Zulu: an interactive learning competition

The challenge addressed the issue of active learning: a server can be accessed via the web and queries can be made. The goal (for the participant) is to obtain the best classifier making use of a fixed number of queries. The classifiers used are DFA, allowing participants to use Angluin’s L* algorithm as a starting point. Zulu is both a web based platform simulating an Oracle in a DFA learning task and a competition. As a web platform, Zulu allows users to generate tasks, to interact with the Oracle in learning sessions and to record the results of the users. It provides the users with a baseline algorithm written in JAVA, or the elements allowing to build from scratch a new learning algorithm capable of interacting with the server. In order to classify the contestants, a two-dimensional grid was used: one dimension concerns the size (in states) of the automata, and the other the size of the alphabet.