The International Data Science Olympiad (IDSOL) invites students from all over the world to submit proposals to solve real-world challenges with data science as presentations and prototypes showcased to judges from academic, industry, and government backgrounds.

Preamble, Purpose, Participants

The 2024 International Data Science Olympiad or IDSOL 2024 invites current and recent students to design comprehensive data science solutions for real-world challenges.

Mission

To encourage and equip the next generation of innovative and inquisitive minds to direct their creativity and passion for designing solutions for sustainable development of humanity.

Target Participants

For current students and recent students [within 3 years of stopping studies] seeking not only careers in the “traditional” realm of data science, but also other data-related careers as solution architects, product designers, product developers, tech consulting, management consulting, and tech startup founders.

Participating Countries and Territories

The following countries and territories have expressed interest or intent to send a delegation to the IDSOL 2024 Finals in Amsterdam:

🇦🇷 Argentina
🇦🇺 Australia
🇦🇹 Austria
🇧🇩 Bangladesh
🇧🇲 Bermuda
🇧🇷 Brazil
🇨🇦 Canada
🇨🇳 China
🇪🇪 Estonia
🇫🇷 France
🇩🇪 Germany
🇭🇰 Hong Kong
🇮🇳 India
🇮🇷 Iran
🇰🇿 Kazakhstan
🇲🇴 Macau
🇲🇽 Mexico
🇲🇳 Mongolia
🇳🇱 Netherlands
🇳🇿 New Zealand
🇵🇦 Panama
🇵🇬 Papua New Guinea
🇵🇭 Philippines
🇷🇺 Russia
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia
🇸🇬 Singapore
🇨🇭 Switzerland
🇹🇼 Taiwan
🇺🇦 Ukraine
🇬🇧 United Kingdom
🇺🇸 United States
🇻🇳 Vietnam

Please contact us if you are interested to be a local representative, a local event host, a nominator, or an adjudicator.

Participation Fees

To help balance the budget for producing this extraordinary event, the IDSOL 2024 Organizing Committee approves the levying of registration and administration fees. The schedule of fees are to be released at a later date. Subsidies may be applied for individuals and organizations, especially for those in need and will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Please contact us to make a case for subsidization.

Registration, Representation, Eligibility

To be a legitimate contestant in the 2024 International Data Science Olympiad (IDSOL 2024), a project must have a team that satisfies these eligibility requirements and recursively the team must have individuals that satisfies these eligibility requirements.

Representation

Individuals and teams may represent recognized or unrecognized countries and territories in IDSOL 2024, or by default, do not represent any country or territory (“stateless”).

Default: an individual or team is stateless unless proof of country/territory of representation is satisfied and does not represent any academic institution unless proof is provided.
Proof: an individual’s country/territory of representation is determined by acceptable proof of the country/territory of their birth, citizenship, permanent residency, or educational institution.
National Nomination: if a country has an OC that is officially sanctioned by the International Data Science Olympiad, a list of contestants shall be provided by the OC.
Academic Nomination: if you are representing an academic institution, you must provide proof of nomination from that academic institution.
Register Name: provide your name as follows: {First Name / Given Name / Forename}, {Middle Name (optional)}, and {Last Name / Family Name / Surname}.
Preferred Name Order: provide your name as follows: {First Name, Middle Name, LAST NAME} OR {LAST NAME, First Name, Middle Name}.

Individual Eligibility

Individuals must meet the following eligibility criteria for their team to be eligible to compete in the 2024 International Data Science Olympiad (IDSOL 2024).

Current secondary-level schooler (“schooler”): an individual of any age enrolled in a secondary-level academic institution (ISCED 2011 level 2-4).
Current tertiary-level student (“student”): an individual of any age enrolled in a tertiary-level academic institution (ISCED 2011 level 5-8).
Recent academic graduate (“professional”): an individual of any age that was either a schooler or student until the 30th of November 2021.
Returning Participation: an individual who has previously participated in prior IDSOL competitions are eligible to participate.
Register Name: provide your name as follows: {First Name / Given Name / Forename}, {Middle Name (optional)}, and {Last Name / Family Name / Surname}.
Preferred Name Order: provide your name as follows: {First Name, Middle Name, LAST NAME} OR {LAST NAME, First Name, Middle Name}.

Team Eligibility

Teams must meet the following eligibility criteria for their projects to be eligible to compete in the 2024 International Data Science Olympiad (IDSOL 2024).

Team Size: minimum 1 individual; maximum 6 individuals.
Team Representation: team represents the country/territory with the most individuals from that country/territory; if there is no majority, a team may represent a country/territory of any contestant from that team.
Returning Participation: a team who has previously participated in prior IDSOL competitions are eligible to participate.
Unique Composition: teams may not be be more than 50% identical to another team.

Project Eligibility

Projects must meet the following eligibility criteria for their projects to be eligible to compete in the 2024 International Data Science Olympiad (IDSOL 2024).

