Congratulations DataFest 2024 @ Vassar participants!

DataFest 2024 @ Vassar Group Photo

Thank you and congratulations to all who participated in this year’s DataFest! Students, you should be proud of the perseverance and creativity that you demonstrated this weekend that resulted in some insightful presentations. As always, our judges had a tough task, but awarded prizes to:

  • Team 87 (Deanna Chun, Isaac Rudnick, Sam Shelly, Alex Teabo, Leo Valenti) for Best Overall Analysis
  • The Data Table of CAMA-lot (Axel Estrada, Anders Hansen, Meredith Hillier, Caitlin Gong) for Best Data Visualization
  • Team Blank (Elta Bajrami, Boxiong Du, Caroline Klein, Roman Shrestha, Tanish Pradhan Wong Ah Sui) for Best Use of Outside Data

We also thank all of our consultants, judges, and sponsors for helping to make the weekend happen. We look forward to welcoming everyone back for DataFest 2025 @ Vassar!

Congratulations to All DataFest 2023 @ Vassar Participants!

Congratulations to all DataFest 2023 @ Vassar participants on a great showing in this year’s competition! After a weekend of data wrangling, cleaning, visualization, contextualization, and analysis, we saw some impressive presentations from our 10 teams on Sunday afternoon. Everyone should be very proud of their work.

The judges had a tough decision, but awarded our three prizes to:

  • Team Name (yes, that’s their team name!) for Best Overall Analysis: Steven Wu, Luke Adams, Naveen Malik, Victor Zhang, and Brandon Carido
  • Team Alpha for Best Data Visualization: Isaac Rudnick, Joshua Kim, and Saurav Ghimire
  • Team DCC Tydiverse for Best Use of Outside Data: David Venuto, Sophia Lopez, Lucas Pfeifer, and Jacob Leggiero

You can see our full gallery from the weekend here.

Thanks again to all of our consultants, judges, volunteers, and, most of all, participants! We hope to see you back next spring for DataFest 2024 @ Vassar!

Congratulations DataFest 2022 @ Vassar Participants and Award Winners!

Group photo of DataFest 2022 @ Vassar participants in front of Vassar's Blodgett Hall

Congratulations to all of our DataFest 2022 @ Vassar participants on a job well done! With an extremely challenging data set, these groups all developed interesting analyses, compelling visualizations, and meaningful conclusions in less than 48 hours.

After a lengthy deliberation, reflecting the high achievement of all of the teams, prizes were awarded to:

  • Loud ‘N Cloud (Augusto, Veronica, Jonny, Jack, and Mason) for developing a novel metric, winning Best Use of External Data/Analysis
  • Taconic Parkway (Dazheng, Yixiao, and Shunji) for their graphical presentation of the data structure, winning Best Data Visualization
  • Data Farmers (Daniel, Kishan, Huaihan, Jocelyn, and Orcun) for an impressive statistical model with appropriate interpretations, winning Best Overall Analysis

Once again, thank you and congratulations to all of our participants!

We would also like to thank all our consultants and judges for volunteering their time to support these teams.

And we would like to thank our sponsors: Vassar College Office of the President, Career Development Office, Computing and Information Services, Environmental Research Institute, and Neuroscience & Behavior Program; the Vassar College Departments of Biology, Cognitive Science, Computer Science, Earth Science & Geography, Economics, Mathematics & Statistics, Physics & Astronomy, Political Science, and Psychological Science; and the Marist College Department of Mathematics.

See you next year for DataFest 2023 @ Vassar! Continue reading Congratulations DataFest 2022 @ Vassar Participants and Award Winners!

Data Science Alum Panel – Tuesday, March 29

If you’re interested in DataFest, you might also be interested in this Data Science Alum Panel, scheduled for the Tuesday before DataFest Wekeend!
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Tuesday, March 29 at 8 pm | Zoom
Do you like working with data? Are you curious about the types of careers that are available to you if you’re a numbers person? Come learn about the wide variety of career options that are available within the field of data science. Alumnae/i from a variety of backgrounds will be on hand to talk about the range of opportunities that are available within the field and the skills that are in demand within this industry. Confirmed alumnae/i include:

  • Tony Caletti ’18, Product Analytics Manager, DraftKings
  • Karmen Hutchinson ’18, Data Scientist, JPMorgan Chase Institute
  • Edith Iyer-Hernandez ’14, Data Engineer, Techstars
  • Cindy Liu ’16, Data Analyst, Disney Streaming Services
  • Ahmed Sanda ’15 , Data Scientist, New York Power Authority
  • Simon Whitelaw ’13, Engineering Manager, Spotify

The event will open with an hour-long panel with time built in for questions from the audience. The final half-hour of the event we will move our panelists into breakout rooms so that students can connect with alumnae/i of interest in small groups to get your more specific questions answered. Advance registration on Handshake is encouraged.

Advance registration on Handshake is encouraged for students. Faculty who wish to attend can email Jannette Swanson at jaswanson@vassar.edu to be added to the calendar invite. This event is brought to you by the Career Development Office and the Mathematics & Statistics Department.

Register for DataFest @ Vassar 2022!

DataFest @ Vassar is back for 2022, in a hybrid format!

DataFest Dates: 5PM Friday April 1 – 5PM Sunday April 3, 2022

Register today! Please visit the registration page to register no later than Friday, March 25, 2022.

Any student from Vassar, SUNY New Paltz, or Marist is eligible to participate, regardless of previous stats or data analysis experience. You can register with a team or as an individual and we’ll match you up to form a team.

DataFest is a celebration of data sponsored by the American Statistical Association, taking place at campuses across the country.

A detailed schedule will be available soon, but here are some highlights:

  • Friday, April 1, 5PM: opening ceremonies
  • Throughout the weekend: in-person or remote consultation with our expert consultants and access to data analysis workshops
  • Sunday, April 3, 1-5PM: closing ceremonies (including team presentations and judge panel) and celebration

Benefits of participation include:

  • Access to and support in analyzing a complex, rich data set
  • Learning from and working with teammates and consultants
  • One-of-a-kind DataFest@Vassar swag
  • Grab-and-go catered meals after the opening and closing ceremonies (campus regulations permitting)

Any questions? Please contact the event organizers:

  • Monika Hu (jihu@vassar.edu)
  • Ming An (mian@vassar.edu)
  • Lee Kennedy-Shaffer (lkennedyshaffer@vassar.edu)