{
  "id": 15000,
  "title": "Is MATLAB use allowed ?",
  "url": "/competitions/grasp-and-lift-eeg-detection/discussion/15000",
  "author_name": "",
  "post_date": "2015-07-02T08:30:49.657Z",
  "votes": 1,
  "comment_count": 5,
  "views": 1098,
  "content": "<p>Can we use MATLAB for the competition? And would this comply with prize claiming rules?</p>\n\n<p>Thanks.</p>",
  "messages": [
    {
      "id": "83190",
      "postDate": "07/02/2015 08:30:49",
      "content": "<p>Can we use MATLAB for the competition? And would this comply with prize claiming rules?</p>\n\n<p>Thanks.</p>",
      "rawMarkdown": "",
      "votes": null
    },
    {
      "id": "83191",
      "postDate": "07/02/2015 08:44:43",
      "content": "<p>Sure, you are of course free to use MATLAB. Independently of this you still need to make sure to adhere to the rules, especially making sure you do not (accidentally) incorporate future data into prediction.</p>",
      "rawMarkdown": "",
      "votes": null
    },
    {
      "id": "83197",
      "postDate": "07/02/2015 09:24:31",
      "content": "<p>In most competitions, I have seen that Matlab is not allowed to claim the prize, is this competition any different?</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://www.kaggle.com/benhamner\" target=\"_blank\">Ben Hamner</a>, in 2013 wrote<a href=\"http://www.quora.com/How-useful-is-Matlab-for-Kaggle-as-compared-with-R-and-Python\" target=\"_blank\">[1]</a> that: <em>&quot;Strongly recommend against MATLAB due to its closed nature, lack of a good open source ecosystem, and poor integration with most real-world deployment scenarios&quot;</em></p>",
      "rawMarkdown": "",
      "votes": null
    },
    {
      "id": "83202",
      "postDate": "07/02/2015 10:13:56",
      "content": "<p>Yeah, I think that a general rule about what is allowed among common statistical/machine learning tool would be useful&nbsp; to avoid such question repeat</p>",
      "rawMarkdown": "",
      "votes": null
    },
    {
      "id": "83225",
      "postDate": "07/02/2015 13:24:05",
      "content": "<p>We'll allow MATLAB&nbsp;if the host is okay with it (and per the above comment, they are). You'd still be open sourcing the MATLAB code you write.</p>\n<p>The reason it's not a universal rule is that some hosts don't have a license and aren't interested in getting one, whereas others (particularly universities and academics) are okay with it, and may even prefer it over other languages. In research competitions, we err on the side of being useful to the host and allowing people to work with sensible tools, as opposed to strictly enforcing license technicalities.</p>",
      "rawMarkdown": "",
      "votes": null
    },
    {
      "id": "83310",
      "postDate": "07/03/2015 07:23:09",
      "content": "<p>That makes sense.</p>\n<p>Thanks for the details.</p>",
      "rawMarkdown": "",
      "votes": null
    }
  ],
  "comments": [
    {
      "id": 83191,
      "author_name": "qwlouse",
      "author_url": "",
      "post_date": "07/02/2015 08:44:43",
      "content": "<p>Sure, you are of course free to use MATLAB. Independently of this you still need to make sure to adhere to the rules, especially making sure you do not (accidentally) incorporate future data into prediction.</p>",
      "votes": null,
      "replies": []
    },
    {
      "id": 83197,
      "author_name": "carloshuertas",
      "author_url": "",
      "post_date": "07/02/2015 09:24:31",
      "content": "<p>In most competitions, I have seen that Matlab is not allowed to claim the prize, is this competition any different?</p>\n<p><a href=\"https://www.kaggle.com/benhamner\" target=\"_blank\">Ben Hamner</a>, in 2013 wrote<a href=\"http://www.quora.com/How-useful-is-Matlab-for-Kaggle-as-compared-with-R-and-Python\" target=\"_blank\">[1]</a> that: <em>&quot;Strongly recommend against MATLAB due to its closed nature, lack of a good open source ecosystem, and poor integration with most real-world deployment scenarios&quot;</em></p>",
      "votes": null,
      "replies": []
    },
    {
      "id": 83202,
      "author_name": "wildwizard",
      "author_url": "",
      "post_date": "07/02/2015 10:13:56",
      "content": "<p>Yeah, I think that a general rule about what is allowed among common statistical/machine learning tool would be useful&nbsp; to avoid such question repeat</p>",
      "votes": null,
      "replies": []
    },
    {
      "id": 83225,
      "author_name": "wcukierski",
      "author_url": "",
      "post_date": "07/02/2015 13:24:05",
      "content": "<p>We'll allow MATLAB&nbsp;if the host is okay with it (and per the above comment, they are). You'd still be open sourcing the MATLAB code you write.</p>\n<p>The reason it's not a universal rule is that some hosts don't have a license and aren't interested in getting one, whereas others (particularly universities and academics) are okay with it, and may even prefer it over other languages. In research competitions, we err on the side of being useful to the host and allowing people to work with sensible tools, as opposed to strictly enforcing license technicalities.</p>",
      "votes": null,
      "replies": []
    },
    {
      "id": 83310,
      "author_name": "wildwizard",
      "author_url": "",
      "post_date": "07/03/2015 07:23:09",
      "content": "<p>That makes sense.</p>\n<p>Thanks for the details.</p>",
      "votes": null,
      "replies": []
    }
  ],
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}