We are pleased to announce a new international prediction competition "When will the cherry trees bloom?" Compete for prizes of up to $5,000 and help scientists better understand the impacts of climate change! The competition is open to all.
The competition organizers will provide all the publicly available data on the bloom date of cherry trees they can find. Competitors will use this data, in combination with any other publicly available data, to create reproducible predictions of the bloom
dates at four locations around the globe.
The competition is open throughout February 2022 and aims for all statisticians and data scientists, from experts to students just beginning to use statistical software. Complete submissions include a short narrative and a link to a publicly accessible Git
repository.
For complete details or to contact the organizers, please visit
https://competition.statistics.gmu.edu. A recording of the kickoff event is available on the competition website.
A big thanks to the American Statistical Association, Caucus for Women in Statistics, and George Mason University's Department of Statistics for their support, and partnerships with the International Society of Biometeorology, MeteoSwiss, USA National Phenology
Network, and the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival-as well as Mason's Institute for a Sustainable Earth, Institute for Digital InnovAtion (with a capital A)
and the Department of Modern and Classical Languages. Sponsors and partners will be updated on the website.
Organizers: Jonathan Auerbach and David Kepplinger (George Mason University) and Elizabeth Wolkovich (University of British Columbia)
