Background

The big data competition has been jointly organized by the International Knowledge Centre for Engineering Sciences and Technology under the auspices of UNESCO (IKCEST), the China Knowledge Centre for Engineering Sciences and Technology (CKCEST), Baidu, and Xi’an Jiaotong University. The contest is under the instruction of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, the Ministry of Education’s Teaching & Learning Advisory Committee for the University Computer Curriculum in Institutions of Higher Education, and the Universities Alliance of the Silk Road. With such contest in the global big data and artificial intelligence sector, we aims at identifying top talent, particularly talented individuals from “The Belt and Road” countries, in an effort to help the government, industry, and higher education institutions jointly drive the research, application, and development of the big data industry, thereby consolidating the contest’s theoretical and practical foundations and accelerating the cultivation of innovative AI talent.

Topic: Real-time Environment Perception Based on On-board Image

Real-time environment perception is an important part of the intelligent driving system. It is critical to detect targets based on on-board images and help the assisted driving system with efficient decision-making and control. Combined with terminal rendering and voice technology, real-time environment perception also provides more intelligent and accurate navigation (such as AR navigation, etc.). Baidu map provides the datasets for this competition. Contestants are required to modeling for identifying the key movable targets, traffic signs, and lane lines in real time. We hope to give full play of the talents of global contestants and romote the development of intelligent driving technology through this competition.

Schedule settings

The contest is divided into three stages: preliminary, semi-final and final. (Registration time:May 28th, 2021 -July 25th, 2021)

Preliminary Round (May 28th, 2021 -July 25th, 2021)

1）May 28th – The data is available for download,the pre-registration is available.

2）June 10 th–The baseline is available for download, the competition will be officially launched.

3）June 28th – The online evaluation of stage A is available. Each team may submit up to 3 times per day and the leaderboard is updated daily in real time.

4）July 25th – The end of the preliminary round. The top 100 ranking teams in the preliminary round will enter the semi-final round (This number will increase or decrease based on the actual situation. The list of semi-finalists shall be determined by the organizers in time). 

5） Free high-performance GPU computing power support
The PaddlePaddle Open Source Deep Learning Platform will be available in the preliminary round. Contestants can log into Baidu Brain AI studio to activate a 100-hour Tesla V100 GPU computing power card (worth 1,000 RMB) for free provided by the Organizational Committee.
Application address for the computing power code:
https://aistudio.baidu.com/aistudio/questionnaire?activityid=844

Semi-Final Round (August 1st, 2021 - August 31st, 2021)

1）August 1st – The data will be available for download.

2）August 3rd – TThe online evaluation opens. Each team is allowed 2 evaluation opportunities per day and the rankings are updated daily in real time.

3）August 31th – End of the semi-final round. The semi-finalists shall submit their files and codes in time as required

4）September 8th – The finalists will be announced. The top 16 ranking teams from the semi-final round will enter the final round (May increase or decrease based on the actual situation. The list of finalists will be determined by the organizers in time).

Final Round and Award Ceremony (October 2021. See the notice for details.)

The final round will be held in the form of an on-site defense session, and its location will be determined at a later date.

Registration and Evaluation

01 Qualified Participants

1、Qualified Contestants: the contest is open to all institutes of higher learning, scientific research organizations, businesses, creative teams and individuals around the world. Each team shall have 1-5 members including at least one current student. Please register to form a team on the official website of the contest.

2、Instructing Teacher: each team can be instructed by 0-2 teachers. Please register and form a team on the official website of the contest and register the identity as the team’s "teacher".
Note: Individuals affiliated with the Baidu Contest Proposition Team are not allowed to participate in the contest. The ultimate power of interpretation is reserved by the Contest Organizing Committee.

02 Registration Matters

1、Application Time: May 28th – July 25th, 2021.

2、Official Contest Website: http://www.ikcest.org/bigdata2021 The registration and application of contestants and instructing teachers should be completed before the registration deadline. After the deadline, no teams may be formed or merged.

3、The official contest communication channel: please join the QQ Contest Communication Group after applying:1045750018 (Please indicate the name of your team for evaluation and approval by the administrator).

4、Please create your own team name and ensure it contains no indecent or misleading words, such as "Baseline", "official", the names of a famous enterprise, etc. Please fill in your team name carefully.

5、To ensure the fairness of the contest, each contestant can only join one team, and an instructing teacher can only be assigned to one team.

6、The information filled out on the application must be accurate and valid, otherwise the team’s qualification or any awards granted will be withdrawn.

03 Evaluation Process

1、Time: The rating system will be up and running from June 28th. Each team is allowed 5 evaluation opportunities per day and the ranking list will be updated in real time;

2、Evaluation method: All submissions are automatically rated by the system with judges verifying the results;

3、Semi-final and final scores account for 90% and 10% of the total score separately.

Prize setting(Pre-Tax) Bonus Totaling 200,000 RMB

International Special Award：1 team/RMB 100,000/and an award certificate

International First Prize:2 teams/RMB 30,000 each/and an award certificate

International Second Prize:3 teams/RMB 10,000 each/and an award certificate

International Third Prize:10 teams/RMB 1,000 each/and an award certificate

International Excellence Award:The top 90% of ranking teams in the semi-finals will earn an award certificate showing the international award ranking

Excellent Instructor Award:Instructors of the top 90% ranking teams in the semi-finals will earn “Excellent Instructor” certificates

Baidu's Campus Recruitment Green Channel:The finalists (fresh graduates only) will have the opportunity to directly enter the Baidu's campus recruitment interview (without written test). Contestants who entering the semi-finals will gain access to Baidu's green channel for internal recommendations and non-fresh graduates can hold this opportunity for up to two years.