This section is intended to help answer some of the more common questions. For specific enquiries, please use the Contact Us form and we'll get back to you soonest.
1. How do I register?
2. How many competition rounds/phases are there?
3. When does registration close?
4. What is the maximum number of members on one team?
5. Are there any restrictions on the locations or the nationalities of team members?
6. Can an individual take part in this competition?
7. What do the search tasks involve?
8. When will the Preliminary Round take place?
9. When and where will the Grand Final be held?
10. What can I expect in the Grand Final?
11. How many challenges are there in the Grand Final?
12. Who owns the IP created by participants while competing in the Star Challenge?
13. What kind of tasks can be expected during the competition? Any technical details?
14. Does a team need to work on both audio and video tasks?
15. When will the training sets be provided for AT1 and AT2?
16. In what format will training data be provided for AT1?
17. Will AT1 be a multi-speaker conversation?
18. In AT1, what does it mean by "regardless of spoken language" Does it mean regardless of accent or does it mean altogether different language?
19. Will a phonetic converter be provided for the audio tasks?
20. Will there be any audio/video processing tools provided? In what format will raw data be provided?
21. Where will the first round be held?
22. What language is to be used for the algorithms?
23. What will be the languages that we will have to process?
24. Which will be the language for the mono-lingual rounds?
25. Which subset of the International Phonetic Alphabet will be used?
26. Will we get development data and associated transcriptions?
27. Will we get queries and answers to them for development?
1. How do I register?
Registration is via the website www.thestarchallenge.sg. Once registration has been confirmed via email, participants will receive a User ID, password and other necessary information. Teams will also receive information about the themes on which the actual search tasks will be based.
2. How many competition rounds/phases are there?
There are two competitive phases: the Preliminary Round and the Grand Final (provided the individual or team makes it past the preliminary round).
3. When does registration close?
Please apply via the website at www.thestarchallenge.sg by 31 March 2008. Received applications will be acknowledged via email.
4. What is the maximum number of members on one team?
Each team may comprise a maximum of 10 members.
5. Are there any restrictions on the locations or the nationalities of team members?
No. There are no restrictions on citizenship or the locations of team members.
6. Can an individual take part in this competition?
Yes, this competition is open to any individual or team not exceeding 10 members.
7. What do the search tasks involve?
This competition comprises Search-Tasks that must be solved using new or customized software tools with possibly some human intervention. The teams must create suitable algorithms to search different types of media (voice, video) for specific characteristics, objects, events etc. Depending on the task, the team will create and use corresponding software and return the result.
8. When will the Preliminary Round take place?
The Preliminary Round will take place from 1 April to 23 August 2008. There will be 3 knockout rounds between all teams. Teams must participate in the knockout rounds to prevent elimination. The knockout rounds will be followed by a Qualifying Race, from which the top 5 teams will be selected for the Grand Final.
9. When and where will the Grand Final be held?
The Grand Final will be held in Singapore on 23 October 2008. The top 5 teams chosen from the Preliminary Round will compete in Singapore.
10. What can I expect in the Grand Final?
In the Grand Final, teams will race from one virtual checkpoint to the next. At each checkpoint, teams have to successfully overcome a Challenge to obtain a clue to the location of the next checkpoint.
11. How many challenges are there in the Grand Final?
The Grand Final will comprise 4 checkpoints/challenges. The team that reaches the final destination first after successfully overcoming all four challenges wins.
12. Who owns the IP created by participants while competing in the Star Challenge?
The creator of IP, owns the IP. So if the participating team creates anything new, they automatically own it.
13. What kind of tasks can be expected during the competition? Any technical details?
Please refer to the Competition Tasks for details on types of tasks.
14. Does a team need to work on both audio and video tasks?
Yes, depending on the round, a team may need to work on both audio and video tasks. Both are required to succeed in the competition. Over the course of a round, a challenge may not involve all sub-tasks. But a team should have the strategy and knowledge to address all 6 types of sub-tasks i.e. both voice and video. Please refer to the Competition Tasks & White Paper for more details.
15. When will the training sets be provided for AT1 and AT2?
Training sets will be provided on April 15.
16. In what format will training data be provided for AT1?
Training data will be in .wav (format) files.
17. Will AT1 be a multi-speaker conversation?
AT1 may have multi-speaker conversation (interviews are considered multi-speaker too).
18. In AT1, what does it mean by "regardless of spoken language" Does it mean regardless of accent or does it mean altogether different language?
It means altogether different language (regardless of accent).
19. Will a phonetic converter be provided for the audio tasks?
The participants can define their own phonetic definition and phonetic converter. However, in the query-by-IPA task, the queries will be given in the format of International Phonetic Alphabet. The organizer will not provide any phonetic conversion facilities.
20. Will there be any audio/video processing tools provided? In what format will raw data be provided?
Raw data will be provided in MPEG1 format. No tools will be provided.
21. Where will the first round be held?
For all rounds except the Grand Finals the teams are allowed to be at any physical location of their choice. Data and queries will be provided via courier and on the website respectively.
22. What language is to be used for the algorithms?
The competition does not specify any specific language. The participants are free to choose any language of their choice.
23. What will be the languages that we will have to process?
The languages that you have to process are mostly South-east Asian languages, including English. The Star Challenge would like to encourage IPA-based phoneme search. Therefore, the committee decides not to disclose the list of languages.
24. Which will be the language for the mono-lingual rounds?
The language for the mono-lingual rounds will be English.
25. Which subset of the International Phonetic Alphabet will be used?
The subset of the IPA to be used will be released together with the development data.
26. Will we get development data and associated transcriptions?
Only audio data (without transcriptions) will be released.
