Oregon State University offering $175,000 for big data algorithms

CORVALLIS, Ore. (AP) — Oregon State University is offering $175,000 for algorithms to help marine scientists sort tens of millions of plankton photos.

The university's Hatfield Marine Science Center announced the National Data Science Bowl on Monday for the best "big data" approach to catalog the photos.

The Oregonian reports it's a job would take human hands two lifetimes to finish.

Data crunchers have 90 days. Authors of the top three algorithms will share the $175,000 purse.

The consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton and crowdsourcing platform Kaggle are co-sponsoring the competition with OSU.

The plankton photos come from an 18-day expedition OSU scientists took last summer in the Straits of Florida.