Unique Submission: A team may submit only one project.
Project Category: Select up to three categories that describe your project, according to the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) of the United Nations (UN). The Organising Committee reserves the right to assign categories of the project.
Returning Participation: Previous projects that have not won any awards from prior IDSOL competitions are eligible to compete in IDSOL.

Project Deliverables and Details

To be a legitimate contestant in the 2024 International Data Science Olympiad (IDSOL 2024), a project must be presentable and presented with the following deliverables, known as the Four P's, with the appropriate categorisation and content that addresses the guiding questions.

Competition Categories

IDSOL 2024 teams separate their projects into three categories:

Social Impact: primarily SDG 2,3,4,5,10,16; secondarily SDG 1,8,13,14,15.
Economic Impact: primarily SDG 1,8,9,11,17; secondarily SDG 2,3,4,5,6,7,10,12,16
Environmental Impact: primarily SDG 6,7,12,13,14,15; secondarily SDG 9,11,17
Teams select up to 5 SDG (ranked by order of impact)
CC reserves the right to reassign projects to new SDG

Guiding Questions

IDSOL 2024 teams shall use guiding questions to guide the project conception and development in the form of a properly-formatted paper:

Problem Statement: issues, impact, process flows, overall situation, etc.
States-of-the-Art Overview: current tech/product levels, competitive analysis, etc.
Solution Overview: why/how data science & machine learning, what features, benefits, impact, etc.
Solution Design: stakeholders, process flows, architecture, technology, governance, etc.
Challenges: risks, liabilities, mitigations, adoption, scalability, next steps, etc.

Material Submissions

IDSOL 2024 teams shall submit materials for a chance to show their quality:

Submission 1 (“Proposal”): one PDF file; slide deck; 16:9 ratio; unlimited slides. Due on Friday 16 August 2024 at 23:59 of your local time.
Submission 2 (“Paper”): one PDF file; guiding questions in A4 IEEE Conference Paper format, 4 pages max; appendices in any format, unlimited pages. Due on Friday 16 August 2024 at 23:59 of your local time.
Submission 3 (“Pictures”): YouTube unlisted URL; video; 16:9 ratio; 3 minutes (180 seconds) limit. Due on Friday 16 August 2024 at 23:59 of your local time.
Submission 4 (“Poster”): one PDF file; A2 portrait (“vertical”) format; final size & orientation subject to change by EPC.Only for shortlisted finalists. Due Friday 11 October 2024 at 23:59 of your local time.

Project Evaluation and Prizes

To be a participating contestant in the 2024 International Data Science Olympiad (IDSOL 2024), a project shall be evaluated against the following criteria across the following stages of the relevant project deliverables for a chance to win the following accolades:

Evaluation Stages

IDSOL 2024 teams shall have the chance to show their quality while minimizing effort and barriers to participate.

Stage 1 (“Proposal Round” or “Initial Submission”): assessment of overall concept; minimum viable product.
Stage 2 (“Paper Round” or “Follow-up Submission”): assessment of Commercial and Technical Depth.
Stage 3 (“Pictures Round” or “Final Submission”): assessment of Presentation Quality.
Stage 4 (“Posters plus Pitch Round” or “Finals Invitation”): assessment of overall quality; invitation to IDSOL 2024 Finals.

Evaluation Criteria

IDSOL 2024 teams shall be evaluated by a common foundational framework for comparing vastly different projects.

(40%) Commercial Depth: justified use of trust infrastructure and appropriate data science or machine learning design; feasible, viable, and sustainable operating and governance model.
(30%) Technical Depth: detailed and well thought out in the solution design, beyond only business or only technology.
(20%) Presentability: concise information transmission and ability to express complex concepts.
(10%) Originality: the ability to combine different concepts into something atypical or special.

Accolades

IDSOL 2024 teams have the chance to win a wide range of accolades.

By Categories, i.e. by social, economic, and environmental impact:

IDSOL 2024 Finals, Gold Medal Award: project ranked 1st out of all teams in their category
IDSOL 2024 Finals, Silver Medal Award: project ranked 2nd out of all teams in their category
IDSOL 2024 Finals, Bronze Medal Award: project ranked 3rd out of all teams in their category
IDSOL 2024 Finals, Awards of Distinction: for all teams that were in the consideration for Top 4
IDSOL 2024 Finals, Awards of Merit: for all teams that demonstrated superior achievement at the Expo
IDSOL 2024 Finals, Award of Recognition: for all teams that were invited to the Expo but did not receive an AoM
IDSOL 2024 Preliminary, Award of Recognition: for all teams that were considered for the Expo but not chosen

By Criteria (and 2 runner-ups), i.e. across all categories, by evaluation criteria:

IDSOL 2024 Finals, Best Commercial Depth Award: for teams that demonstrated the most solid solution design overall, completely justifying the use of data science or machine learning.
IDSOL 2024 Finals, Best Technical Depth Award: for teams that demonstrated the most robust and resilient solution architecture design, incorporating all aspects of business, technology, and otherwise; most importantly demonstrating competent understanding of the core data science or machine learning concepts.
IDSOL 2024 Finals, Best Presentability Award: for teams that had completely seized all the chances to show their quality, e.g. proposal deck, paper, pictures (video), poster, and pitches.
IDSOL 2024 Finals, Best Originality Award: for teams that had the most creative or novel solution or definition of problem or challenge statement.

