HackerEarth

Machine learning at HackerEarth

Even though machine learning (ML) is a new wing at HackerEarth, this is the fastest growing unit in the company. Also, over the past year, we have grown to a community of 200K+ machine learning and data science enthusiasts. We have conducted 50+ challenges across sectors with an average of 6500+ people participating in each.

Machine learning challenge, ML challenge

The initiative

The “Machine Learning Challenges for Social Good” initiative is focused toward bringing interesting real-world data problems faced by nonprofits and governmental and non-governmental organizations to the machine learning and data science community’s notice. This is a win-win for both communities because the nonprofits and governmental and non-governmental organizations get their challenges addressed, and the machine learning and data science community gets to hone their skills while being agents of change.

Our role

HackerEarth will contribute by

Working with the organizations to identify and prepare the data set most suitable for the initiative

Hosting the challenge which includes the following (but not limited to)

Creating a problem statement with the given dataset
Finding support data sets if required
Framing the best evaluation metric to choose the winners

Promoting this to our developer community and inviting programmers to contribute to the cause

Sharing the winning approaches and ML models built, which the organizations can use

Sponsoring prizes

Are you a nonprofit or a governmental/non-governmental organization with a business/social problem for which primary or secondary data is available? If yes, please mail us at

social@hackerearth.com

[Please use subject line “Reg: Machine Learning for Social Good | {Your Organization Name}]

We know you are welcoming 2018 armed with resolutions. It has always been and will continue to be important for us programmers, to stay updated, challenge ourselves, and improve our skills. Don’t give into stagnation and demotivation!

To help you stay on course, we have a list of 5 simple yet effective new year resolutions that you ought to make up as a programmer.

Learn a new programming language
Work on a personal project
Participate in 5 challenges/hackathons
Contribute to open source
Do good with your code

Although we recommend these as a great place to start, no one is stopping you from customizing the list as you see fit to stay vibrant.

1. Learn a new programming language

Instead of asking “why?” ask “why not?.”

Here is a fact: More than 72% job requirements ask for more than 3 programming languages.

This makes it quite clear that becoming a “master of many” is crucial to stay relevant today, as an entire software package is rarely written using just one language anymore. The next obvious question is “Which language do I learn?” The answer is entirely up to you.

If you are a beginner, check out this list of 15 best computer programming languages for beginners. Or, if you already have expertise in a primary language, our recommendation is to try an alternative language type. In other words, if your primary language is procedural [Java, C#, Python, etc.], pick up a functional programming language [R, Haskell, Lisp, etc.] that appeals to you. On the other hand, if the language you know is a functional one, it is high time that you picked up a procedural language.

2. Work on a personal project

We believe there is no need to explain the “Why, how, or which” part of this resolution. But we would just like to remind you that if you are going to keep coding for someone else, you are going to keep doing only that. We know, and, yeah, you know it too that someday you will regret not working on that project of yours and making it open source.

3. Participate in 5 Challenges/Hackathons

There has always been a notion that competitive programming challenges or hackathons do not relate to programming at work. They do, however, enhance your skills as a programmer in their own sweet way. While competitive programming improves your coding efficiency, speed and memory, a hackathon can give you exposure to working like a product owner. There are plenty of other merits too. You can find them here in this list of benefits of participating in competitive programming challenge and hackathons. To hone your coding skills, take part in both online and offline formats for the obvious benefits and the variety they offer.

4. Contribute to open source

This, we believe, is already a part of your new year resolutions year after year. If not, add it to your list today and you will thank us later. The more pressing issue here is how to start if you are a beginner. We recommend that you start fixing bugs and improving relatively simple features first. To learn more, here is a simple guide on how to start with open source.

5. Do good with your code

Lastly, resolve to lend your technical skills to make the world a better place. You can do your bit to give back to the society by contributing your ideas and coding skills to solve a pain point faced by the masses. This is easier said than done.

The issue here is “How to find good social impact projects to work on?” This is where we come into the picture. This year at HackerEarth, we have taken a pledge to make a small contribution to improve the lives of people out there in small steps. We intend to find high social impact projects and bring them to you in the form of hackathons and live projects. Simple technology-based solutions have the power to transform the lives of many. You can get started, by participating in social hackathons like the Rural Development Hackathon.

Did we miss anything? Let us know what your new year resolution is in the comments below.

Narendhiran Sundaresan

Insights & Stories by Narendhiran Sundaresan

Leverage machine learning to amplify your social impact