MATLAB Central Spring Contest
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From: Matthew Simoneau on 5 May 2008 15:59 I ran into some bumps with the test suite swap, but we should be back in business. We're now running a "first to break 13000", which could take some time. I picked this target by figuring that most of the difference in results between the old and new test suites could be made up without major innovation, but there is always some risk that the target is too aggressive. The "best result" really clogged the queue last time, so instead we're bringing back a variation on the "1000 Character Challenge". This time, however, we're be using node count rather than character count. Since the top entry is now around 4500 nodes, maybe 1000 node limit? Or even more restrictive? I like this one because it gives a chance for people to work with shorter code for a while, and now that we're using nodes instead of characters there won't be as much pressure to make the code illegible. We'll do this sometime tomorrow. Historically, we've announced the mid-contest prizes as we go so we could react to whatever was going on. We've picked up some traditions, like the Sunday Push. I'll float the idea to the team of announcing at least most of them in advance next time.
From: the cyclist on 6 May 2008 18:07 "the cyclist" <thecyclist(a)letter.after.f.mail.com> wrote in message <fvhptn$kgm$1(a)fred.mathworks.com>... > "Helen Chen" <helen.chen(a)mathworks.com> wrote in message > <fv82i0$nql$1(a)fred.mathworks.com>... > > Just a reminder to let everyone know that the Spring Contest > > launches tomorrow, Wednesday May 30th at high noon. Be > > there or be square! > > > > See you then! > > Helen > > It seems that much of the Statistics page is not being > updated properly. Stats page seems to be stuck again (Tuesday at 5:40 PM, just before end of 1000-mode contest).
From: Helen Chen on 6 May 2008 13:36 "Markus Buehren" <mb_matlab.REMOVE(a)gmxTHIS.de> wrote in message <fvnh32$q3s$1(a)fred.mathworks.com>... > I follow Sergey and would like to know when the next contest > phases will end. I have this HUGE improvement and just wait > to plug it in at the right time :-) > Markus - Did you see Matt's note about the schedule on the contest blog ( http://blogs.mathworks.com/contest/ )? The challenge to beat 13000 will remain open until someone beats it, but we have a concurrent second - the 1000 node challenge. Wouldn't it be interesting if someone won both challenges with the same submission? It would be another first for the MATLAB Contest! Helen
From: Alan Chalker on 7 May 2008 01:17 While I haven't had much time to compete in this contest, I've done some analysis and unfortunately believe that the 13000 mark is going to be virtually impossible to beat. Here are some key points: As of midnight Tuesday, the leading entry has the following stats: Result: 134617 Time: 40.0336 Cyc: 21 Nodes: 7289 Score: 13508.84 Because of the way the scoring formula works, the ONLY way to beat 13000 is to lower the result. Even if the time, cyc and nodes were reduced to 1 each, the score would only improve by 45 points to 13464. In order to reach 13000, the result needs to improve to ~129500, or by approximately 5117 (which is a 3.8% improvement). That might not seem like much, but it actually is. Based upon the null move solvers submitted at the start of the contest, we know that there are a total of 359141 points in the original test suite. The current result is only 37% of the max value of the test boards. However, keep in mind that there is a non-zero lower limit to the score for a 'perfect solver'. While it's impossible for us to know what that is without examining the test suite, we can make some good guesses based upon the best results statistics. The best result so far is 133225, almost 1400 points better than the current leader (although it took 148 seconds to run), but still 3700 points away from 13000, assuming it could run in less than 1/3 the time it currently does. Another way of looking at it is the % improvement column on the stats webpage. The score has only improved by ~4% since Sunday morning until right now. Thus in order to break the goal, in the next 12 hours entries need to outperform ~72 hours worth of steady improvements. Examining the current leading solver against random individual boards in the sample test suite, I found that there might be room for slight improvement, however overall it's doing a really good job, as one might expect. Thus, while I'm sorry if this bursts anyone's bubbles, hopefully this will allow some competitors to refocus on just getting a top entry instead of trying to beat an arbitrary score. Good luck everyone for the remainder of the contest!
From: Luigi Sorbara on 7 May 2008 02:37
Buddy .. stop the tweak bombing .. some of us would like to submit their solutions .. simply BRUTAL "Alan Chalker" <alancNOSPAM(a)osc.edu> wrote in message <fvre0f$j6$1(a)fred.mathworks.com>... > While I haven't had much time to compete in this contest, > I've done some analysis and unfortunately believe that the > 13000 mark is going to be virtually impossible to beat. > Here are some key points: > > As of midnight Tuesday, the leading entry has the following > stats: > Result: 134617 > Time: 40.0336 > Cyc: 21 > Nodes: 7289 > Score: 13508.84 > > Because of the way the scoring formula works, the ONLY way > to beat 13000 is to lower the result. Even if the time, cyc > and nodes were reduced to 1 each, the score would only > improve by 45 points to 13464. In order to reach 13000, > the result needs to improve to ~129500, or by approximately > 5117 (which is a 3.8% improvement). > > That might not seem like much, but it actually is. Based > upon the null move solvers submitted at the start of the > contest, we know that there are a total of 359141 points in > the original test suite. The current result is only 37% of > the max value of the test boards. > > However, keep in mind that there is a non-zero lower limit > to the score for a 'perfect solver'. While it's impossible > for us to know what that is without examining the test > suite, we can make some good guesses based upon the best > results statistics. The best result so far is 133225, > almost 1400 points better than the current leader (although > it took 148 seconds to run), but still 3700 points away from > 13000, assuming it could run in less than 1/3 the time it > currently does. > > Another way of looking at it is the % improvement column on > the stats webpage. The score has only improved by ~4% since > Sunday morning until right now. Thus in order to break the > goal, in the next 12 hours entries need to outperform ~72 > hours worth of steady improvements. > > Examining the current leading solver against random > individual boards in the sample test suite, I found that > there might be room for slight improvement, however overall > it's doing a really good job, as one might expect. > > Thus, while I'm sorry if this bursts anyone's bubbles, > hopefully this will allow some competitors to refocus on > just getting a top entry instead of trying to beat an > arbitrary score. Good luck everyone for the remainder of > the contest! > > |