Yandex opens applications for the Yandex ML Prize, an international scientific award

This year the prize will be awarded in five categories and is open for machine learning researchers and their mentors from 11 countries.

The Yandex ML Prize is a scientific award presented for significant contributions to the field of machine learning. ML researchers and their mentors, including professors and academic supervisors, can apply for the award online until October 16. Prizes range from 500 000 to one million rubles, depending on the category.

Fields of research

This year, the list of fields for which the prize is awarded has expanded. Now anyone working with generative models can also take part. Yandex is developing such models, including those underlying YandexGPT and the Shedevrum app. The award can also be won for achievements in information retrieval, speech recognition and synthesis, natural language processing and machine translation, as well as computer vision.

Countries

We have expanded applicability to 11 countries. In addition to scientists from Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, researchers and their mentors from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Serbia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan are now eligible to apply.

Categories

New categories have been added to the Yandex ML Prize. There are now five: "First Publication," "Researchers," "Young Academic Supervisors," "Academic Supervisors," and "ML Educators." Another category is specifically open to Yandex employees who regularly present their work at international conferences.

"Four years ago, when developing this award, Yandex set the goal of encouraging young researchers and their academic mentors. Now, with more categories, we can support machine learning specialists throughout their careers. Yandex has been at the forefront of advancing machine learning globally, working with experts from around the world to drive innovation in this field. The Yandex ML Prize is our way of recognizing the outstanding contributions of ML researchers and educators. It's a testament to the global collaboration that defines the machine learning community," says Daria Kozlova, Director of Education at Yandex.

Yandex’s award in the field of machine learning is being awarded for the fifth time. It was established in 2019, and in the first years it was named after Ilya Segalovich, one of the most important figures in Yandex's history. The prize has been awarded to 39 young researchers and scientific leaders over the past four years.

The laureates are selected by the Award Committee, which includes researchers from Yandex and representatives of the scientific community. In addition to the cash prize, Yandex provides the laureates with access to Yandex 360 services and grants for using Yandex Cloud, so they can conduct large-scale computations and process experimental data. This year, the grant for cloud computing has been increased to 500 000 rubles.

The award ceremony will take place in December 2023.

Background

For over 15 years, Yandex has been implementing projects that provide access to quality IT education for everyone, regardless of age or experience. In 2022, more than 6 million people took part in Yandex's noncommercial educational projects.

In addition, the company invests in computer science research. Yandex Research is a team of scientists tackling fundamental problems in the field of artificial intelligence. Graduates from Yandex's School of Data Analysis work in scientific organizations and create socially important projects in medicine, ecology, and bioengineering.

Contacts:

Press Office
Daniel Vasilevich
Tel: +7 (495) 739 7000
E-mail: pr@yandex-team.com