Years and years ago, when I first heard about Kaggle, a then-independent web site for developing data science / machine learning skills, I enjoyed messing about. Without formal training or the free time to work on algorithms, I never did much more than play with their Titanic survivor challenge, but it was fun.
Nowadays, I get mail like this:
The Connectivity Map, a project within the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, together with the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard (LISH) brings this challenge to you with the goal to improve existing algorithms for drug development by looking at a cell’s Mechanism of Action (MoA).
In this competition, you will have access to a unique dataset that combines gene expression and cell viability data. The data is based on a new technology that measures human cells’ responses to drugs in a pool of 100 different cell types. If successful, you’ll develop an algorithm to predict a compound’s MoA given its cellular signature; thus helping scientists advance the drug discovery process.
Prizes
$30,000 – Total prize pool
Maybe I’m profoundly ignorant, but, quite honestly, improving or replacing those algorithms could lead to millions or even billions of dollars in profits, years down the road.
And a $30,000 prize pool seems cheap in comparison.
I think it’d be far more fair if Kaggle, or the sponsors of the competition, guaranteed the winners a part of the action. Probably some percentage of revenue generated by their work, if that’s measurable.
Although, honestly, it also sounds like a wellspring of lawsuits.
But the entire competition, as it sits now, feels like a scam.
