DataFest at CSU

What Is ASA DataFest?

ASA DataFest is a data hackathon for undergraduate and master level graduate students, sponsored by the American Statistical Association (ASA) and founded at UCLA, in 2011. ASA DataFest at CSU is hosted by the CSU Department of Mathematics and Statistics and the Cleveland Chapter of the ASA.

Analyze

ASA DataFest will introduce you to what is likely the richest, most complex dataset you’ve seen so far in your academic career. The dataset is provided by a real-life organization and is chosen to provide many avenues of discovery. Students at any stage of their data-science education will find something of interest and will have the opportunity to make an original finding. Students from any major are welcome.

Network

You will get to know other students (from other departments, neighboring universities) because you will be working in teams of 3-5 students. Teams can consist of members from different majors and can mix graduate and undergraduate students. If you do not have a team, sign up as an individual and you will get assigned to a team. While this is a competition it is a friendly competition - so you are encouraged to offer assistance or discuss your solutions with other teams. Students do the work, but they are assisted by roving consultants who may be graduate students, faculty, and data science professionals who visit DataFest to offer their advice and answer your questions.

Experience

Many professionals find ASA DataFest to be a great recruiting opportunity–they get to watch talented students work under pressure in a team and examine their thinking processes. Past participants of the ASA DataFest have gone to job interviews able to describe overcoming technical challenges overcome, explain how they work under time-pressure, and can talk about their thoughts on solving real-life data-problems.

Goals

At DataFest, the end goal isn’t to produce code –– although most teams will do quite a bit of coding -- instead it is to produce a presentation that teaches the judges something they didn’t know about the data, and does so elegantly and creatively.

Additionally:

• Students learn to collaborate well in a group of teammates
• Work under intense time pressure
• Develop a valued marketplace skill
• Participants learn that they can teach themselves things they didn’t know
• Even those with lots of statistical know-how will find that they need even more to do what they want with the data
• Students who are successful will teach themselves new methods and new computational skills
• Participants should learn to communicate well. While it’s called DataFest, and while data are front-and-center, this event is as much about communication. Students have to communicate with their teammates, with the experts to ask for help, and, of course, they have to communicate clearly to the judges.