悦色视频sends two teams to virtual Datafest
Two teams of College of 悦色视频students competed in this year鈥檚 DataFest competition, applying skills in research, data analysis, and presentation to a set of data that could be used by the client. Judges representing the industry placed the 鈥淔ighting Scots鈥 team third out of 17 teams from universities in the region, and while the competition only names the top three competitors, all the students who competed took away skills they鈥檒l be able to apply as data-analysts, researchers, and critical thinkers in their chosen fields.
DataFest is a program of the American Statistical Association that takes place at sites across the country in April and early May, in which 鈥渢eams of undergraduates work around the clock to find and share meaning in a large, rich, and complex data set.鈥 This was the third time that 悦色视频participated in the event through Miami University. Jillian Morrison, assistant professor of statistical and data sciences at 悦色视频acted as a faculty mentor for the two teams, the Fighting Scots and ZEMY. 鈥淪tudents had the chance to work with a real dataset under lots of pressure to come up with a solution to a very complicated, unsolved problem,鈥 said Morrison. 鈥淭hey also got the opportunity to chat with experts in the industry to pitch their ideas and hear critiques from people who use data to solve pressing problems daily.鈥 The students (listed by team below) presented their solutions to a panel of judges, including representatives from the client organization.
Fighting Scots (pictured above)
- Brett Stern 鈥21, mathematics and business economics major from Livonia, Michigan (bottom corner, team leader)
- Demetris Papaloucas 鈥23, statistical and data sciences major from Nicosia, Cyprus (bottom left)
- Dillon Wheeler 鈥22, statistical and data sciences major from Chicago, Illinois (top left)
- Quan Nguyen Hien 鈥22, statistical and data sciences major from Hanoi, Vietnam (top right)
- Vinh Nghiem To 鈥22, statistical and data sciences major from Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam (bottom right)
ZEMY (pictured above, left to right)
- Matt Ulishney 鈥23, mathematics major from Greensburg, Pennsylvania
- El Yazid Chalabi 鈥22, statistical and data sciences and business economics major from Rabat, Morocco
- Zhen Guo 鈥21, computer science and sociology major from Beijing, China
- Merlin Li 鈥21, biochemistry and molecular biology major from Zhengzhou, China
With the competition being held online, the teams adapted to the virtual format by maintaining social distance when meeting or arranging their schedules to accommodate team members who were studying and participating remotely from different time zones. As a mentor for the competition, Morrison met with both teams remotely as they analyzed and discussed the data. 鈥淭hey worked with their strengths to come up with their solutions,鈥 she said. 鈥淎fter having many of them in data science courses, it was very fun to see them think through the problem and dataset using skills they learned in my courses.鈥
For the students, participating in the event offered an opportunity to work together on a real-world solution. 鈥淎ttempting to identify a unique research question and insights with my team under the time constraint made Datafest so enjoyable,鈥 said Stern who led the Fighting Scots team. In addition to time management, he sees 鈥渓earning to find insights that are actionable鈥 and 鈥渂eing able to conduct analysis that leads to actions鈥 as skills he鈥檒l carry forward in a career in analytics. For Chalabi, who served as leader for team ZEMY, participating in the competition allowed him to see different perspectives. He explained that working with the team, they divided the data in a way he hadn鈥檛 thought about before that he can apply down the road. 鈥淲e divided the data into categories and focused on each one separately, then we analyzed what impacted the trend in that group,鈥 he said. 鈥淭hat is for me, revolutionary.鈥
Posted in News on April 29, 2021.
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