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Student team from the College of Business and Public Policy Pictured (left to right): Tamra Aguilar, Geoffrey Tomm, Gavin M. Northey, and Random Reamey

CBPP Student Team is a Finalist at the 2019 Data Challenge Hosted by Teradata University Network

On July 1, 2019, the Teradata University Network (TUN) announced the finalists and honorable mentions for the 2019 Analytics & Data Challenge. We are very proud to report that a student team from the College of Business and Public Policy, UAA will advance as a finalist to compete in the 2019 Teradata University Conference in Denver, Colorado this October!

For the 2019 Data Challenge, a non-profit organization, Hire Heroes USA, whose mission is to empower U.S. military members, veterans, and military spouses to succeed in the civilian workforce, partnered with Teradata University Network and provided multiple, large data sets as well as proposed business questions they would need answers to. Hire Heroes USA uses these data sets to make important operational and strategic decisions and student teams were to work on cleaning, consolidating, and analyzing the data sets to provide a road map for the non-profit.

Dr. Alpana Desai integrated the challenge into her CIS 470/670 Business Intelligence and Data Warehouses class this past spring and required her students to analyze the data sets, which were made available on February 1, 2019. With the complexity of the analytics and the large size of the data sets in mind, students had to remain focused and dedicated in order to submit by the May 31 deadline.

Student submissions were evaluated on the quality of analytics, quality of argumentation, writing quality and overall contribution to new knowledge. More than 40 submissions were carefully considered by a panel of 20 judges alongside Hire Heroes USA to narrow the finalists down to six for the Analytics Challenge and 10 for the Data Challenge. The teams will move on to present their findings in the 2019 Teradata University Conference in Denver, Colorado, which will take place from October 20-24, 2019. Each team selected as a finalist was awarded one Student Scholarship and one Faculty Scholarship for the event. After the teams have presented, conference attendees will cast their votes for various awards, including the Overall Winner and the Best Value to Hire Heroes USA. The winners will be recognized at a ceremony during the conference.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Alpana Desai and her student team, Geoffrey Tomm, Tamra Aguilar, Gavin M. Northey, Random Reamey, on this incredible accomplishment and wishing them luck in their upcoming challenge!