DataFest is a data analysis competition where teams of up to five students have a weekend to attack a large, complex, and surprise dataset.  Work together with your team members and consult with mentors to find and communicate insights into these data. The teams that impress the judges the most will win prizes. Everyone else will have a great experience, learn some new skills, and have fun!

DataFest is also a great opportunity to gain experience that employers are looking for. Having worked on a data analysis problem at this scale will certainly help make you a good candidate for any position that involves analysis and critical thinking, and it will provide a concrete example to demonstrate your experience during interviews.

DataFest runs from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon. It will be April 5 – 7, 2024 in Blodgett Auditorium and Kenyon Hall on Vassar’s campus. A more detailed schedule is available on the Schedule page.

Registration is now closed for 2024.

Who can participate?  Any Vassar student who is interested in working with data can register. If you are a student elsewhere, please let us know and we can contact your school about participating. You don’t need any previous data analysis experience! You and your team will come up with your own research question based on the dataset (which is large, complex, and a surprise!) and work to analyze and gain insights about the data.

DataFest across the United States.  Read more about DataFest across the U.S. here.

Curious about past DataFest datasets? Follow this link to check them out.

Any questions?  If you have questions, please contact the event organizers:

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