Annual DataFest Competition gave students a chance to analyze data and apply it to consumer trends.
Students from more than 20 prestigious colleges and universities recently tried their hand at “Big Data” analysis at seven different campuses around the country during DataFest, an annual month-long data-analytics competitive event sponsored by the American Statistics Association.
The undergraduate students of DataFest spend one weekend analyzing data provided by an organization with a store of accessible information. In the 2015 challenge, the data was supplied by car shopping website Edmunds.com; past providers include eHarmony, GridPoint, Kiva.com and the Los Angeles Police Department.
“The students found a lot of unexpected and interesting stories to tell using the car shopping data from Edmunds,” said Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel, Assistant Professor of the Practice in the Department of Statistical Science at Duke University. She is a co-founder of the event, which has been running annually since 2011.
(Next page: How a Duke University team used the data)
Laura Ascione is the Editorial Director at eSchool Media. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland's prestigious Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Latest posts by Laura Ascione (see all) - Weak tech could push students, faculty to other institutions - April 13, 2026
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