Apologies for cross-posting
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Dear colleagues,
We are pleased to announce the MBC2 2026 Data Challenge.
Participants will work on a retail dataset provided by Astrea Consulting Srl to develop unsupervised models classifying inventory into In Stock, Out of Stock, and Over Stock.
Teams may include up to three members; participants must be 30 or younger.
The top five projects will be presented at the workshop, and the winner will be selected by attendee vote and announced at the workshop dinner.
Key dates:
- Dataset release: 1 April 2026
- Submission deadline: 8 May 2026
- Shortlisted teams announced: 15 June 2026
- Final presentations: 27 August 2026, at the MBC2 Workshop in Catania
Prizes:
- 1st prize: €1000
- 2nd prize: €700
Full details are available on the challenge webpage: http://mbc2.unict.it/data-challenge
Please feel free to circulate this announcement among interested students, PhD candidates, and early-career researchers.
Best regards,
Laura Anderlucci, Roberto Di Mari, Monia Ranalli
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MBC2 2026
8th International Workshop on
"Models and Learning for Clustering and Classification"
Dipartimento di Economia e Impresa, Università di Catania
Catania (Italy), 26-28 August, 2026