What You Need to Know
University of Michigan students, staff, and faculty have an opportunity to challenge their peers at other Big Ten institutions by showcasing their data visualization skills and competing for the title of Big Ten Academic Alliance Data Viz Champion. Details for entering the competition are provided below!
Student Challenge
Your challenge is to use the U.S. National Park Visit Data (1979-2023) – Responsible Datasets in Context (responsible-datasets-in-context.com) to devise a data visualization to address the question(s) of your choice. You may supplement with additional publicly available data should you choose to do so. Your visualization should be publicly available for voting and judging. Have fun and be creative!
To be eligible, you must be actively enrolled at U-M for graduate or undergraduate coursework, thesis, or dissertation study.
Faculty/Staff Challenge
Submit a visualization using the theme of the Big Ten (i.e., athletics, enrollment data, etc.). You can also submit an existing visualization used at your institution. Visualizations can pertain to the institution as a whole or to a specific initiative or population. Submissions should follow institutional data policies.
Submit Your Entry
All entries must be submitted by Wednesday, January 15, 2025 to U-M’s Institutional Coordinator by completing the necessary form below:
Submissions will need to include:
- an image for use in a thumbnail
- a title
- a short description
- a publicly available URL
Once Your Entry Has Been Submitted
U-M contest judges will select one entry in each category to represent our institution on the BTAA Data Challenge website. Judges will be looking for the following:
- clear and interesting data stories
- structure of the graphs and storyboards
- demonstrated data integrity
- overall quality of the aesthetic
The top entrant in each category will be notified by January 22, 2025.
Prizes
Prizes for U-M's top entries in each category will include a $100 U-M Tech Shop gift card!
Voting and the Data Viz Showcase
U-M’s entries will be posted, by category, along with other schools’ entries on the BTAA Data Challenge website. Members of the BTAA community – that includes your friends, classmates, and colleagues! – will be invited to vote to determine the winners.
- Voting will be conducted on dates to be shared soon.
- The visualization with the most votes for their category will win the Challenge.
- Those voting will need to log in from an account associated with a Big Ten institution to ensure folks only vote once.
- U-M’s top entrants will be invited to present their work alongside other entrants in the Data Viz Showcase.
At the end of the showcase, the results of the voting will be announced and the Challenge Winners crowned.
Gallery of Vizzes
To highlight the work being done across all institutions, entries receiving honorable mentions will be submitted for display in the BTAA's Gallery of Vizzes. These will be visualizations that were submitted to institution competitions, but were ultimately not chosen as the institution’s entry to the Challenge.
For More Information
Contact U-M’s BTAA Love Data Week institutional coordinator at [email protected].