Dear participants,

We are excited to inform you that the latest preparations for the SynthRAD2023 Grand Challenge test phase are well underway, and we believe to be on track to open the test phase on July 16. As we approach this important milestone, we would like to remind you of a few key details to ensure a smooth and fair competition.

We would like to inform you that we have identified an issue with one of the similarity metrics that was improperly implemented, as it did not consider the provided mask and shifting the data to a positive range. We are in the process of re-evaluating all the previous submissions and updating the shared metrics code accordingly. Once the necessary changes have been applied, we will share the impact of this modification with you. We apologize for making this modification prior to the start of the test phase, but we strongly believe that the updated metric will ensure a fair evaluation. To reduce any participant distress, we have increased the number of submissions in the validation phases (2 every 4 days), and extended the validation until the end of the test phase. Also, the test phase has been extended of one week, until August 22.

Only one submission per team is allowed. This rule has been put in place to avoid multiple participants within a team submitting separate entries. Each submission will undergo a rigorous review process, so make sure to carefully prepare your single best entry. However, we understand that technical difficulties can arise, and if necessary, we will enable a second submission. Please note that in the case of multiple submissions, only the latest one will be considered.

It's critical to mention that the final ranking, which will determine the winner, will not be directly visible on the leaderboard but will be calculated according to this procedure. To prevent any misleading information, the leaderboard ranking will only be revealed when the test phase is completed, so after August 23, and the final ranking with winners will be announced in September. Until then, stay focused and give your best effort!

Furthermore, we would like to inform you that each team ranked among the top ten submissions for each task will be invited to participate in the publication reporting on the SynthRAD2023 Grand Challenge. To be included in this prestigious publication - most likely to Medical Image Analysis -, teams are required to submit an algorithm summary in the form of LNCS proceedings. Please note that only a maximum of two co-authors per team participating in the challenge will appear in the paper. Exceptions to this rule may be considered, but they must be clearly motivated in the summary of the proceedings. We will consider more than two co-authors, in case in the team more than two participants have actively trained and submitted models/predictions up to today, July 12.

We appreciate your dedication and hard work throughout this competition. Not only that, but we look forward to witnessing your incredible submissions during the test phase!

Best regards,
Matteo
on behalf of the organizing team of this fun SynthRAD2023 Grand Challenge