DataFest Philly 2025
April 5-7, 2025
at Villanova University
The DataFest Philly 2025 will take place on April 5-7, 2025.
We look forward to having you join us at this regional event in the Greater Philadelphia area!
We look forward to having you join us at this regional event in the Greater Philadelphia area!
Do you have skills or an interest in working with data? Do you want to get involved in the data deluge and explosive growth in demand for data-savvy professionals? Are you interested in participating in an event with data from leaders in industry provided specifically for you as part of an internationally organized competition? Do you want to explore data with academic and industry consultants available to guide you and to discover something new and provide insights into a company? Then DataFest Philly 2024 is for you!
Join us for an opportunity to win prizes, present to judges from local companies (who could be your future employer), and learn more about data science and statistics than you thought possible in one weekend. Free food will be served throughout the weekend event. Participants are not required to stay at the event venue during the event, but any work related to the data must be done at the event venue.
Accommodations are not provided to participants in DataFest. A list of local hotels can be found at Visit Villanova.
About DataFest
DataFest Philadelphia is part of the national American Statistical Association DataFest—a 48-hour case competition where teams of two to five students receive a rich, complex dataset from a large company and analyze it for insights. Hosted by Villanova University and organized by the University's Center for Statistics Education since 2017, the program is open to undergraduate students from institutions across the Greater Philadelphia area. This program takes data analysis beyond the constraints of a typical classroom setting by enabling students to work with real-world data as a team—uniting students in statistics, computer science, engineering, mathematics, social science and other fields for an intense weekend of data wrangling and analysis. Participants have the opportunity to network with industry experts and meet potential employers.
Consultants
Throughout the event, we will have consultants available to assist you with data processing, statistical analyses, ideas about how to approach the data, etc. These consultants will bring to our event different skills and experiences. Previous years’ consultants have hailed from Merck, Johnson & Johnson, ClinData Insights, Blue Sigma Analytics, AmeriHealth Caritas, Analysis and Inference, as well as local colleges and universities.
Judging
Each team will present a short presentation (no longer than 10 min) summarizing their findings to a panel of judges comprised of faculty and professionals from a variety of fields. Presentations are judged based on insight, visualization, use of external data and communication. There will be a winning team in each of the four following categories: Best Visualization, Best Insight, Best Use of External Data and Judge’s Choice Award.
For more information, see the following articles about ASA DataFest:
ASA DataFest organized by the American Statistical Association
DataFest at UToronto promotional video
"The Students Most Likely To Take Our Jobs" (DataFest participants)