Hack the News Datathon with a Local Host in Sofia

HACK THE NEWS DATATHON 25 – 26 – 29 January 2019

Local Host | SofiaLab

Data Science Society is a global community gathering data scientists and enthusiasts from all over the world and applying the expertise of the community members for solving social problems. So far, with the help of over 1800 experts, Data Science Society has built methods to predict air pollution in urban areas and detect fake news in media, using data science, machine learning, text mining, NLP and many more. The idea behind those causes is that all social problems can be tackled through social engagement and combined efforts in the right direction.

SofiaLab is a laboratory, an area, space, hall, office, co-working and co-learning space funded by INTERREG Danube Programme. Sofia Youth Innovation Lab has opened thanks to the new generation skills project, co-funded by the Interreg Danube Programme. Sofia Development Association and Sofia Municipality are among the project partners. The Lab is located on the 3rd floor of № 1 Serdika Street, in the Serdika branch of Sofia Library.

The Benefits of participating in the Datathon

Get exposed to a challenging Data Science research problem
Play with data to build the optimum analytics solution
Learn advanced analytics methods for solving complex problems
Work with your co-Data Scientists to achieve a single goal, i.e., providing the optimum solution in real-life business case
Get access to the first NLP dataset ever built for propaganda identification.

Joining the Datathon in Sofia, Bulgaria

Everyone with the desire to learn in the field of Data Science can participate– be it math geeks, data gurus, and enthusiasts, students and beginners or anyone interested in Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence, Statistics or an area of the Data Science domain.

*Keep in mind that if you are a participant, who wants to join the Datathon physically in Sofia, you should book a ticket Participating in Sofia and
choose Participating at a Host and Onsite in Sofia, Bulgaria from the drop-down options of the question – How you are participating at the Datathon? at the registration page.

Online Communication:

The participants may get in touch with the DSS team via the Data.Chat. For the local organization, you may contact @denitsa

If the participants have questions regarding the activities they are advised to use the Data.Chat channels accordingly:

Announcements: #announcements channel
General collaborative channel: #general channel
Technical questions: #issues channel
Local organization channel: #general
Groups where the cases are going to be discussed with industry experts: #nlp_text_mining

These channels are going to be the main place of where you will ask questions to the mentors during the Datathon.

Location:

SofiaLab

3rd floor at Serdika 1, 1000

Sofia, Bulgaria (Map)

Logistics and onsite management:

Denitsa Yordanova, DataChat username: @denitsa

Local Schedule:

Day 1 Friday (Jan 25)

7:00 pm: Meet & Greet fellow data enthusiasts / Door Opens

7:30 pm – 8:15 pm: Official Opening

9:00 pm: Team article Deadline

Day 2 Saturday (Jan 26)

11 am-12 pm: Case Q&A with Industry Experts (online)

18 pm: The test set is uploaded

Day 3 Sunday (Jan 27)

5 pm: Deadline to upload a final version of your article

7 pm: Finalists Announcements

Finals Tuesday (Jan 29)

7 pm-9:15 pm: Finals: best solutions presentations & winners announcement (Please, book your place if you are a guest in Sofia)

*Please note that this is a 48 hours event and teams will be working throughout Friday, Saturday and Sunday night. Access will be controlled limited in the hours between 8:00 PM and 8:00 AM. We provide coffee, tea, and snacks.

** If you have any questions, please refer to the General rules for participation and ask in the respective channel in the Data.Chat.