Professional Track

AI meets Finance

In the data analysis competition of the Cognitive Systems Lab (University of Bremen), participants will try to develop the best model throughout March and will be rewarded with attractive material prizes.

The Professional Track is aimed at alumni and early-career researchers (WiMis) of the University of Bremen, as well as sponsors and supporters.

News

Attendance Confirmation Requested

The prize award ceremony is coming up soon!

To help us with planning, please let us know if you’ll be attending by filling out this form:

Attendance form

Event Day

The BBDC Event Day will take place on May 23, 2025, at the Campus Space of Sparkasse Bremen. It will include interactive sessions, exciting lectures, and, of course, the award ceremonies for all tracks

Q&A session

When? 14.03.25, from 2:00 PM to 3:00 PM (Bremen local time).

Where? Online: Zoom Link

What? Many questions & answers

Who? Participants of all the tracks.

Opening Ceremony

When? 04.03.25 at 2pm (Bremen local time)

Where? Room 0.01 in the Cartesian or online: Zoom Link

What? Introduction mode, task, team formation, and first questions.

Who? Participants of all the tracks.

Discord Server

For questions, exchanges and group inventions: Link.

An exchange of ideas is desired! Plagiarism, on the other hand, is not permitted and leads to disqualification.

Schedule

Event Day Schedule

Participation

Sign Up Info

The registration of a team takes place via the Abgabesystem
he team name must be at least 3 characters long
For registration, the following details must be provided for all team members:
- Full Name
- Affiliation
- Personal E-Mail-Address
If you encounter any issues with registration or login, you can contact us at bbdc@uni-bremen.de.

Task Files

You can find the task files and more in the login area.
To submit a solution, use the Abgabesystem
Use the login credentials you registered with for this: Teamname and Teampasswort.
There, you can directly upload a text file (in UTF-8 format) that should comply with the format described in the task description.
Otherwise, it will be considered invalid, and you will receive an appropriate error message
For a valid submission, you will see the score for this and all previous submissions
The leaderboard, on the other hand, is based only on your best submission.

Submission Attempts

The number of submission attempts is limited.
At the beginning of each week of the challenge (i.e., on March 1st, March 8th, March 15th, etc.), you will receive 3 new submission attempts, which you can also save up over several weeks.
If you have used up all your attempts, you will not be able to make any further submissions until the beginning of the next challenge week.
An invalid submission does not consume a token. If you join the challenge later, you will still have all the attempts from the previous week available (i.e., if you register on March 9th, you will immediately have 6 attempts).

Conditions for Professional Track

Eligible to participate in the Professional Track are:

All those eligible to participate in the Student Track
All employees of the sponsors
All employees of the supporters
All alumni of the University of Bremen
All staff members of the University of Bremen
For the award ceremony, each winner must provide an informal confirmation from their employer or an enrollment certificate for the duration of the challenge.
Individuals and teams of up to 3 members are allowed to participate (hereinafter, the term 'team' also refers to individuals). Each person may only participate in one team. Consent to the confidentiality agreement (regarding the provided data) is required for each participant. This declaration is given before the competition by agreeing with a checkbox during registration and is digitally stored.
Individuals who, in the course of their activities (e.g., thesis, student assistant position, or employment), have access to the explicit task description or data of one of the tracks are excluded from participation. Similarly, any violation of the terms and conditions will result in the exclusion of the team from the competition.
Exchange of ideas and cooperation between teams is allowed and desired. It is also permitted to use related data sources, but any use of the exact solution data (data with which the submissions are evaluated), regardless of whether it is received or used, is prohibited.
To determine the winners, the prediction error of each submitted solution will be calculated according to the criteria described in the task description. All submitted solutions will be sorted in ascending order based on this error measure. In case of a tie, an expert jury will decide. The team ranked first on this list wins the Professional Track. Other positions may also win prizes. The winners will be notified by email after the end of the challenge.
We reserve the right to only accept solutions that can be fully traced for examination. In addition to the actual program, this also includes the libraries used and the additional data sources that have been used beyond the data provided. Incomprehensible submissions and suspicions of plagiarism are reviewed by an independent jury of experts, which can pronounce an exclusion.

Prizes

1. Platz:

Individuelle Trophäe, Hoodie/T-Shirt & Sachpreise

2-5. Platz:

Medaille, Hoodie/T-Shirt & Sachpreise

5-30. Platz:

T--Shirts & Sachpreise

We also provide each participant with a certificate of participation upon request.

Leaderboard

FAQ

How can participate?

In the Professional Track: All students in their Bachelor's or Master's programs. All employees of the sponsors and supporters, as well as university staff and alumni of the University of Bremen. More info: Terms of participation

How do I participate?

Either individually or in a team of up to 3 people.

When do I sign up?

From February 1st to March 31st, via the submission system. Even with later registration, the full number of tokens will be available.

What can you win?

See Prizes

Was bringt mir das?

We issue certificates of participation upon request, which can be a great addition to your CV. For requests, please contact us via email at bbdc@uni-bremen.de.

What are the requirements?

No prior experience in the field of Big Data is required for participation. However, solid programming skills in any programming language are expected.

When is the challenge?

Die Challenge findet vom 01.03 bis 31.03 jahrlich statt.

Interested?

Then simply subscribe to the newsletter by sending a blank email to bbdc-join@mailman.zfn.uni-bremen.de send. Unsubscribe via bbdc-leave@mailman.zfn.uni-bremen.de.

From the network of the University of Bremen, the Newsletter Link can be used.

Questions?

The just send an email to bbdc@uni-bremen.de or ask on out Discord Server.

Privacy Notice

All personal data collected as part of the competition (name, email address, and university or employer of the participants, as well as IP addresses) will only be processed and stored within the University of Bremen and solely for the purposes of the competition. The names of the competition winners will be published with their consent