By Consensus, i.e. voted by attendees and weighted prop by their participation at IDSOL 2024:

IDSOL 2024 Finals, Most Impactful Project Award: for a team deemed by the people to have the potential to make a dent in the universe.
IDSOL 2024 Finals, Most Sustainable Project Award: for a team deemed by the people to do things not because they were compelled to do those things, or because they think those are good things to do, but rather because those are the right things to do.
IDSOL 2024 Finals, Most Sophisticated Project Award: for a team deemed by the people to embody the spirit of simplicity as the ultimate sophistication.
IDSOL 2024 Finals, Most Ambitious Project Award: for a team deemed by the people to be most successful with the aid of a reality distortion field.

Project Submission

Submission portal shall open soon. Note the submission deadline of Friday 16 August 2024 at 23:59 in your local time. Late submissions without reasonable explanation such as force majeure shall not be entertained.

Tops and Tips plus FAQ

Step 1: Conception and Inception. To get started, identify some issues you want to address, then brainstorm how to address it through data sciences and likely also with machine learning. When converging with others, discuss together and form working groups. Eventually, you can find people that work well with you that also share parts of your vision.

Step 2: Creation and Iteration. Think from start to finish what the project would be like, so the project is "complete" in its essence. Then improve in each and all aspects. The basic forms of the Material Submissions 1, 2, and 3 (Proposal, Paper, and Pictures) should be ready.

Step 3: Finalize and Submit. Once you are proud of your nth iteration, submit the Proposal, Paper, and Pictures before the final deadline (August 16th 2024).

Step 4: Finalist Submission. If you are shortlisted, you shall be contacted by the IDSOL 2024 Organizing Committee by September 30th 2024. You will have a chance to make updates to all four of your submissions by the deadline (October 11th 2024).

Proposal

Reading Deck: since this will be literally read by adjudicators without audio aid, you must strike a balance between too much and too little content.

Story Telling: your project is ultimately a story, so how do you want to tell it? For example: here is the problem; here is the way things are done now; here is how we are going do better...

Appendices: anything that is not really part of your story, you can put to the end, in appendices, just like a paper. Unlike a paper that goes all out on details, the balance of too much and too little content is the challenge in making a proposal deck.

Paper

Format: previous competitions committees may have been more lenient on the paper format, but no more! Follow the Paper format (A4 IEEE Conference Paper)

Appendices: the 4-page limit means you must be very clear and concise in your writing. That means the deep details will be in the appendices. Reference the appendices so the adjudicators can see all the details. If you have diagrams that require high resolution, you may attach them as appendices and override the two-column format.

If you have any questions, please contact us.

Pictures

Option 1: Present a Reading Deck. present your reading deck. Pros: can just use the same material. Cons: reading decks are not ideal for pitch presentations, i.e. your audience is forced to split their attention listening to you and reading the slides. Yes, adjudicators can hit PAUSE, but they already have the reading deck and this is supposed to be an opportunity for you to have a human conversation :)

Option 2: Present a Pitch Deck. derive a pitch deck from your reading deck or make from scratch. Pros: ideal presentation. Cons: a bit more work.

Option 3: Talking Head. record yourself talking about your presentation. Pros: less work. Cons: no visual aids.

Option 4: Make a "Movie". envision something beautiful and make it happen on iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, Adobe Premier, etc. Pros: it will be epic. Cons: lots of work!

FAQ

What country should I represent? The one you identify with the most!

My country has an organizing committee, how do I submit? Directly to them. Note their deadlines.

My country has no organizing committee, how do I submit? Directly to us. The IDSOL Ersatz Committee shall nominate you on behalf of your country if your project has the requisite quality among the submissions from your country.

My country has no organizing committee, how do I form one? IDSOL works with academic institutions, non-profit organizations, and other entities with non-profit motives. Please contact us with a proposal.

Why submit before the deadline? For contestants from countries with no organizing committee, the IDSOL Ersatz Committee may reply with feedback for improvements before the final deadline.

Does IDSOL sponsor my travel and accomodations? No, every team is responsible for their own expenses. If there is an organizing committee in your country, they may have some policies or arrangements. You may also speak to your school or some corporate sponsor about subsidizing part of your journey. In the past, we have facilitated connections to financial assistance or sponsorship. If you would like to explore this option, contact us. with a description of your situation and a proposal for how to proceed.

Do I need a visa or documents to travel? Excellent question, but not for us. The finals are in the Netherlands, a country in the Schengen Zone of the European Union. Consult the local embassy, consulate-general, or a similar authority for a better answer suited to your situation.