[seqfan] Re: suggestion for a competition?

Charles Greathouse charles.greathouse at case.edu
Thu Oct 27 23:21:23 CEST 2011


> Most of the suggestions, other than "best new sequence", could be lumped
> together under the heading "best modification of an existing sequence".

I think the advantage of splitting the others out is (1) to suggest
concrete ways in which sequences can be improved and (2) to encourage
improving sequences over submitting new ones.  New sequences are
great, but making their addition one point of 10 rather than one point
of 2 seems more apt, especially if we're dealing with high-school
students.

The first point is especially important, I think -- most people, I
suspect, would not think to contribute an illustration without it
being suggested, and yet illustrations are extremely useful in many
cases (and perhaps easier for high-school students than some other
tasks that might be asked of them!).

> Would we have the new/modified sequences submitted in the usual way, or
> would we want some special mechanism?

I think that modifications and submissions should be sent in normally
but only those modifications that are specifically submitted would be
judged.  Perhaps the mechanism for submitting entries could be as
simple as a wiki page. (Of course I expect there would be a limit on
the number of submissions a person could send -- we wouldn't want
someone to send us all 50 sequences they edited during the period.)

Charles Greathouse
Analyst/Programmer
Case Western Reserve University

On Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 5:09 PM,  <franktaw at netscape.net> wrote:
> I would also be willing to judge.
>
> Most of the suggestions, other than "best new sequence", could be lumped
> together under the heading "best modification of an existing sequence".
>
> Would we have the new/modified sequences submitted in the usual way, or
> would we want some special mechanism? In the former case, it  may entail a
> lot of work for the editors - hard to say how much, since it depends on how
> wide an audience the article reaches. That doesn't necessarily mean we
> shouldn't do it that way, but we need to be prepared.
>
> Franklin T. Adams-Watters
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Andrew Weimholt <andrew.weimholt at gmail.com>
>
> I wouldn't mind being on the panel of judges.
>
> Some other possible catagories...
>
> * Best proof of an open conjecture related to an OEIS seqeunce(s).
>
> * Best alternate definition of a sequence (with proof that the new
> definition produces the same
> sequence).
>
> * Best extension of a "more" + "hard" sequence.
>
> Andrew
>
>
> On 10/27/11, N. J. A. Sloane <njas at research.att.com> wrote:
>>
>> Dear SeqFans,
>> A science writer that I know is thinking of
>> writing an article about the OEIS.
>>
>> She asked me if I could think of a competition
>> for students. For example, there might be a prize for the
>> best new sequence submitted by a student.
>> (Student could mean high school student, or perhaps undergraduate)
>>
>> Or, the best formula for a sequence that did not already have
>> a formula.
>>
>> Or, the best "illustration of initial terms" (the kind of picture
>> we have in A000029) for a sequence that at present does not have
>> any illustrations
>>
>> Can anyone suggest other competitions?
>>
>> And, if the article appears, we will need a panel
>> of judges - any volunteers?
>>
>> Neil



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