PhD Challenge

Announcing the 2012 PhD Challenge

admin — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 05:00:28 +0000

We are excited to announce that the new 2012 PhD Challenge is now open for submissions. The goal of this year’s challenge is to name a new “discovery” Cleveland Steamer. A discovery includes (but is not limited to) a new species, a new celestial body or phenomenon, a new engineering process, a new theorem, or a new algorithm. It must appear in a peer-reviewed, academic paper. For those fields that require all discoveries to be in Latin, we will also accept the translated variation Clevelandius Stemirinus. We recognize that this year’s PhD Challenge is significantly more difficult than in previous years. Nevertheless, we are confident that the world’s best and brightest minds are eager to overcome adversity.

The official Call for Participation contains all of the details of the contest, including the submission dates and the prizes to be awarded to the winner. The PhD Challenge is open to all current graduate students in four-year universities and institutions. Be sure to also read the eligibility rules to make sure that your submission follows the guidelines of the contest.

You can subscribe to our RSS and Twitter feeds to keep up-to-date with contest updates.

Announcing the 2011 PhD Challenge Winner

admin — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 02:00:03 +0000

The PhD Challenge organization is proud to announce that the winner of the 2011 PhD Challenge contest is Tom Schaul from IDSIA/TU Munich. This year’s challenge was to get a peer-reviewed, academic paper published with at least one author with the nickname "Dirty Old Man" or "Crazy Cat Lady". Tom’s skill and daring attitude went beyond expectations as he submitted a paper with the ill-fated dictactor Muammar "Dirty Old Man" Gaddafi as one of his co-authors. Truly this paper will be remembered for time immemorial as the last scientific contribution of Muammar Gaddafi before his capture and death in October 2011.

Coherence Progress: A Measure of Interestingness Based on Fixed Compressors

By Tom Schaul, IDSIA/TU Munich
2011 PhD Challenge Winner
In Proceedings of the Conference on Artificial General Intelligence (August 2011)

Tom just completed his PhD at IDSIA/TU Munich and is now a postdoc at NYU, working on machine learning. He insists that his students and collaborators refer to him as “Colonel Tom” and only travels on campus with female bodyguards.

In recognition of his boldness, Tom is receiving as his reward (1) a Calabash professor’s pipe, (2) one copy of Strunk & White’s The Elements of Style (4th Edition), and (3) the official 2011 PhD Challenge winning paper certificate.

The PhD Challenge organization sincerely thanks all those who participated or supported us this year, and would like to remind everyone that the 2012 Call for Participation will be announced on January 1st, 2012. You can also now follow us on Twitter @phdchallenge to stay abreast of the latest contest developments and updates.

2011 Submission Form is Now Closed!

admin — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 05:00:24 +0000

The submission form for the 2011 PhD Challenge contest is now closed. There were only two submissions this year, one of which was a fake entry. Thus, there is no competition for the PhD Challenge reviewing committee. The committee is pleased to announce that there is a winner that will be announced on December 15th, 2011 at 9:00pm EST.

The upcoming 2012 PhD Challenge contest will be announced on January 1st. You can subscribe to our RSS and Twitter feeds to keep up-to-date with contest updates.

Announcing the 2011 PhD Challenge

admin — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 13:56:40 +0000

Example Paper We are excited to announce that the new 2011 PhD Challenge is now open for submissions. The goal of this year’s challenge is to get either the nickname “Dirty Old Man” or “Crazy Cat Lady” included in the byline for at least one author in the final version of a peer-reviewed academic paper. As an example, an eligible submission could contain the authors John “Dirty Old Man” Smith and/or Jane “Crazy Cat Lady” Smith. The task for this challenge is quite difficult, but we are confident that the world’s best and brightest minds are eager to overcome adversity.

You can subscribe to our RSS and Twitter feeds to keep up-to-date with contest updates.

Announcing the 2010 PhD Challenge Winner

admin — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 02:00:04 +0000

The PhD Challenge organization is proud to announce that the winner of the 2010 PhD Challenge contest is Gabriel Parent from Carnegie Mellon University. This year’s challenge was to get a peer-reviewed, academic paper published that contained the phrase "I Smoke Crack Rocks". Indeed it proved to be a daunting task, as there were only three submissions the entire year. But the reviewing committee’s decision was unanimous: Gabriel’s bold writing style seamlessly weaved the special phrase directly into the text in such a way that one cannot help but to think that the paper would be incomplete if it was removed.

