Midwest Undergraduate Data Analytics Competition

Ages:Undergraduate

Types:Submission, Presentation

Categories:Mathematics, STEM

Scope:Regional

Contact

Stephanie Warning
stephanie.warning@mnsu.edu
507-389-1304

In addition to providing a valuable learning experience, this competition also provides a unique social opportunity for both students and faculty from various regional institutions to come together for an intense 2-day event. Members of the top teams each receive a cash award, and all other participants are eligible for door prizes. This  competition is for undergraduate student teams to test their data analysis skills on a problem of interest to a local outside organization.

The competition is open to any undergraduate student attending a school in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, North Dakota, or South Dakota.

This competition is data-intensive, so teams should have completed at least an introductory course in statistics and computer programming. The teams should have the ability to work with large amounts of data in some standard data analytics software package (e.g., SAS, JMP, Minitab, R, Python, Tableau, or SPSS). Teams with a strong analytics background (e.g., students have taken advanced courses in data science or statistics or business analytics) will not necessarily do better. Past competition winners impressed the judges by being innovative in their approach, producing creative summaries and graphics, and communicating their outcomes in an understandable way.

Students working in teams have approximately 24 hours to carry out an analysis, provide a written summary of their findings, and prepare a brief oral presentation of their results during a 2-Day event held at a regional university.  

Judges will consist of faculty advisors from the various institutions and representatives from the local outside organization for whom the data is being analyzed and potentially other industries.

Website: http://www.mudac.org

Managing Organization: Winona State University

Contact:
Stephanie Warning
stephanie.warning@mnsu.edu
507-389-1304

Eligibility:

  1. The competition is open to any undergraduate student attending a school in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, North Dakota, or South Dakota.
  2. Students work in teams of 3-4 people.  A faculty advisor from each participating institution is highly encouraged to attend the competition.
A team consists of three or four undergraduate students. If an institution has too few (or  too many) students to form teams of 3-4 people, the organizers will place any extra students into a team from another institution so that they can participate in the competition. Due to our limited capacity, we have a restriction of three teams per institution. We have room for up to 65 teams and registration is first-come-first-serve. If more than 65 teams register, we will keep a waiting list and teams on the waiting list will be invited to the competition as spots become available (due to cancellation or a lack of payment). Requests for additional teams will be considered if there are still spaces open. Note that, historically, team slots tend to fill fairly quickly, so register soon. Only ONE representative from each team should register (preferably team advisor).

Registration Opens: January 13, 2020

Registration Closes: March 13, 2020

Overview

In addition to providing a valuable learning experience, this competition also provides a unique social opportunity for both students and faculty from various regional institutions to come together for an intense 2-day event. Members of the top teams each receive a cash award, and all other participants are eligible for door prizes. This  competition is for undergraduate student teams to test their data analysis skills on a problem of interest to a local outside organization.

The competition is open to any undergraduate student attending a school in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, North Dakota, or South Dakota.

This competition is data-intensive, so teams should have completed at least an introductory course in statistics and computer programming. The teams should have the ability to work with large amounts of data in some standard data analytics software package (e.g., SAS, JMP, Minitab, R, Python, Tableau, or SPSS). Teams with a strong analytics background (e.g., students have taken advanced courses in data science or statistics or business analytics) will not necessarily do better. Past competition winners impressed the judges by being innovative in their approach, producing creative summaries and graphics, and communicating their outcomes in an understandable way.

Process

Students working in teams have approximately 24 hours to carry out an analysis, provide a written summary of their findings, and prepare a brief oral presentation of their results during a 2-Day event held at a regional university.  

Criteria

Judges will consist of faculty advisors from the various institutions and representatives from the local outside organization for whom the data is being analyzed and potentially other industries.

Participate

Website: http://www.mudac.org

Managing Organization: Winona State University

Contact:
Stephanie Warning
stephanie.warning@mnsu.edu
507-389-1304

Eligibility:

  1. The competition is open to any undergraduate student attending a school in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Illinois, North Dakota, or South Dakota.
  2. Students work in teams of 3-4 people.  A faculty advisor from each participating institution is highly encouraged to attend the competition.
A team consists of three or four undergraduate students. If an institution has too few (or  too many) students to form teams of 3-4 people, the organizers will place any extra students into a team from another institution so that they can participate in the competition. Due to our limited capacity, we have a restriction of three teams per institution. We have room for up to 65 teams and registration is first-come-first-serve. If more than 65 teams register, we will keep a waiting list and teams on the waiting list will be invited to the competition as spots become available (due to cancellation or a lack of payment). Requests for additional teams will be considered if there are still spaces open. Note that, historically, team slots tend to fill fairly quickly, so register soon. Only ONE representative from each team should register (preferably team advisor).

Deadlines

Registration Opens: January 13, 2020

Registration Closes: March 13, 2020