FLICKR, SHAURYParticipants in a Department of Defense competition aimed at improving detection of bioterrorism threats using DNA sequencing analysis say that the contest was poorly organized and scored, ScienceInsider reported.
Researchers were offered a $1 million prize for identifying the genetic code of individual species within masses of raw DNA sequence data, with the ultimate goal of creating better tools for detecting dangerous organisms. In the end, 103 groups or individuals submitted work. Of those, three teams have made the final round. However, participants complain that the rules of the contest and its scoring encouraged researchers to manipulate programs to fit opaque scoring rubrics.
Participants were scored on a 0-to-100 scale and were allowed to submit their programs multiple times to check their scores. “We spent the last month trying to get the [scoring] algorithm to tell us that we’ve done well, instead of actually doing the proper science to produce a good result,” David ...
