CLEVELAND, March 28, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — Organizers of the second annual Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP) Machine Learning Competition are excited to announce this year’s winners. The award of first place goes to a team from Walmart, second to a team from Bowling Green State University, third to a team from Michigan State University, and fourth to a team from USAA. Winners will present their approach and solutions at a special session during the 34th Annual SIOP Conference, on Friday, April 5th, at the Gaylord Convention Center in National Harbor, Maryland.

The competition brings new artificial intelligence (AI) analytical methods to the field of industrial-organizational psychology and HR analytics. Over 100 teams from across industry and academia entered and submitted nearly 1000 models for consideration. An estimated 450 people participated, with two-thirds of the participants citing this as their first ever machine learning competition. Entrants were multi-generational, with participants ranging in age from 22 to 70, with varying educational backgrounds, about 50% with doctoral degrees.

Shaker International’s principal data scientist and competition organizer Isaac Thompson, Ph.D., explained, “When combined with a solid foundational science like I-O, AI has an amazing power to extract information about psychological traits and behaviors from everyday human interactions; which will have a lasting impact on society. We made a conscious decision to release the data and winning solutions to the public domain as a fundamental first step to having an informed and transparent discussion about the challenges faced when AI is applied without proper context.”

The competition promoted rapid learning and integration of new AI methods – machine learning and deep learning – into talent management research, with more than one participant saying they learned a great deal about what machine learning is, how it can be more effectively applied, and what kinds of research questions it can answer. It also highlighted the power of cross-disciplinary approaches that will lead the infusion of AI into all domains. “The greatest power comes from combining I-O expertise [measurement science] with the power of machine learning,” concluded one of the competitors.

Top methods and data have been preserved and shared publicly on Github to encourage others to reproduce and build upon this state-of-the-art research.

About Shaker International
Leveraging over 15 years of data, selection science, and proven results for leading global brands, Shaker provides predictive talent intelligence that helps companies improve quality of hire, reduce turnover, create recruiting efficiencies, and deliver a better hiring experience.

About SIOP
SIOP is the premier membership organization for those practicing and teaching I-O psychology. While an independent organization with its own governance, SIOP also represents Division 14 of the American Psychological Association and is an organizational affiliate of the Association for Psychological Science.

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For information contact:
Mike Littman
mike.littman@shakerinternational.com
(571)-215-8633
3201 Enterprise Parkway
Cleveland, OH 44122

SOURCE Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology