What It Took to Enter
University of Michigan students, staff, and faculty had an opportunity this year 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.
Student Challenge
The challenge was 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. Entrants could supplement the submission with additional publicly available data should you choose to do so. Visualizations needed to be publicly available for voting and judging.
Faculty/Staff Challenge
Faculty and staff could submit a visualization using the theme of the Big Ten (i.e., athletics, enrollment data, etc.). They could also submit an existing visualization used at their institution. Visualizations could pertain to the institution as a whole or to a specific initiative or population. Submissions needed to follow institutional data policies.
Submitted Entries
All entries needed to have been submitted by January 15 to U-M’s Institutional Coordinator.
U-M contest judges selected one entry in each category to represent our institution on the BTAA Data Challenge website. Judges looked for the following:
- clear and interesting data stories
- structure of the graphs and storyboards
- demonstrated data integrity
- overall quality of the aesthetic
Prizes
Prizes for U-M's top entries in each category included a $100 U-M Tech Shop gift card and a $50 gift card from the Office of the Provost.
Voting and the Data Viz Showcase
U-M’s entries have beed 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.
- 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].