We’ll start with “Machine Learning 101,” a short primer on the technology, what it’s good for (and not good for), and how to use it. Then you’ll pick a problem to solve and jump in! 

But, you ask, with little or no background in Machine Learning, how can you jump in without drowning? Good question. Machine Learning has matured to the point that powerful tools have been built to enable “citizen data scientists” to succeed without specialized training. SparkCognition, a leading AI company based in Austin, Texas, has given us Darwin, an Automated Machine Learning tool. Darwin solves the hard problems of wrangling and exploring datasets, searching for a good model and evaluating its efficacy. With Darwin you’ll be empowered to solve problems that would otherwise require years of AI experience.

Structure of the Competition 

• Projects should be done in teams of four or five.
• You’re encouraged to choose your own problem and dataset(s) – think broadly and pursue your interests. Another good option is to tackle a problem from one of our corporate sponsors, using a provided dataset.
• A panel of judges will select the top 10-20% of the projects to advance to the final round of competition.
• These finalists will present their work to an audience, including another panel of judges. The judges will award several prizes, including a total of £2000 (in Amazon or other vouchers) to the teams producing the top two projects.

Throughout the event, SparkCognition will provide technical support on selecting problems and using Darwin. As described in the timeline below, your team will submit a short description of your project. The report should describe what you did: the problem you solved, why it’s interesting/important, challenges you encountered and the results you obtained. Three to five pages should suffice. 

Important Dates

• Before November 6th: Recruit your teammates 
• November 6th (venue: 46/3001) – Kickoff 6pm - 9pm (food/drinks will be provided)
  • Machine Learning 101: introduction to the technology
  • Using Darwin
  • What makes for a good problem and dataset
• November 6th through 16th – work with your team to solve your problem using Darwin
• November 16th – submit your project report 
• November 18th – finalists selected and announced
• November 20th – finalists present their work to judges, and prizes are awarded 

You should Participate

Everyone’s busy, especially this time of year. Nevertheless, you should strongly consider making time for this event. Machine Learning is transforming whole industries, and you need to know when it’s applicable and how to use it. This event will give you a good introduction to the technology and a state-of-the-art tool that makes you quickly productive. You’ll meet corporate leaders, work with your friends, scope out a cool project, and compete to win significant prizes. 

Note: participation is restricted to students of the University of Southampton.