[seqfan] Re: suggestion for a competition?

[Charles Greathouse]

> I for one, strongly prefer "improving the old" over "submitting the new" -
> and not only to students ;)

Yes.  I wouldn't want to overemphasize submitting new sequences over
the many ways that existing sequences could be improved.

Charles Greathouse
Analyst/Programmer
Case Western Reserve University

On Fri, Oct 28, 2011 at 2:23 AM, Moshe  Levin <moshe.levin at mail.ru> wrote:
> I for one, strongly prefer "improving the old" over "submitting the new" -
> and not only to students ;)
>
> ML
>
> 28 октября 2011, 01:21 от Charles Greathouse <charles.greathouse at case.edu>:
>> > 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