[hpc-announce] [GECCO 2019] Call For Entries for 16th Annual (2019) "Humies" Awards

[Andrew M Sutton]

                       Call For Entries
             for 16th Annual (2019) "Humies" Awards
                for Human-Competitive Results
   Produced by Genetic and Evolutionary Computation
                  www.human-competitive.org

                      To Be Held at
   Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO)
        July 13th-17th, 2019 (Saturday - Wednesday)
                     in Prague, Czech Republic
               http://gecco-2019.sigevo.org

Entries are hereby solicited for awards totaling $10,000 for
human-competitive results that have been produced by any
form of genetic and evolutionary computation (including, but not limited
to genetic algorithms, genetic programming, evolution
strategies, evolutionary programming, learning classifier systems,
grammatical evolution, gene expression programming, differential
evolution, etc.) and that have been published in the open literature
between the deadline for the previous competition and the deadline for
the current competition.

The competition will be held as part of the Genetic and
Evolutionary Computation (GECCO) conference  operated by the
Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Special Interest
Group (SIG) on Genetic and Evolutionary Computation (SIGEVO).
Entries chosen to be finalists will be made at the conference.
The winners of the awards will be announced during
the conference.

IMPORTANT DATES:
* Wednesday June 5, 2019 - Deadline for entries (consisting of
one TEXT file, PDF files for one or more papers, and possible "in press"
documentation (explained below). Please send entries to
goodman at msu dot edu

* Wednesday June 19, 2019 - Finalists will be notified by e-mail

* Wednesday July 3, 2019 - Finalists must submit their presentation
(e.g., PowerPoint, PDF) for posting on the competition's web site.
Send presentations to goodman at msu dot edu

* July 13-17, 2019 (Saturday-Wednesday) - GECCO conference

* TENTATIVE Monday July 15, 2019 - Presentations before judging
committee at public session of the GECCO conference. Finalists should
make a point of double-checking the time and date in the conference's
final schedule.

* TENTATIVE Wednesday 17, 2019 - Announcement of awards at
plenary session of the GECCO conference


JUDGING COMMITTEE
* Erik Goodman
* Una-May O'Reilly
* Wolfgang Banzhaf
* Darrell Whitley
* Lee Spector

PUBLICITY CHAIR: William Langdon

CALL FOR ENTRIES
Techniques of genetic and evolutionary computation are being
increasingly applied to difficult real-world problems - often yielding
results that are not merely academically interesting, but competitive
with the work done by creative and inventive humans. Starting at the
Genetic and Evolutionary Computation Conference (GECCO) in 2004, cash
prizes have been awarded for human-competitive results that had been
produced by some form of genetic and evolutionary computation in the
previous year.

This prize competition is based on published results. The publication
may be a paper published anywhere in the open literature (e.g., the
GECCO conference, any another conference or workshop, journal, technical
report, thesis, book, chapter in edited book).

The competition is open to any paper
   (1) published in the open literature between June 6, 2018 (the
deadline for the previous year's competition) and June 5, 2019 (the
deadline for this competition), or
   (2) that is "in press" by the deadline for this competition. "In
Press" means the paper must have been unconditionally accepted for
publication and be identical to that which will be published imminently
without the possibility of any further changes or revision by the
authors or editors. For example, a paper accepted for the current year's
GECCO conference would not have been published by the deadline for the
competition. However, because the paper has already been unconditionally
accepted for publication (and the final camera-ready version submitted
to the conference prior to the deadline for this competition), a GECCO
paper is "in press."  If an entry is "in press," the entry must include
a copy of the documentation establishing that the paper meets this
requirement.

The paper must meet the usual standards of a scientific publication in
that it must clearly describe a problem, the methods used to address the
problem, the results obtained, and sufficient information about how the
work was done in order to enable the work to be independently replicated.

