International Prediction Competition Asks, ‘When Will the Cherry Trees Bloom?’

The first-ever international prediction competition, “When Will the Cherry Trees Bloom?”, is open throughout February for all statisticians and data scientists, from experts to students just beginning to use statistical software. Complete submissions include a short narrative and a link to a publicly accessible Git repository.

Compete for prizes of up to $5,000 and help scientists better understand the impacts of climate change.

The competition organizers will provide all the publicly available data they can find on the bloom date of cherry trees. Competitors will use this data, in combination with any other publicly available data, to create reproducible predictions of the bloom dates at four locations around the globe.

For details, visit the competition website. A kickoff event is scheduled to take place in early February.

Sponsors include the American Statistical Association, Caucus for Women in Statistics, and George Mason University’s Department of Statistics and Institute for Digital InnovAtion. Partners include the International Society of Biometeorology, MeteoSwiss, USA National Phenology Network, and the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival—as well as George Mason’s Institute for a Sustainable Earth and department of modern and classical languages.