The University of Michigan Ross School of Business’s Business+Tech program hosted its annual Datathon Competition from Feb. 1 through Feb. 6. Sponsored by PwC and Deloitte, the hybrid event had 217 student participants divided into 46 teams and featured challenges requiring students to propose dataset solutions using data analytics.
In an interview with The Michigan Daily, Business senior Zain Azeeza, Business+Tech scholar and Datathon Competition program lead, said the event was designed to be accessible to students of all experience levels.
“Our intention with this event was to make it very beginner friendly, so we had no barrier of entry in terms of the types of technical skills we required,” Azeeza said. “We wanted this event to be a learning opportunity for people within maybe non-technical areas. We wanted to give them the ability to learn data analytics so they can potentially apply it to a future job.”
At the Datathon, student teams presented their work to a panel of judges. In an interview with The Daily, Business+Tech Program Manager Emilee Studley said the Datathon encourages students to learn data storytelling.
“You really want to be able to craft a compelling story and convince people why they should invest in your idea or agree with you based on the data,” Studley said. “I think that’s a super great skill set that is often not taught as well in the classroom.”
This year’s theme was ‘State by State Tax Revenue’ and participants were given tax, economic output and demographic data for all 50 U.S. states. A team of five Rackham students — Alex Sheng, Pranav Jois, Kausik Das, Ian Augsburger and Shilong Yu — won. In an interview with The Daily, Jois said his team connected this data to recessions.
“We were just given a bunch of numbers, but Alex got us to the idea of thinking about recessions — how to predict them, how to mitigate them,” Jois said. “We eventually decided to hone in on thinking about the state of Michigan alone and what we could do to reduce the effect of any future recessions by seeing how different states fared during the 2008 financial crisis.”
Sheng told The Daily the team studied how states that were less impacted by the financial crisis had utilized rainy day funds, money reserved for unprecedented expenses. The team then created an algorithm implementing this strategy.
“It was a predictive algorithm, so you don’t need to know if there is a recession coming,” Sheng said. “The algorithm will predict it and then optimally dispense and save the funds as well — very tailor-fit toward Michigan. If we were given another state, we would also tailor-fit this algorithm or scheme towards that particular state.”
Sheng said he believed creating a presentation tailored to the audience was crucial to creating a successful project. Although all five team members were graduate math students, they aimed to explain their project in a way that could be understood by anyone.
“We wanted to make sure we could cater to that accordingly,” Shend said. “That was, I think, one of the big components that I’ve never done before — not including math in my presentations — but I think that was definitely a good judgment call by the team. In my opinion, that made us stand out.”
The competition also offered numerous chances for participants to connect with PwC and Deloitte. Studley said these opportunities went beyond quick interactions, as the Datathon allowed students to showcase their skills to company representatives.
“What I think is unique about the Datathon Competition is that you’re able to interact with industry that’s beyond a coffee chat,” Studley said. “What’s really valuable about this is these individuals get to see how you work. They get to see your recommendations and your value to a team that these people can never really get in a coffee chat.”
Azeeza said he thinks the Datathon is an extraordinary event that allows students to connect with experienced professionals in top companies.
“You’re not only practicing your ability to make a pitch and present, you’re presenting to people who are very well respected within their field,” Azeeza said. “Having that ability to present to people who have a lot of experience and have seen a lot of presentations and pitches before, I feel, is very unique to the Datathon.”
Daily Staff Reporter Grace Park can be reached at gracepm@umich.edu.
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