RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., USA, March 14, 2017 – The Analytics Society of
INFORMS®, a flagship community of the leading international association for professionals in operations research and analytics, has selected the competition finalists for the 2017
Syngenta Crop Challenge in Analytics. The Crop Challenge tasks participants to apply analytics to develop a model that predicts which soybean seed varieties are more likely to be chosen by farmers in a growing region.
“After multiple rounds of evaluation, the prize committee has selected five excellent submissions for this year's Syngenta Crop Challenge in Analytics award. This competition clearly demonstrated that innovations in the agriculture industry can come from creative problem solvers anywhere in the world,” said Robin Lougee, research industry lead at IBM Research and committee chair of the Crop Challenge prize committee.
The competition aims to address the problem of world hunger and food insecurity by fueling innovation in the application of advanced analytics in biochemistry and agriculture.
The finalists are:
- A Decision Making Approach for Soy Seed Variety Selection via Hedging Against Weather Risk – Zhongshun Shi, Yu Zhao, Xi Zhang and Leyuan Shi, Peking University, China
- A Hierarchical-Ensemble of Machineries to Optimize the Choice of Soybean Varieties – Durai Sundaramoorthi, Lingxiu Dong, Iva Rashkova and Piruthiviraj Sivaraj, Washington University in St. Louis, St. Louis, Missouri
- Portfolio Optimization for Seed Selection in Diverse Weather Scenarios – Oskar Marko, Sanja Brdar, Marko Panic, Isidora Šašic, Milivoje Kneževic, Danica Despotovic, Vladmir Crnojevic and Zorana Djindjica, University of Novi Sad, Serbia
- Seed Stocking Via Multi-Task Learning – Yunhe Feng and Wenjun Zhou, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Tennessee
- Soybean Portfolio Selection with LASSO Model Averaging and Integer Linear Programming – Benjamin Harlander and Taylor Thiel, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois
These finalists will make their presentations Monday, April 3, 2017, at the INFORMS Analytics Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada. Their entries will be evaluated based on the rigor and validity of the process used to determine seed varieties, the quality of the proposed solution, and the finalists’ ability to clearly articulate the solution and its methodology. The winners will be announced following the presentations. The first place winner of the Syngenta Crop Challenge will be awarded $5,000; the runner up will receive $2,500; and the third place entry will receive $1,000.
Syngenta, an
award winning company for its innovation in plant analytics, is proud to support this competition hosted by the Analytics Society of INFORMS. As the recipient of the 2015 INFORMS Franz Edelman Award for its innovations in the use of analytics for seed breeding, Syngenta donated the prize money in support of this challenge.
“The quality of submissions received from this competition underscores the level of excellence that participants from outside the industry can bring to this field,” said
Joseph Byrum, Ph.D., MBA, PMP, senior R&D strategic marketing executive with Syngenta and Syngenta lead for the Crop Challenge committee. “We are so excited to see the value that new ideas in analytics bring to increasing efficiency and productivity in seed breeding.”
Serving on the Syngenta Crop Challenge Prize Committee are:
- Committee Chair: Robin Lougee, Research Industry Lead, Consumer Products & Agriculture, IBM Research
- William Beavis, GF Sprague Chair of Population and Quantitative Genetics, Iowa State University
- Joseph Byrum, Senior R&D and Strategic Marketing Executive in Life Sciences – Global Product Development, Innovation and Delivery, Syngenta
- Arnie Greenland, CAP, Decision, Operations & Information Technologies, University of Maryland
- Claudia Perlich, Chief Scientist, Dstillery (formerly Media6Degrees)
- Alexander Platt, Center for Computational Genetics and Genomics, Temple University
- Stein Wallace, Department of Business and Management Science, The Norwegian School of Economics
- Jim Williams, CAP, Principal Consultant, Xpress Optimization at FICO, Past-President of the Analytics Society of INFORMS
More details about the Syngenta Crop Challenge competition can be found at
www.ideaconnection.com/syngenta-crop-challenge. Join the conversation online – connect with us at
social.syngentaUS.com.
About Syngenta
Syngenta is a leading agriculture company helping to improve global food security by enabling millions of farmers to make better use of available resources. Through world class science and innovative crop solutions, our 28,000 people in over 90 countries are working to transform how crops are grown. We are committed to rescuing land from degradation, enhancing biodiversity and revitalizing rural communities. To learn more visit
www.syngenta.com and
www.goodgrowthplan.com. Follow us on X at
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www.twitter.com/SyngentaUS.
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