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The American Statistical Association (ASA) DataFest™ is a celebration of data in which student teams work around the clock to find and share meaning in a large, rich, and complex dataset.
 

Who may participate?

ASA DataFest™ at Penn State University is open to all Undergraduate and Master’s Degree students at Penn State University, as well as students from surrounding colleges and universities.

There is no fee to participate.

Students compete in teams of 3 to 5. You may form your own team prior to the event, or you may ask to be placed on a team. We encourage you to form teams of individuals from different disciplines because you will benefit from having team members of diverse backgrounds and skills. Final projects are limited to a maximum of 3 slides, so make your content count!
 

Registration

Each individual participating in ASA DataFest™ must submit a registration. If you form your own team, each member of your team must register separately and include the team name on the form. If you have not formed a team, you will have the chance on the registration form to request placement onto a team. Registration is limited to the first 300 people!

Coming Soon
 

During the event

Mentors will be available throughout the weekend to help you as you work through the data. Make sure to follow us on Twitter using @PSUDatafest and join us on Discord to stay informed on the latest updates and for the chance to win prizes!

Note that you do NOT need to be present the entire weekend to participate; you may come and go as you please, but we ask that you be there for the event kick-off on Friday and for the presentations and award ceremony on Sunday.
 

Rules

• Before downloading the dataset, you must sign the Non-Disclosure Agreement by agreeing to the terms of use and entering your name and email address. At the end of DataFest, delete all data from thumb drives, hard drives, etc. The data are sensitive.
• Should members of your team drop out at the last minute, you may be merged with another team that is also missing members.
• At all times between 9:00 am – 6:00 pm, there will be a friendly Consultant present. These are faculty or grad students. Feel free to ask anything. This is not an exam, but a colaboratory competition. Do not expect the Consultants to write code for you, or do data management, etc. They are there to help point you in the right direction, but you’re responsible for getting there on your own.
   

Judging and Prizes

Each team must present a short 3-minute video summarizing their findings to a panel of judges comprised of faculty and professionals from a variety of fields. Presentations are judged based on creativity, insight, visualization, and communication.
 

Resources

Looking for tools to sharpen your skills? We have compiled a list of current resources you may find useful: Statistics Related Resources.