Challenge design roadmap

TL;DR

This paper offers guidelines for designing effective challenges that motivate participation, solve real-world problems, and advance scientific goals, emphasizing the importance of thorough planning and peer review.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive roadmap for challenge design, integrating best practices from leading organizations and emphasizing the importance of rigorous planning and evaluation.

Findings

Guidelines for creating impactful challenge plans

Importance of peer review in challenge quality assurance

Strategies for aligning challenge objectives with scientific and societal goals

Abstract

Challenges can be seen as a type of game that motivates participants to solve serious tasks. As a result, competition organizers must develop effective game rules. However, these rules have multiple objectives beyond making the game enjoyable for participants. These objectives may include solving real-world problems, advancing scientific or technical areas, making scientific discoveries, and educating the public. In many ways, creating a challenge is similar to launching a product. It requires the same level of excitement and rigorous testing, and the goal is to attract ''customers'' in the form of participants. The process begins with a solid plan, such as a competition proposal that will eventually be submitted to an international conference and subjected to peer review. Although peer review does not guarantee quality, it does force organizers to consider the impact of their challenge, identify potential oversights, and generally improve its quality. This chapter provides guidelines for creating a strong plan for a challenge. The material draws on the preparation guidelines from organizations such as Kaggle 1 , ChaLearn 2 and Tailor 3 , as well as the NeurIPS proposal template, which some of the authors contributed to.