
RIS Competition 2025
Competition on the development of new analytical methods in medicine
Start of Registration
End of Registration
Results Announcement
LEVEL | START DATE AND TIME | END DATE AND TIME |
---|---|---|
0 – Introductory Lecture | Monday, March 3, 2025, at 3:00 PM | Monday, March 3, 2025, at 5:00 PM |
1. | Monday, March 3, 2025, at 5:00 PM | Monday, March 17, 2025, at 9:00 AM |
2. | Friday, April 4, 2025, at 9:00 AM | Sunday, April 6, 2025, at 9:00 AM |
News
- The introductory lecture will take place on March 3, 2025, at 3:00 PM via the ZOOM application.
- An additional lecture on using the supercomputer (SLING) to solve the given problem will take place on Tuesday, March 4, 2024, at 3:00 PM via the ZOOM application.
Awards
The Silver RIS Award is given to all participants who advance to the second level. The top three teams receive the Golden RIS Award.
Prize Fund: €2000
The amounts are stated in gross values.
Challenges
The central theme of this year’s competition is From free-for to structured results:
Pathology of melanoma.
The introductory lecture will present the relevant problem, the basics of PET and CT imaging modalities, and hybrid imaging. The clinical background of the problem and tumor lesion segmentation will also be discussed. Additionally, the Slovenian National Supercomputing Network (SLING) will be introduced, which will be available for participants to use.
Vision and Motivation
In recent years, we have witnessed a massive expansion of medical data, helping us improve diagnostics and therapy—from developing new measurement methods, data processing and analysis techniques, to creating new predictive models. This is an interdisciplinary field that combines elements of physics, mathematics, statistics, and information sciences on one hand and medicine on the other. As such, it offers numerous challenges and opportunities for developing new analytical tools. Although students have shown great interest in this field, Slovenia lacked a competition that integrates such a broad range of knowledge under one roof. For this reason, we are organizing this competition for the fourth consecutive year in the form of a hackathon, which simultaneously educates science students about challenges in medicine and encourages a creative approach to solving real-life problems.
Competition Execution
The competition consists of two rounds with an additional introductory seminar. During the introductory seminar, participants familiarize themselves with the field and clinical background of the problem. They learn fundamental concepts that serve as the basis for developing algorithms applicable to realistic medical problems.
The competition begins with the first, pre-selection round, where competitors prepare a proposal for their solution, supported by simplified case examples. Based on the submitted results, the innovation, suitability, and effectiveness of the idea are evaluated. The best competitors from the first round qualify for the second round, which serves as the national competition.
In the second round, competitors develop their solution to the problem using modern analytical technologies depending on the selected challenge. The fulfillment of the task’s set goals is assessed by testing solutions on real data that candidates did not have access to beforehand. A panel of Slovenian experts evaluates the suitable solutions.
The competition follows a hackathon format, where competitors face an open, realistic problem and compete to create the best solution. They work in teams based on the prescribed problem. Competitors use their own equipment, and any issues are resolved individually with the competition’s organizing committee, which may provide limited material resources at the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics, University of Ljubljana. Participants can also actively use the national supercomputing network SLING.
Past Competitions
RIS 2021 – In this competition, participants tackled the challenge of diagnosing and predicting COVID-19 infections. They developed an automated solution that could use chest CT scans to provide the most reliable prediction of the severity of COVID-19 infection in the lungs, aiding decisions regarding hospitalization and treatment. A total of 15 teams with 35 participants registered for this competition.
RIS 2022 – This competition focused on diagnosing Alzheimer’s disease. Participants developed an automated solution that could use [18F]FDG PET/CT brain scans to reliably distinguish between patients with AD and normal controls, thereby facilitating the development of successful therapies by ensuring proper inclusion of AD patients in clinical trials. On the patient side, it helped with better planning for the future based on the expected disease progression. A total of 26 teams with 68 participants registered for this competition.
RIS 2023 – This competition addressed the challenge of breast cancer: What can mammographic images reveal?
RIS 2024 – This competition addressed the challenge of Tumor Lesion Segmentation in PET/CT Images