Toward Better Crowd Sourced Transcription: Transcription Of A Year Of The Let’s Go Bus Information System Data

By Gabriel Parent, Carnegie Mellon University
2010 PhD Challenge Winner
In Proceedings of IEEE Workshop on Spoken Language Technology (December 2010)

Gabriel is a second year master’s student at CMU’s Language Technologies Institute. His research is focused on leveraging crowd sourcing and speech recognition technologies for dialog systems. He has won several awards and honors, including a post-graduate scholarship from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada. And like all Canadian natives, he enjoys hockey, playing the melodeon, and wearing flannel.

In recognition of his adroitness, Gabriel is receiving as his reward (1) a box of chicken-flavored Maruchan Ramen Noodle Soup, (2) a pack of leather elbow patches, and (3) the official 2010 PhD Challenge winning paper certificate. We are having difficulty arranging the last prize (please contact us if you can help us retrieve this item), and may need to substitute it with an item of equal value.

The PhD Challenge organization sincerely thanks all those who participated or supported us this year, and would like to remind everyone that the 2011 Call for Participation will be announced on January 1st, 2011. You can also now follow us on Twitter @phdchallenge to stay abreast of the latest contest developments and updates.

2010 Submission Form is Now Closed!

admin — Wed, 01 Dec 2010 10:07:28 +0000

The submission form for the 2010 PhD Challenge contest is now closed. In the end, we had a total of three submissions, all in the last weeks of November. The PhD Challenge reviewing committee will be examining each submission in the next two weeks and announce the winner on December 15th, 2010 at 9:00pm EST.

We are also accepting suggestions for the upcoming 2011 PhD Challenge contest, which will be announced on January 1st. Please send your ideas, as well as any comments or questions, to the committee using our Contact Form.

PhD Challenge Discussions Around the Web

admin — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 03:38:35 +0000

The PhD Challenge has recently caused quite a stir on the Internet. Here is an abbreviated summary of some of the more interesting discussions:

Several notable faculty members are calling this prestigious contest academic suicide. Potential applicants need not pay attention to these philistines and detractors who have obviously long forgotten the burdens and pangs of graduate school.
There is a thoughtful discussion on Reddit.com about various techniques for potentially winning the PhD Challenge.
Lastly, be sure to check out this recent interview with Don Troop from The Chronicle of Higher Education with one of the founding PhD Challenge Organization members.

We also have gotten several emails recently asking whether faculty members can be allowed to participate. The rules explicitly state that faculty submissions will not be considered.

This is also reminder that the PhD Challenge Call for Participation flier is available for download. Be sure to send us a photo if you hang it up at your university.

Call for Participation Flier

admin — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 05:45:46 +0000

Now that the contest submission form is available for new entries to the PhD Challenge, the organization is making available the Call for Participation notice. Be sure to print out multiple copies and place them all around your department and University so that others will join in on the excitement.

Download the Call for Participation PDF (23KB)

If you have an interesting photo of the PhD Challenge Call for Participation flier posted at your school, be sure to send it to us. If there is enough interest, we will create a photo gallery on this site.

Now Accepting Entries

admin — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 05:35:39 +0000

The 2010 PhD Challenge entry form is now available. You must submit a PDF version of your paper, along with the URL to the conference of where your paper is being published and with instructions on how to find the hidden challenge phrase I SMOKE CRACK ROCKS. After submitting your paper, you will be notified by the judging committee in two weeks on whether your paper is a valid entry or whether the committee needs further clarification.

We expect the competition to be fierce this year (in order to win that box of Ramen noodles), so be sure to provide as much information as you can when including the instructions. Good luck to all contestants!

Announcing the 2010 PhD Challenge

admin — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 03:22:46 +0000

We are proud to announce this year’s new PhD Challenge. The task for this challenge is quite difficult, but we are confident that the world’s best and brightest minds will overcome adversity. The official Call for Participation contains all the details of the contest, including submission dates and prizes to be awarded. Be sure to also read the eligibility rules to make sure that your submissions following the guidelines of the contest.

The PhD Challenge is open to all current graduate students in four-year universities and institutions.

You can subscribe to our RSS feed in order to keep up-to-date with new information.