a) Conditions of participation
The Machine Learning in Immunology competition (MLI Competition) is open to any person who accepts the MLI Competition rules. The competition is a part of the ICANN 2009 conference that will be held in Limassol, Cyprus on Sep 14-17, 2009 (see www.e-nns.org). The competition will be concluded at the Machine Learning in Immunology Workshop on Sep 17. Competitors are not required to attend the MLI Workshop. Each individual can register only once for the competition.
b) Restrictions
c) Anonymity
The competitors are required to register, but they can opt to remain anonymous and participate by using a pseudonym. The registration will be via the Web page (to be announced later). Participants can pre-register by email to Vladimir Brusic (vladimir_brusic{at}dfci.harvard.edu). All public communication will contain only pseudonyms of participants who opt to remain anonymous. The names of the winners will be revealed in the MLI Workshop.
d) Data
Practice data will be posted on the ICANN 2009 web site on June 15, 2009. The prediction targets will be posted on the same site on Sep 4. Prediction results must be submitted to the organizers by Sep 8 (Midnight GMT). The participants who submitted the prediction before Sep 8 will be able to resubmit predictions until Sep 10. The maximal number of submissions will be 3, and the latest submission will be used as the competing entry.
e) Prediction target molecules
The predictions will focus on 9-mer and 10-mer peptides and their binding to a subset of HLA molecules from {HLA-A*0101, -A*0201, -A*0301, HLA-A*1101, -A*2402, -B*0702, -B*0801, and -B*1501}. Training data are available at DFRMLI site (http://bio.dfci.harvard.edu/DFRMLI), but the participants can use any additional data sets (for example IEDB, SYFPEITHI, literature, etc). For competition, six questions will be asked; the actual HLA molecules and the lengths of the peptides will be revealed on Sep 4.
f) Evaluation
Each competitor will submit one entry per question. Each prediction will be ranked and the overall best ranked submission will receive the first prize. The best individual performing predictions (for individual predictions) will receive the certificates. The Evaluation Committee will reserve the discretion in making the final decision.
g) Prizes
The MLI competition grand prize of €1000 will be awarded to the winner. The certificates will be awarded to the winners in each of the six categories.
h) Publication
The proceedings of the competition will be published in an international journal (to be announced). Selected entries, deemed appropriate for the immunological audience, will be also invited to submit for publication in the Journal of Immunological Methods and in Immunome Research.