INFORMS Open Forum

Service Science Section: 2017 IBM Service Analytics Challenge Call for Challengers

  • 1.  Service Science Section: 2017 IBM Service Analytics Challenge Call for Challengers

    Posted 08-22-2017 07:57

    The INFORMS Service Science Section is pleased to announce the 2017 IBM Service Analytics Challenge. This is the Section's first such analytics contest event. The INFORMS Service Science Section promotes and disseminates research and applications among academics and practitioners who are interested in theory, methodologies, and applications in Service Science. The Section provides a forum to exchange new ideas in Service Science.

     

    The 2017 IBM Service Analytics Challenge dataset:

     

    Individual challengers or teams (up to 3 members per team) can participate in this global contest. Each submission should include at least two parts:

     

    Part 1: Descriptive exploration:

    1. Challengers should explore the dataset, clearly describing the data with exploratory findings.

     

    Part 2: Address, but not necessarily be limited to the following questions:

    1. Is there any pattern for federal career trajectories over the last 40 years? How did they look across the board and on an individual agency basis (for at least three chosen agencies)?
    2. How do these career trajectories, and associated job descriptions and specifications, support the associated services being provided? (Based on your findings in last question, you should focus on three specific jobs you are interested in.)
    3. How is the presidential transition impacting federal employees?

    Source codes should also be submitted, which might be shared after the contest. A brief description on how to run your course codes, including the setup configuration, should be attached with your source codes.

    Awards

    • All finalists will receive an award
    • The first-place winner will receive $400.
    • The second-place winner will receive $300.
    • The third-place winner will receive $200.
    • If a team wins, the award check will be divided equally among the team members.

     

    Award Selection Criteria

    The evaluation process will be conducted in two steps:

    1. Finalists will be chosen by the Awards Committee.
    2. Finalists are expected to be invited to present in a live award competition session during the INFORMS annual meeting in Houston 2017. A panel of Service Science scholars will determine the final ordering of the contest winners.
    3. During the Service Science Section business meeting, the award winners are expected to be announced.

    The award committee reserves the right to select more or less than 5 finalists depending on the quality of submissions, as well as the right to change the timing and venue of the finalist presentations and announcement of the winners.

     

     

    Eligibility Requirements and Participant Guidelines

    • All participants must be members of the Service Science Section (but INFORMS membership is optional)
    • Submitted solutions MUST represent original
    • Because IBM is the award sponsor, team members cannot be IBM
    • Members of the awards committee and officers/council members of the Service Science Section are ineligible to participate in the contest.

     

    Awards Committee:

    The Awards Committee consists of Robin Qiu (Chair of Service Science Section), Paul Messinger (Vice-Chair of Service Science Section), Aly Megahed (Secretary of Service Science Section and IBM Almaden Research Center) and Yingdong Lu (IBM Watson Research Center).

     

    Where to submit:

    Robin Qiu (Service Analytics Challenge Committee Chair) Professor

    Pennsylvania State University

    Email: robinqiu@psu.edu

     

     

    Deadline:

    Deadline for solution submission is September 30, 2017.

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    Robin Qiu
    Professor
    Penn State (The Pennsylvania State University)
    robinqiu@psu.edu
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