Science Data Challenge 3

Conditions of participation

• The challenge is open to everyone (above 18 years old) and there are no fees involved. 

• Members of the SKAO teams that have contributed to the simulation cannot compete.

• Participants from any country and any institution can compete. 

• Participation in the challenge implies acceptance of the competition rules by each participant. 

• Challenge registration will open through this website. There will be a deadline for registration, after which participation will not be possible. 

Teams

• We advise participants to compete in teams. There is no minimum or maximum limit for the team size; however, allocation of computational facilities will be conditional on the teams being properly resourced. Every team will designate a team leader.

• Each team must join the competition using a dedicated registration form, that will be made available on this website, and accept the competition rules when joining the challenge.

• Participants are allowed to join an existing team during the competition.

• Any team or participant can request to withdraw from the competition.

Team leaders 

• The team leader is in charge of providing any material and information  that will be required.

• The team leader is also in charge of confirming people leaving/joining the team as well as requesting withdrawal of the whole team from the challenge.

• Team leaders can be changed upon request. 

Accessing and processing the data 

• The dataset will be made available through the challenge website. Teams will be able to apply for computational resources on a set of designated computing facilities.

• Details on the available resources, on the software environment and on options for deploying pipelines are made available on the dedicated area of this website. 

• Each team will be allocated computing resources according to their computational requirements, as specified at challenge registration. 

• The resources allocated are available over the 9 months period of SDC3 inference. Teams can state in their registration form the months during which they would like to access the resources. 

• Resources will be provided on a rolling basis from month-to-month during the nine months of the challenge; resources will be withdrawn in case of lack of usage. Teams may state in their registration form the months during which they would like to access the resources. 

• Participants should acknowledge the SDC3 computing facilities they used in any communication and publication regarding SDC3. 

Submissions and evaluation

• Submissions will be accepted throughout the duration of the challenge and will be scored through a scoring service. 

• In order to be successful, submissions should strictly comply with the requested format.

• The scoring service will be made available upon the start of the challenge. Before the challenge deadline, the scoring service will only return a confirmation of receipt and validation of the submission's format. Final scores will be made available only at the challenge deadline and will be based on each team's latest submission to the scoring service. 

• The Challenge winner will be awarded based on the leaderboard at the deadline. Submissions sent after the deadline will not be considered.

Results/Publications

• The SDC3 leaderboard containing the final scores will be automatically published on this website once the challenge is closed. 

• We reserve the right to publish details such as the name of the teams, their participants and affiliations, as well as their final scores.

• After the completion of the challenge, we will explore the possibility of publishing results and methods in a scientific article, in collaboration with the participating teams. 

Support

• Communication with the challenge organisers and support will happen through a dedicated community forum. Teams will be invited to the community forum upon registration to SDC3. 

• During the competition, the name of the teams and the names of the members of each team will be visible to the other challenge teams and participants through the forum platform.

• For IT support related to the computational resources, see the relevant section on the page of each facility. This support should essentially be used for access and initial setup. Teams are expected to be self-sufficient in deploying their pipelines.