Undergraduate Datathon

The Datathon is a high energy, 7-hour event that brings together teams of students in LeBow’s Undergraduate Business Analytics program to turn data into actionable information. During this event, student teams work on analytics projects using a real-world dataset. The dataset will be provided at the Datathon.

For the duration of the event, students have the opportunity to meticulously turn the business problem into a series of statistical questions, design a technical approach, and use data analysis and data technology skills to create solutions that solve the statistical problem at hand. Ultimately, teams turn their quantitative solutions to actionable, qualitative insights. Projects may include, but are not limited to correlation analysis, regression analysis, optimization systems, and data mining analysis.

At the conclusion of the 7-hour time period, teams present their projects to a panel of judges, outlining the data-driven insights for their business problem, the scope of their analysis, technical challenges, overall solutions, implementation plan, and expected impact on the bottom line.

Students use their own laptops and are given access to a computer lab with software applications such as SAS, R, and Excel. Breakfast and lunch will be provided.

Students in the top three winning teams, as determined by the judges, receive Amazon.com gift cards.

Schedule:

9am – 10am: Registration, teams setup, rules and processes, light breakfast, dataset sharing 10am – 12pm: Teams will work on the dataset 12pm – 1pm: Lunch break 1pm – 4pm: Teams continue working on the dataset 4pm – 5:30pm: Presentations, judging, and winners announcement

Prior to the event there will be a Datathon Prep Workshop. The workshop is a review of the basic analytics process, and analytical concepts, using a live business problem. While attendance to this workshop is encouraged, it is not mandatory. The workshop will be held on Friday, April 14th, 5:30pm-7:30pm in GHall 106. Workshop registration is done here.

Students are encouraged to fill out the form within your confirmation email with your team name and T-shirt sizes. Students that register will receive materials that they could use at the event.