The Broad Institute's Connectivity Map is a collection of genome-wide, transcriptional expression data from cultured human cells. The data is used to find the functional connections between drugs, genes, and diseases through the transitory feature of common gene-expression changes.
The second challenge in the 2016 Connectivity Map series asked competitors to speed up the existing algorithm (see the problem statement). Forty competitors submitted 183 solutions and competed for $20,000 in prizes. The top 5 winners were from 5 different countries. The top solution ran in 54 seconds, 133 times faster than the benchmark.
