DataFest participants used data provided by the Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Safety (RMPDS) center to discover and identify patterns of drug use and misuse. RMPDS administers the Research Abuse, Diversion and Addiction Related Surveillance (RADARS®) System Survey of Non-Medical Use of Prescription Drugs Program, which monitors drug use and abuse across the country and internationally using a variety of data sources. DataFest participants were provided with nearly 100,000 survey responses from an online survey that studies drug use and other behaviors and risk factors among the general population in four countries (the United States, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland). Hundreds of demographic and drug-specific variables were available for DataFest participants to use to help identify and predict patterns of misuse, with an emphasis on opioid medications.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, DataFest 2021 @ OSU was held virtually. Teams collaborated with mentors and with each other using a Discord server monitored by the DataFest organizers.
Dates: Friday, March 26th – Sunday, March 28th
DataFest 2021 by the Numbers
- 101 students participated in DataFest 2021.
- DataFesters came from 25 different majors...
- ...and 5 different colleges at the University.
- 28 teams completed the weekend-long challenge,
- analyzed hundreds of variables for nearly 100,000 survey responses
- and created video presentations that were reviewed by 9 judges made up of faculty and analytics leaders from business and industry.
- 15 mentors were on hand to work virtually with DataFest participants on a Discord server.
- Mentors included OSU faculty, graduate students and alumni, and statistics and analytics professionals from 4 companies locally and nationally.
Winning Teams
Awards were given in four categories:
Best Insight
Winning team name: rm -rf/
- Yuyang He
- Michael Li
- Yuxuan Wang
- Jiaxin Yang
- Jike Zong
Best Visualization
Winning team name: Java Beans
- Ray Chung
- Pierce Lonergan
- Caroline Pier
Best Use of External Data
Winning team name: The Plucky and Resourceful Group of Heroes
- Oscar Coppola
- Torey Hilbert
- Kat Husar
- Aditya Jambhale
- Chris Kimmel
Judges' Choice
Winning team name: 95% Confident
- Jeffrey Asa-Hauser
- Riley Jenkins
- James Ptak
- Manal Vakil
Finalists
Eight additional teams were selected as DataFest 2021 Finalists.
Team names & members
- 404: Ziru Chen, Yuechen Tang, Lang Xu, Dantong Xue
- Team Abracadata: Temidayo Babarinsa Aderibigbe, Vanya Jain, Yuye K, Bibhus Luitel, Jeffrey Outcalt
- Data Demons: Ananya Dhati, Jack Feds, Samridhi Kaushik, Yunqing
- notWorking: Karis Li, Steven Lin, Mimi Maula, Lena Zhang
- OSU ZOO: Chuhan Ma, Yixin Xu, Zhengqi Zhu
- Team Data Players: Jiaen Li, Siqi Liu, Yueyang Pan, Diaheng Zhang, Yuan Zou
- The Lasso Data Wranglers: Libby Mannix, Will Perry, Brittany Shine, Anneliese Welsh
- The Miner League: Caroline Eggett, Josh Ghosh, Abigail Longstreth, Robert Sunderhaft
Honorable Mentions
Three teams were selected by the judges to receive an Honorable Mention.
Team names & members
- Data Dogs: Nick Brizzi, Chris Holman, Patrick Tiernan
- The Purple Kangaroos: Gabi Lowenstein, Natasha Philips, Ainsley Young
- Who Needs Comments Anyway: Sashank Appikatla, Michael Fthenakis, Andrew Heiden