27. Will we get queries and answers to them for development?
Yes.
1. How do I register?
2. How many competition rounds/phases are there?
3. When does registration close?
4. What is the maximum number of members on one team?
5. Are there any restrictions on the locations or the nationalities of team members?
6. Can an individual take part in this competition?
7. What do the search tasks involve?
8. When will the Preliminary Round take place?
9. When and where will the Grand Final be held?
10. What can I expect in the Grand Final?
11. How many challenges are there in the Grand Final?
12. Who owns the IP created by participants while competing in the Star Challenge?
13. What kind of tasks can be expected during the competition? Any technical details?
14. Does a team need to work on both audio and video tasks?
15. When will the training sets be provided for AT1 and AT2?
16. In what format will training data be provided for AT1?
17. Will AT1 be a multi-speaker conversation?
18. In AT1, what does it mean by "regardless of spoken language" Does it mean regardless of accent or does it mean altogether different language?
19. Will a phonetic converter be provided for the audio tasks?
20. Will there be any audio/video processing tools provided? In what format will raw data be provided?
21. Where will the first round be held?
22. What language is to be used for the algorithms?
23. What will be the languages that we will have to process?
24. Which will be the language for the mono-lingual rounds?
25. Which subset of the International Phonetic Alphabet will be used?
26. Will we get development data and associated transcriptions?
27. Will we get queries and answers to them for development?
1. How do I register?
Registration is via the website www.thestarchallenge.sg. Once registration has been confirmed via email, participants will receive a User ID, password and other necessary information. Teams will also receive information about the themes on which the actual search tasks will be based.
2. How many competition rounds/phases are there?
There are two competitive phases: the Preliminary Round and the Grand Final (provided the individual or team makes it past the preliminary round).
3. When does registration close?
Please apply via the website at www.thestarchallenge.sg by 31 March 2008. Received applications will be acknowledged via email.
4. What is the maximum number of members on one team?
Each team may comprise a maximum of 10 members.
5. Are there any restrictions on the locations or the nationalities of team members?
No. There are no restrictions on citizenship or the locations of team members.
6. Can an individual take part in this competition?
Yes, this competition is open to any individual or team not exceeding 10 members.
7. What do the search tasks involve?
This competition comprises Search-Tasks that must be solved using new or customized software tools with possibly some human intervention. The teams must create suitable algorithms to search different types of media (voice, video) for specific characteristics, objects, events etc. Depending on the task, the team will create and use corresponding software and return the result.
8. When will the Preliminary Round take place?
The Preliminary Round will take place from 1 April to 23 August 2008. There will be 3 knockout rounds between all teams. Teams must participate in the knockout rounds to prevent elimination. The knockout rounds will be followed by a Qualifying Race, from which the top 5 teams will be selected for the Grand Final.
9. When and where will the Grand Final be held?
The Grand Final will be held in Singapore on 23 October 2008. The top 5 teams chosen from the Preliminary Round will compete in Singapore.
10. What can I expect in the Grand Final?
In the Grand Final, teams will race from one virtual checkpoint to the next. At each checkpoint, teams have to successfully overcome a Challenge to obtain a clue to the location of the next checkpoint.
11. How many challenges are there in the Grand Final?
The Grand Final will comprise 4 checkpoints/challenges. The team that reaches the final destination first after successfully overcoming all four challenges wins.
12. Who owns the IP created by participants while competing in the Star Challenge?
The creator of IP, owns the IP. So if the participating team creates anything new, they automatically own it.
13. What kind of tasks can be expected during the competition? Any technical details?
Please refer to the Competition Tasks for details on types of tasks.
14. Does a team need to work on both audio and video tasks?
Yes, depending on the round, a team may need to work on both audio and video tasks. Both are required to succeed in the competition. Over the course of a round, a challenge may not involve all sub-tasks. But a team should have the strategy and knowledge to address all 6 types of sub-tasks i.e. both voice and video. Please refer to the Competition Tasks & White Paper for more details.
15. When will the training sets be provided for AT1 and AT2?
Training sets will be provided on April 15.
16. In what format will training data be provided for AT1?
Training data will be in .wav (format) files.
17. Will AT1 be a multi-speaker conversation?
AT1 may have multi-speaker conversation (interviews are considered multi-speaker too).
18. In AT1, what does it mean by "regardless of spoken language" Does it mean regardless of accent or does it mean altogether different language?
It means altogether different language (regardless of accent).
19. Will a phonetic converter be provided for the audio tasks?
The participants can define their own phonetic definition and phonetic converter. However, in the query-by-IPA task, the queries will be given in the format of International Phonetic Alphabet. The organizer will not provide any phonetic conversion facilities.
20. Will there be any audio/video processing tools provided? In what format will raw data be provided?
Raw data will be provided in MPEG1 format. No tools will be provided.
21. Where will the first round be held?
For all rounds except the Grand Finals the teams are allowed to be at any physical location of their choice. Data and queries will be provided via courier and on the website respectively.
22. What language is to be used for the algorithms?
The competition does not specify any specific language. The participants are free to choose any language of their choice.
23. What will be the languages that we will have to process?
The languages that you have to process are mostly South-east Asian languages, including English. The Star Challenge would like to encourage IPA-based phoneme search. Therefore, the committee decides not to disclose the list of languages.
24. Which will be the language for the mono-lingual rounds?
The language for the mono-lingual rounds will be English.
25. Which subset of the International Phonetic Alphabet will be used?
The subset of the IPA to be used will be released together with the development data.
26. Will we get development data and associated transcriptions?
Only audio data (without transcriptions) will be released.
27. Will we get queries and answers to them for development?
Yes.
