Wednesday, February 7, 2018

Registration for ASA DC Datafest

Registration is now open for this event:

ASA DC DataFest™ 2018 | JPSM l Joint Program in Survey Methodology l University of Maryland

https://jpsm.umd.edu/event/asa-dc-datafest-2018

This event brings together teams of undergraduate students from several Washington, DC area universities and colleges to compete in a data-analysis event for prizes and the attention of potential employers.

DataFest was founded at UCLA in 2011, when 30 students gathered for 48 intense hours to analyze five years of arrest records provided by Lt. Thomas Zak of the Los Angeles Police Department. ASA DataFest is now sponsored by the American Statistical Association and hosted by several of the most prestigious colleges and universities in the country. More than 2000 students take part from schools such as UCLA, Pomona College, Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, UC Riverside, University of Southern California, Purdue University, Duke, the University of North Carolina, North Carolina State, Emory, Princeton, Dartmouth, Smith, Hampshire, Amherst, Mt. Holyoke, and the University of Massachusetts.

A key feature of ASA DataFest is that it brings together the data science community. Undergraduate students do the work, but they are assisted by roving consultants who are graduate students, faculty, and industry professionals. Many professionals find ASA DataFest to be a great recruiting opportunity–they get to watch talented undergraduate students work under pressure in a team and examine their thinking processes.