NUST MISIS and Cognitive Technologies announces VisionHack 2017 hackathon

August 8, 2017 - From September 11th- 13th in Moscow, NUST MISIS and Cognitive Technologies will hold the first university hackathon on artificial intelligence and computer vision with an available prize fund of more than $30,000. Teams from MIT (USA), the University of Cambridge (Great Britain), ASU (USA), the University of Science and Technology Beijing (P.R. China), UPC (Spain), and leading Russian universities have already announced their plans to participate in the hackathon.

NUST MISIS, one of Russia`s leading technological universities, and Cognitive Technologies, a company which develops artificial intelligence systems for unmanned vehicles, will jointly organize VisionHack 2017.

More than 30 teams from world leading universities such as MIT (USA), the University of Cambridge (Great Britain), ASU (USA), Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (P.R. China), University Paris-Saclay (France), the University of Science and Technology Beijing (P.R. China), and UPC (Spain) have announced their participation in the hackathon. The total number of hackathon participants is about 150 people, and the prize fund exceeds $30,000, which is a record for such an event.

Computer vision in application of practical tasks for the driving of unmanned vehicles, which is currently one of the most relevant and popular directions of artificial intelligence, has become the competition`s main theme. The participants’ aim will be to create their own intellectual subsystem for driver assistance and ADAS (advanced driver assistance system) capable of automatically detecting various events on the road (small circumstances, which sometimes seriously affect traffic safety) such as: a car stopped in the middle of the street with its hazard lights on; a dog or small child about to cross the street; the sun shining on a turn and blinding a driver, etc.

Participants will be given a large array of data — several hundred 10-second videos, which will show different road situations and problems.
“Participants will have to solve real and significant practical issues of computer vision for unmanned vehicles. We hope that the intelligent subsystems developed by participants will be included in the ADAS product lines, and will be able to significantly improve road safety, as well as to provide drivers with the necessary level of comfort. We are sure that the hackathon winners will be able to increase their value as specialist-professionals of the highest class, for whom doors to the world`s leading AI development companies are open”, said Olga Uskova, president of the Cognitive Technologies group.

The winner of the hackathon will be the team which provides the most accurate and comprehensive solution to the set of proposed road situations. Additionally, the organizers will prepare secondary prizes for qualitative decisions on specific developments.

VisionHack will be held in 2 rounds: the preliminary selection stage, from July 13th to 31st, where participants will be asked to solve test tasks. The best teams will be invited to participate in the on-site competition. Both individuals and teams (3-5 people) can register. The panel of judges will include world-famous specialists in the field of IT and artificial intelligence, business representatives, venture funds, and development institutions.

The event will be held at the NUST MISIS Commune House, an architectural monument designed in the constructivism era.

An extensive educational program and meetings with prominent representatives of the IT field (especially in the field of unmanned vehicles) will be organized for the hackathon. Top managers of Russian and international companies will act as mentors and lecturers at the event.

Detailed information on VisionHack can be viewed here http://visionhack.misis.ru/.

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