OPTIL.io

### Brilliant Challenges - Optimization Problems Definition Contest 
#### Contest Rules

Evaluation as a Service (EaaS), in brief, is defined as a paradigm of keeping the evaluation data in the cloud and allowing to access them via dedicated interfaces<sup>1</sup>. Optil.io<sup>2</sup> is an online judge platform following EaaS concept that allows the users from all over the world to continuously and reliably evaluate the algorithmic solutions of complex optimization problems and to organize specific science- and industry-inspired challenges. By hiding the test cases from the participants and providing the homogeneous, cloud-based runtime environment, we provide an objective method for assessment of various algorithms, submitted by the users, solving optimization problems. The aim of this contest is to collect interesting, applicable problems that could be published on the Optil.io platform and addressed by its users.

1. Each participant is responsible to submit a novel optimization problem (having intellectual property rights to it) through the Optil.io platform together with test instances and judge program following the [creating problems guide](https://www.optil.io/optilion/help/create). The submission deadline is **3rd October 2017** regardless of the user time zone.
2. The results of the contest will be announced on the Optil.io website on **15th October 2017**.
3. Every participant that submits the problem during the contest will be included in a final ranking. However, only contestants who are **between 18 and 37 years old** on 1st January 2017 are eligible for winning monetary prizes. The prize will be payed as a payment for the intellectual property rights to the problem description. 
4. Each problem has to be submitted by a single participant (called a corresponding author), who will receive a monetary prize in case of winning the contest. The problem can be designed by a team, and all of the authors can be included in problem's description by setting the authors list field. Moreover, all of them will be included at the final certificate. However, only the corresponding author of the team that submitted this problem is responsible for distribution of the potential prize among the team.
5. Five prizes will be awarded by the scientific committee:
* 1st prize (**1000 EUR**).
* 2nd prize (**700 EUR**).
* Special distinction for the most entertaining problem (**700 EUR**).
* Distinction for the most interesting industry-inspired problem (**400 EUR**).
* Distinction for the most interesting science-inspired problem (**400 EUR**).
6. All submitted problems will be assessed by the scientific committee based on the following criteria:
* Scientific excellence - the quality of the submitted problem description and test instances.
* Technical excellence - the quality of the submitted judge program and compliance with the guidelines used for preparing problems available in the [creating problems guide](https://www.optil.io/optilion/help/create).
* Impact - scientific and industrial importance of the problem.
7. The special distinction for the most entertaining problem will be awarded to the problem that will be assessed by the technical committee as the most interesting problem for users of the Optil.io platform. Factors that can make the problem interesting are well-written problem description, short and clear format of input and output, ease to prepare the first solution.
8. Distinctions for the most interesting problems will be awarded by the scientific committee based on the importance of the problem for industry and science, respectively.
9. To participate in the contest one has to:
* [Create an account](https://www.optil.io/optilion/user/create) on Optil.io platform.
* Accept the rules that govern this contest using the online form. As a result of that acceptation, the user will receive additional privileges for authoring new problems.
* Create at least one problem. Each participant can submit many problems, and each of them will be assessed in the contest.
* The participant should attach a short, one-page report describing why the problem is important and how test instances were selected. The report should be written in plain text and pasted into the dedicated field that is displayed when the problem is sent for moderation.
10. By accepting these rules the participant accepts also [Terms and Conditions](https://www.optil.io/optilion/brilliant/terms) of the contest. 
11. Any questions should be sent using the [contact us](https://www.optil.io/optilion/contact) page.
12. The scientific and technical committees consist of:
* Dr. Szymon Wasik, Poznan University of Technology (Chief organizer)
* Prof. Jacek Blazewicz, V-ce Director of IFORS (Head of Scientific Committee)
* Prof. Erwin Pesch, Siegen University (Member of Scientific Committee)
* Prof. Thomas Villmann, University of Applied Sciences Mittweida (Member of Scientific Committee)
* Prof. Grzegorz Pawlak, Computing Science Professor and Entrepreneur (Member of Scientific Committee)
* Dr. Maciej Antczak, Poznan University of Technology (Head of Technical Committee)
* Jan Badura, Poznan University of Technology (Member of Technical Committee)
* Artur Laskowski, Poznan University of Technology (Member of Technical Committee)

[1] Hanbury, Allan, et al. *"Evaluation-as-a-Service: Overview and outlook"*, [arXiv:1512.07454](https://arxiv.org/abs/1512.07454), 2015.

[2] Wasik, Szymon, et al. *"Optil. io: Cloud Based Platform For Solving Optimization Problems Using Crowdsourcing Approach"*, Proceedings of the 19th ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing Companion, [doi:10.1145/2818052.2869098](http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2869098), 433-436, ACM, 2016.

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