Princeton Undergraduates Challenge For $1,000,000 NetFlix Prize
January 28, 2008
How good are undergrads from Princeton's Computer Science Department?
When it comes to solving the hardest problems, they can beat just about
anyone.
This year, Lester Mackey '07, David Weiss '07 and David Lin (Math '07)
took part
in the NetFlix challenge to improve their movie rating system. Despite
stiff competition
against 2000 other competitors, many of whom were professionals with
Ph.D.s, the Princeton
trio was actually leading the competition 1 day
prior to the competition deadline on October 1st, 2007. At the last
moment, they
were overtaken by a group of researchers from AT&T labs and the
University of Toronto and wound up
finishing second -- an unbelievable result for a group of kids using
their free time
to compete against the best the rest of the world could offer. Read the full article at the Princeton Paw.