FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

We decided to collect some of the most commonly asked questions in this page – hopefully you will find some useful answers here!

What kind of effort is expected from MALTO members?
We don’t generally provide a specific number of hours to be put into the team activities. We understand that the amount of time required to solve problems will differ for different people, so we mainly focus on goal-driven objectives. This being said, the nature of this team is to take part in competitions: as such, there will be high intensity periods as well as rather tranquil ones. If we are to make an estimate, when taking part in a competition we expect the amount of work to be carried out to be approximately what a student with good data science skills could carry out in a workday – i.e. ~ 8 hours every week (amounting to 1-2 hours each day).

What kind of recognition do MALTO members get?
After having actively contributed to the MALTO team, you will have a chance to get your participation recognized with 6 credits that you can add to your curriculum of studies. Additionally, taking part in competitions will often involve writing scientific papers to present your solutions. Doing so will add some articles to your name, which will look rather good on your resume, especially if you intend to pursue a career in research!

What are the key aspects of competing in a challenge?
You will be involved in the following activities:

  • Choosing competitions, based on the members’ interests and skills, as well as suitability of the task, with the support of the supervisors.
  • Studying state-of-the-art techniques that are currently used to address problems similar to the ones in the competitions. This is necessary to have a starting point and not “reinvent the wheel” every time.
  • Taking part in the competition: implementing one or more solutions to address the competition, generally with submissions to a competition platform (e.g. Kaggle, CodaLab)
  • Writing a scientific paper (when allowed by the competition) or a technical report (blog post-like) to present your solution to the world (of course, after the competition is over!)

How long do competitions last?
Each competition has its own schedules, but in general you can expect competitions to last 2-3 months.

Is there anything else we will do when not working on competitions?
Yes indeed! As a rather new team, we still need to grow and become known around the university (and the world!). Because of this, there will be various satellite activities that you will have the chance to work on! For example,

  • Maintaining the team’s presence online, including the website and possibly social media (up to you!), adding contents as needed (writing blog posts, presenting new members, sharing achievements)
  • Carrying out the selection process for new members and tutoring them: as you grow as a data scientist and a team member, you will have the opportunity to help choose MALTO’s future students and guide them through the onboarding process
  • Organizing events (why not our own competitions?), talks and anything else you might find useful! We will help you along the way, but what MALTO will become next is up to you!

Who can apply to MALTO?
All Politecnico di Torino Bachelor’s and Master’s students can apply. We of course encourage students who are passionate about data science and machine learning. Any past experience is quite welcomed, but not strictly necessary. The nature of the team makes it strongly recommended that applicants have some working knowledge of programming and a background in data science, machine learning or statistics, either acquired during your academic studies, or on your own. Ideally, your background allows you to read and understand relevant scientific writings (e.g. books, papers) and technical documentation (e.g. API and libraries documentation). In particular, we recommend having some expertise in handling data and building ML models/pipelines. Some libraries that you will probably need to get familiar with are:

  • pandas/NumPy/SciPy
  • scikit-learn
  • TensorFlow/Keras
  • PyTorch

How does the selection process work?
After each Call for Applications deadline, all candidates will be evaluated based on how good of a fit we believe they would be with the team. After an initial screening process, there will be a technical test we will use to get a better grasp of what your background is (don’t worry, we don’t expect you to know everything!). The test will cover various topics within the field of data science and machine learning that are typically covered in introductory and intermediate courses. Finally, there will be an interview to talk about you and your fit within the team.

How many members are you likely to select in each Call for Applications?
We will limit the number of students who will be chosen as MALTO members to a number that we can tutor well given our current availabilities in terms of supervisors. While the total number is not set in stone yet, we are looking to have an active team of about 10 students.