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Take our data and build models for the 6 child outcomes at age 15. Your model might draw on social science theories about variables that affect the outcomes. It might be a black-box machine learning algorithm that is hard to interpret but performs well. Perhaps your model is some entirely new combination no one has ever seen before!

The power of the Fragile Families Challenge comes from the heterogeneity of quality individual models we receive. By working together, we will harness the best of a range of modeling approaches. Be creative and show us how well your model can perform!

There are missing values. What do I do?

See our blog post on missing data.

What if I have several ideas?

You can try them all and then choose the best one! Our submission platform allows you to upload up to 10 submissions per day. Submissions will instantly be scored, and your most recent submission will be placed on the leaderboard. If you have several ideas, we suggest you upload them each individually and then upload a final submission based on the results of the individual submissions.

What if I don’t have time to make 6 models?

You can make predictions for whichever outcome interests you. To upload a submission with the appropriate file size, make a simple numeric guess for the rest of the outcomes. For instance, you might develop a careful model for grit, and then guess the mean of the training values for all of the remaining five observations. This would still allow you to upload 6 sets of predictions to the scoring function.

About Matt Salganik

Matthew Salganik is a Professor of Sociology at Princeton University. He is also the author of Bit by Bit: Social Research in the Digital Age (http://www.bitbybitbook.com). You can learn more about his research at http://www.princeton.edu/~mjs3.

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