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About Datafest

Teams

  • Teams should have 2-5 members
  • We encourage you to form teams with a diverse set of skills (e.g., some team members might have more data computing experience, others might have more statistics and math experience, others might have more visualization and artistic experience, and others might have more business and economics experience)

Schedule

  • We plan to hold the competition at the following times:
    • Friday, March 22nd, 6-midnight (remote)
      • Data and video introduction will be made available
    • Saturday, March 23rd, 9AM-midnight (in-person)
      • Theater classrooms, MSCS faculty will swing through for questions
    • Sunday, March 24th, 9AM-1:30PM (in-person) OLRI 250
      • Presentations and judging (5 minutes followed by live questions for each team) will take place from 10:30AM-12:30PM followed by award announcements
  • DataFest is taking place at over 40 locations around the US, Canada, and Germany, with more than 75 colleges and universities participating. Winning contributions from Macalester and other locations will be publicized together on the American Statistical Association’s national website

Rules

  • You do not have to be present for the entire duration of the competition. Team members can come and go as you please, but all work has to be done during the competition hours (i.e., no all-nighters!)
  • This is a friendly competition. We encourage you to collaborate and help out other teams when they encounter issues you know how to solve. There will be a Slack channel to post questions, and faculty and mentors will also be available throughout the weekend to attempt to answer questions you might have
  • There are no limitations on what software you use