Overview

The American Statistical Association (ASA) holds an annual challenge known as DataFest

Southern Methodist University will be hosting the first ever DataFest in the state of Texas!

Teams of 2-4 undergraduates will compete over a long weekend for who can come up with the most compelling analysis and/or visualization of a large, real-world data set donated by a major company.

For any questions, please contact us at statclubsmu@gmail.com

Registration

There are many ways that you can participate in DataFest:

Competitor

To be a competitor, you need to be an currently enrolled undergraduate student and have a team of between 2 to 4 poeple. There is no registration fee. To sign up, We will just record your team name, any member names, and some information about each competitor's educational background.

To register as a competitor, please follow this link.

Consultant

We also are very interested in people signing up as a consultant. As a consultant, you will provide some general guidance to the competitors. Expect to spend 1-2 hours (more is welcome but not required) during the weekend talking to students and learning what they're doing.

If you are interested in volunteering to be a consultant, please follow this link

Judge

As the end of the weekend, each team will make a very short (less than 10 minutes) presentation of two slides only. As a judge, you will determine the team that wins the competition awards, including Best Insight, Best Use of External Data, and Best Visualization. Judges will need to be availabe for most of the day Sunday, April 8.

If you are interested in volunteering to be a judge, please follow this link



Details

Please check back here for regular updates to the schedule.

Location

 Southern Methodist University

Participants

 This competition is open to anyone who is currently an undergraduate (subject to available space). There is no registration fee and all meals will be provided. Students are responsible for their own hotel accomodation, however.

Prerequisites

 There are no formal prerequisites. The data set will be provided and be approx. 1 Gb in size. In order to have a reasonable chance at success, the team should be familiar with some statistical computing platform (e.g. R, SAS, Python,...) and have some basic statistical skills.

Requirements

 The teams will need to provide their own computing infrastructure (computer, monitor, server, power cord, etc...). We will provide electrical outlets and tables, as well as refreshments and food.

Awards

 Some awards we will be presenting are: Best in Show, Best Visualization, Best Use of External Data, and Best Predictive Model

Important Dates
  • February 19, 2018. Registration Open for SMU students
  • February 26, 2018. Registration Open for Non-SMU students
  • March 12, 2018. Deadline For Registration (Late registration may be possible, subject to space)
  • April 6, 2018 at 5pm. Opening Ceremony
  • April 8, 2018 at 12pm to 2pm. Final Presentations
  • April 8, 2018 at 3pm. Closing Ceremony and Awards