An automatically created result is considered "human-competitive" if
it satisfies at least one of the eight criteria below.
(A) The result was patented as an invention in the past, is an
improvement over a patented invention, or would qualify today as a
patentable new invention.
(B) The result is equal to or better than a result that was accepted as
a new scientific result at the time when it was published in a
peer-reviewed scientific journal.
(C) The result is equal to or better than a result that was placed into
a database or archive of results maintained by an internationally
recognized panel of scientific experts.
(D) The result is publishable in its own right as a new scientific
result  independent of the fact that the result was mechanically created.
(E) The result is equal to or better than the most recent human-created
solution to a long-standing problem for which there has been a
succession of increasingly better human-created solutions.
(F) The result is equal to or better than a result that was considered
an achievement in its field at the time it was first discovered.
(G) The result solves a problem of indisputable difficulty in its field.
(H) The result holds its own or wins a regulated competition involving
human contestants (in the form of either live human players or
human-written computer programs).

Contestants should note that a pervasive thread in most of the above
eight criteria is the notion that the result satisfy an "arms length"
standard - not a yardstick based on the opinion of the author, the
author's own institution (educational or corporate), or the author's own
close associates. "Arms length" may be established in numerous ways. For
example, if the result is a solution to "a long-standing problem for
which there has been a succession of increasingly better human-created
solutions," it is clear that the scientific community (not the author,
the author's own institution, or the author's close associates) have
vetted the significance of the problem. Similarly, a problem's
significance may be established if the result replicates or improves
upon a scientific result published in a peer-reviewed scientific
journal, replicates or improves upon a previously patented invention,
constitutes a patentable new invention, or replicates or improves a
result that was considered an achievement in its field at the time it
was first discovered. Similarly, a problem's significance may be
established if the result holds its own or wins a regulated competition
involving live human players or human-written computer programs. In each
of the foregoing examples, the standard for human-competitiveness is
being established external to the author, the author's own institution,
or the author's close associates. It is also conceivable to rely only on
criterion G ("The result solves a problem of indisputable difficulty in
its field"); however, if only criterion G is claimed, there must be a
clear and convincing argument that the problem's "difficulty" is indeed
"indisputable."

The competition will be held as part of the annual Genetic and
Evolutionary Computation (GECCO) conference. Entries chosen to be
finalists are to be made at the conference. The awards and prizes will
be announced at the conference.

Cash prizes of $5,000 (gold), $3,000 (silver), and bronze (either one
prize of $2,000 or two prizes of $1,000) will be awarded for the best
entries that satisfy one or more of the criteria for
human-competitiveness. The awards will be divided equally among
co-authors unless the authors specify a different division at the time
of submission.
Prizes are paid by check in U.S. dollars after the GECCO conference.
The judges may, based on submissions, reallocate the prize amounts and
prize categories within the total amount available for prizes.

DETAILED INSTRUCTIONS FOR ENTERING THE "HUMIES"
If you plan to make an entry into this competition, please check the web
site for updated information and for possible last-minute changes
immediately prior to submitting your entry. Similarly, if you are
selected as a finalist, please re-check the web site prior to the
conference for possible last-minute changes in instructions or schedule.

All entries are to be sent electronically to goodman at msu dot edu. All
entries will be promptly acknowledged, so please make an inquiry if you
do not receive a reasonably prompt acknowledgment shortly after your
submission.

An entry must consist of one TEXT file and one or more PDF files.  In
addition, if the paper is "in press" as of the deadline date for
submissions, an additional document must be submitted.

If authors are making multiple entries to the competition, please submit
separate e-mails, each containing the required TEXT file and PDF file(s)
supporting the entry.

