The 2018 Smoky Mountains Computational Sciences and Engineering Conference (SMC'18) is currently accepting teams to participate in its 2nd Annual Data Challenge.

This contest is open to students, faculty, and industry professionals who are interested in performing novel analysis on real scientific data sets. Teams of one to four people may participate.

Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) data sponsors will provide teams with actual scientific data sets to explore 3 to 5 related challenge questions. The challenge questions for each data set will cover multiple difficulty levels, with the first question in each challenge being suitable for a novice, and each question thereafter increasing in difficultly, with the series of questions ending with an advanced/expert level challenge question. The top teams will be invited to attend SMC18 in Gatlinburg, TN where they will present their work and the winner will be crowned. Registration is open until June 22 and the competition ends July 31 (submissions are due by 5:00 p.m. Eastern on July 31).

The Data Challenge is intended to draw scientists and researchers who may be at the beginning stages of incorporating data analytics into their workflow, to data analytics experts who are interested in applying novel techniques to data sets of national importance.

To register, or for more information, visit the website at https://smc-datachallenge.ornl.gov.