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Konstantinos Vougas was at the top of the leader-board for the InnoCentive's first Prodigy Challenge, The Predictive Data Analysis Challenge.
The Prodigy is a Solution Test Tool that provides rapid feedback to Solvers and displays the performance of the top ten performing Solvers found since the Challenge has been posted. We have asked Konstantin to share his experience with working on this new Challenge type in particular and on InnoCentive in general.
Hello Konstantin. Thank you for taking the time to talk to us about working on the first Prodigy Challenge. Just so we have a bit of background, can you tell us how learned about InnoCentive and what made you become an InnoCentive Solver?
I am always on the lookout for new opportunities in the field of science and I am attracted to the internet as a means of communication. Therefore, as soon as I discovered InnoCentive from a Google search, I knew that this was for me. What InnoCentive does is globalize R&D and I think that's great.
Have you worked on any Challenges prior to the Predictive Data Analysis Challenge? If so, can you tell us about them?
Although I have been checking on the challenges posted on InnoCentive for the past couple of years, the Prodigy Challenge was the very first challenge I decided to undertake and formally submit a solution. I guessed I jumped straight into the middle of the ocean...
What attracted you to the Prodigy Challenge?
Ever since I was a child I had a soft spot for scripting, mathematics and challenging problems. As soon as I read the details of the challenge it instantly fit my criteria. This Challenge had a huge dataset, with more than a million features out of which only a few carried the information (or part of it) needed for a good prediction, buried within experimental noise, missed measurements and small number of observations sounded just about right, I just couldn't say no.
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