The TEXT file must contain the following 11 items. Please be very
careful to include ALL required information. Contestants are alerted to
the fact that items 6 and 9 are especially important and will be the
main basis by which entries will be judged. The papers and presentations
from earlier competitions (starting in 2004) are posted at the
competition web site at www.human-competitive.org. These previous
entries may be informative and helpful in crafting your entry.
Required items:
1. the complete title of one (or more) paper(s) published in the open
literature describing the work that the author claims describes a
human-competitive result;
2. the name, complete physical mailing address, e-mail address, and
phone number of EACH author of EACH paper(s);
3. the name of the corresponding author (i.e., the author to whom
notices will be sent concerning the competition);
4. the abstract of the paper(s);
5. a list containing one or more of the eight letters (A, B, C, D, E, F,
G, or H) that correspond to the criteria (see above) that the author
claims that the work satisfies;
6. a statement stating why the result satisfies the criteria that the
contestant claims (see examples of statements of human-competitiveness
as a guide to aid in constructing this part of the submission);
7. a full citation of the paper (that is, author names; publication
date; name of journal, conference, technical report, thesis, book, or
book chapter; name of editors, if applicable, of the journal or edited
book; publisher name; publisher city; page numbers, if applicable);
8. a statement either that "any prize money, if any, is to be divided
equally among the co-authors" OR a specific percentage breakdown as to
how the prize money, if any, is to be divided among the co-authors;
9. a statement stating why the authors expect that their entry would be
the "best," and
10. an indication of the general type of genetic or evolutionary
computation used, such as GA (genetic algorithms), GP (genetic
programming), ES (evolution strategies), EP (evolutionary programming),
LCS (learning classifier systems), GE (grammatical evolution), GEP (gene
expression programming), DE (differential evolution), etc.
11. the date of publication of each paper.  If the date of publication
is not on or before the deadline for submission, but instead, the paper
has been unconditionally accepted for publication and is "in press" by
the deadline for this competition, the entry must include a copy of the
documentation establishing that the paper meets the "in press" requirement.

The PDF file(s) are to contain the paper(s). The strongly preferred
method is that you send a separate PDF file for each of your paper(s)
relating to your entry. Both the text file and the PDF file(s) for each
entry will be permanently posted on a web page shortly after the
deadline date for entries (for use by the judges, conference attendees,
and anyone else who is interested) and will remain posted on the web as
a permanent record of the competition. If your paper is only available
on the publisher's web site and your publisher specifically requires
that your published paper may appear only on your own personal page, the
second choice is that you send link(s) to a separate web page on your
web site containing link(s) to the PDF file(s) of the paper(s) that
constitute your entry. This separate web page is to contain nothing
else, so the interested parties may quickly locate your paper(s). If you
use this second-choice option, you must ALSO supply a link to a
permanent web site maintained by your publisher where your specific
paper may be viewed or purchased (that is, not a link merely to the
publisher's general home page, but a link to the specific web page
containing your paper on the publisher's site). Keep in mind that the
objective is to guarantee a permanent record of the entries and to make
it easy for anyone to locate your material.

Generally, only one paper should be submitted. More than one paper
should be submitted only if no single paper fully describes the specific
result or method. Note that this competition involves specific results
published in the past year, and it NOT an evaluation of the author's
entire body of work over period of years. Note that this is a
competition involving a result that satisfies the criteria for being
"human-competitive" as defined herein.

The judging committee will review all entries and identify a short list
of finalists for presentation at the GECCO conference. Finalists will be
notified by an e-mail to the corresponding author.  Please acknowledge
receipt of this message, so the judges know that you received your
notice. Finalists must then make a short oral presentation to the
judging committee at a public session of the GECCO conference. The
presentations will be held on one of the early days of the conference,
and the winners will be announced a day or two later at the conference.

Finalists must submit their presentation (e.g., a PowerPoint, PDF) by
e-mail to goodman at msu dot edu. All submissions will be promptly
acknowledged, so please make an inquiry if you do not receive a
reasonably prompt acknowledgment. These presentations will be posted on
the web page for the competition. Oral presentation (usually about 10
minutes) will be made by the finalists to the judging committee, but the
presentations will be open to all conference attendees at a special
session of the conference. The oral presentation should primarily focus on
1. why the result qualifies as being human-competitive and
2. why the judges should consider the entry as "best" in comparison to
other entries that may also be "human-competitive."

In this short oral presentation to the judges, a description of the work
itself is decidedly secondary. By the time of your presentation, the
judges will be familiar with the papers. Thus, the focus of the
presentation should be on reasons why the work being presented should
win a prize - not an explanation or presentation of the work itself.

In the unlikely event that a presenter is scheduled to make a
presentation elsewhere at the GECCO conference at the same time, please
notify the judging committee (email goodman at msu dot edu), so they can
rearrange time slots.

After the oral presentations, the award committee will meet and consider
the presentations.

The presenting author for each entry must register for the GECCO
conference.

A judge will recuse himself or herself if he or she is closely
associated with a finalist (e.g., a current academic advisor, current
collaborator, co-author with the finalist or author of recent related work).


Additional information is at www.human-competitive.org