i am not committed to enter this challenge by myself , since i expect that my own lab already won two of this year's challenges and i don't want to ruin the dream conference. now i am thinking of taking this challenge as a remote collaboration/training on how to write a nice algorithm on a biomedical modeling problem. anyone interested? it will be a different but fun way to play. no one can guarantee winning in dream, but we have a good chance to do nicely. this is the summary of my previous best-performing entries to dream: https://www.synapse.org/#!Synapse:syn6180942/wiki/401735. i wrote code for every one of them, and most of them by my own. some requirements: 1. being able to program (this is a must-- even for my students), and send me a piece of sample code with matrix-wise operations. if you have previous entries to dream, a link to your previous code is sufficient. if acceptable, i will work with you on the programming language you use. 2. you can be lead authors for the entry but the team name has to be GuanLab. 3. commitment to win (full time and compute nodes). 4. leave me one entry on the leaderboard and i pick the final submission, which you are unlikely to agree. 5. write the write-up and deal with the headaches in the post-challenge phase. 6. last but not least, respect and adhere to **'DREAM PRINCIPLES'**. if there is interests from good hands, then i will be in.

Created by Yuanfang Guan ???? yuanfang.guan
i received a couple of emails from teams on providing suggestions. i am thrilled to make new friends this way. but one should be careful in sharing his/her method; if you have a great idea, let it shine on the leaderboard. this is because i reserve the choice to join the challenge maybe somewhere mid-sep (but very unlikely as a competitor unless some shocking events happen). then i don't want people to have the impression that i am using this avenue to steal ideas, because i don't think i need to..... also, i suggest everyone to use her own brain to judge information... otherwise in this case, "confounding others with false or misleading information" in the 'dream principles' can be used against me. it is still hard to believe the organizers wrote in such an aggressive tone if they didn't have someone they hate from the bottom of their heart, LOL. to be frank, the most confounding information is definitely not any entry on the forum, but the published papers claiming p'would also love to seek advice on my model' -- that's absolutely my pleasure. fell free to email me any time.
Hey Yuanfeng, No worries! My primary objective is to learn (as compared to winning, which would be good too), but I am respect your reservations and wish you luck! As for contracting work, lets connect on LinkedIn and I will let you know if a project opens up. I would also love to seek advice on my model if you have the time :) Regards, Vijay
hi vijay, i am sorry, that i am hoping to work with someone (a student, most likely) more closely. that's the part i feel very very sorry. because even someone work with me full time, i cannot guarantee that s/he wins. unfortunately that's limited by my ability and my intellectual level. p.s. for your work, if you need projects to be outsourced, i would appreciate if you consider me. as a pastime, i do moonlight projects in the broadest sense of informatics/computer science to enrich my skillset, beyond the areas you might see and imagine. i am most interested in building long-term relationships but also open to sporadic contracts. (happy to provide references if needed). yuanfang guan p.p.s.s. if you want to do disease module, send me some code and let me see. i am thinking that one should be just one sparkling idea and 1-2 days work.
Hi Yuanfang, Thanks for doing this! My name is Vijay Ramakrishnan. I am currently a full time computational biology software developer at a startup in San Francisco. I want to build models for genomics data in my free time and this challenge fits the bill. I would love to collaborate with you, but I am not sure if I can fit this as a full time job due to my existing commitments. I can comply with all other requirements you stated. Let me know if this works :) Regards, Vijay
hey, jim -- that's a nice gesture. at one point this year i did consider winning all of your challenges. that is difficult, but not impossible.. but now i changed my mind (i think i am an unbelievably forgiving person...). if it is all me, then people will hate me. it is bad for everyone, for dream and for me. at my current stage helping some others to perform well in the challenge would be much more valuable then i win another one. i already got what i wanted for this year -- (but if in the less than 5% chance we fail SMC-HET, then i will immediately enter another challenge). and yes, i had some unhappy experience with some participants during the AZ challenge, but more than once that i thought if this student were working with me, he can easily be the best performer. but i think you over-estimated my ability... i failed way more projects in dream and outside than the ones i succeeded, or not being able to be statistically distinguishable from SIX other teams... -i am also learning from my students and other participants, and now trying to find and learn from someone who is equally capable.
To anyone looking for a mentor or team, Yuanfang is masterful at solving complex biomedical Challenges. I have no doubt any group that includes Yuanfang will be at the top and you will learn a great deal from her. Yuanfang, I think I speak for all of the organizers, that we genuinely appreciate you offering to help and teach others. These kinds of interactions between participants are exactly what we hope to foster through the Challenges.

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