Five teams have been selected as finalists in the 2017 Syngenta Crop Challenge in Analytics. The challenge asked participants to develop a model to predict what soybean varieties are most likely to be selected by farmers in a specific region. Finalists were selected by the Analytics Society of INFORMS, a leading association for professionals in operations research and analytics.

“After multiple rounds of evaluation, the prize committee has selected five excellent submissions for this year’s Syngenta Crop Challenge in Analytics award. This competition clearly demonstrated that innovations in the agriculture industry can come from creative problem solvers anywhere in the world,” said Robin Lougee, research industry lead at IBM Research and committee chair of the Crop Challenge prize committee.

Finalists make their presentation on April 3, 2017 and winners will be announced following the presentations. First place will earn $5,000, the runner up will receive $2,500 and third place goes home with $1,000.