WebCrow Crossword

Competition at ECAI-06

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Click for Italian version

General Information

On Wednesday, August 30th, 2006, WebCrow (a Web-based automatic crossword solving system) will challenge humans in a "Crossword Competition" at ECAI-06, in both Italian and English (American-style crosswords). The Competition will take place during the ECAI-06 Conference (Riva del Garda), between 18:30 and 20:00. The registration is free and prizes will be awarded to winners (see below).

Two different competitions will take place: an "on site" and an "on line" competition. The "on site" competition will take place at ICAI (room to be announced at the conference) and will be limited to 60 persons (the competition will not take place with less than 25 participants). The "online" competition will take place in parallel on the web.

Eight different winners will be chosen:

  1. "On site" Overall Winner (iPod Nano 4Gb, 3 nights at HOTEL DORIA *** - Riva)
  2. "On site" American crossword Winner (iPod Shuffle, 1 book+DVD on Garda-Trentino)
  3. "On site" Italian crossword Winner (iPod Shuffle, 1 book+DVD on Garda-Trentino)
  4. "On site" bilingual crossword Winner (iPod Shuffle, 1 book+DVD on Garda-Trentino)
  1. "On line" Classifica Generale "On line" (iPod Nano 4Gb, subscription to newspaper "L'Adige")
  2. "On line" American crossword Winner (1 night at HOTEL GARNI ** - Riva)
  3. "On line" Italian crossword Winner (2 nights at HOTEL BEST WESTERN *** - Riva)
  4. "On line" bilingual crossword Winner (3 nights at HOTEL RUBINO *** - Riva)

Each competitor can receive the prizes of only one category. The categories are in the following priority order: Overall, Bilingual, Italian, American.

For more details about the prizes, please contact us at webcrowdii.unisi.it.

On Thursday, August 31st from 18:30 to 19:30 an awards ceremony will be held. Prize distribution will be followed by a public demonstration of the WebCrow system. The awards ceremony will be hosted by Marco Gori (Università di Siena) and Douglas Eck (Université de Montréal).

Please read the competition rules for further details. For questions about the competition please contact webcrow dii.unisi.it

Registering for the Competition

  1. The on-line registration is closed. You can still register on site.
  2. You will receive an email containing an http link to a confirmation-page. Upon visiting the page, your competition account will be created using a password and username supplied by you.
  3. You will then receive a final confirmation email.
  4. Registration deadline: 29th of August.

Competition Rules

  1. The participants will be asked to solve five different crosswords, (2 Italian, 2 American and 1 mixed). A time limit of 15 minutes will be imposed for each crossword.
  2. The puzzles will be chosen blindly by a spectator immediately before the competition starts.
  3. "On line" participants should verify in advance that they have registered for the contest and that they can run the Contest applet. We take no responsibility for technical problems encountered by "on line" participants during the contest.
  4. The contest is currently scheduled to begin at 18:30 (6:30 PM) on August 30th.
  5. "On line" participants should visit this web page on the day of the contest to verify that the starting time has not changed.
  6. "On line" participants should join the competition at the starting time by logging into the Competition applet (http://nautilus.dii.unisi.it/WebCrowCP_ECAI06/applet/cw_applet.html).
  7. At the starting time, a five minute demo session will commence. The actual competition will start immediately after this practice session.
  8. For "on site" participants, information sources such encyclopedias, web and mobile phones are strictly prohibited; collaboration with the other participants is also prohibited.
  9. For "on line" participants, as there is no way to control against the use of such sources of information, any source is allowed.
  10. Scoring:
    • For each puzzle, the participants will obtain a number of points ranging between 0 and 100, based on the percentage of correct grid-filling (correct words inserted / total words to be inserted).
    • 10 "quality bonus" points will be given in case of a perfect solution.
    • Up to 15 "time bonus" points will be given for fast completion of puzzles (one point per minute remaining). To control against someone simply clicking "Done" on an empty puzzle and receiving 15 points, these "time bonus" will be given only for puzzles having a minimum of 50% words correct.
  11. Ranking:
    • The score of the "on site" participants in the Overall Ranking will be given by the sum of all the points obtained on all 5 puzzles.
    • The "on line" scoring will be done in the same manner.
    • The other rankings (for "on site" participants only) will weigh equally the puzzles from respective subcategories. For example, American Ranking will weigh equally the 2 American puzzles.

Winners Prize List

Check back here for a list of winners after the contest has been completed.

Acknowledgments

The competition is supported by SPI-RIT, Firenze Tecnologia and by InGarda Trentino .
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