From February 25th to March 6th, the QUESTech student organization hosted its second Datathon, sponsored by Fifth Tribe, this time in-person. The prompt inspired students to analyze a COVID-19 dataset and present their unique findings to “inspire future action to help towards ending the pandemic.” While the week-long event occurred in February, co-leads Tania Arya and Amod Mathur began planning months in advance. Arya and Mathur are both seniors majoring in computer science from Cohort 33.
QUESTech had hosted a smaller, virtual Datathon in spring 2021 during which participants examined a dataset of Islamophobic tweets and visualized significant insights. Further, QUEST students were able to learn more about a charged topic through data. Following the success of this Datathon, Arya and Mathur met with Khuram Zaman, the CEO of Fifth Tribe, who wished to sponsor the Datathon again. The team decided on a complex COVID-19 dataset with the idea that “participants could take the dataset and go whichever path of analysis and presentation,” according to Arya.
With this topic in mind, planning went into full effect. From hosting pre-workshops to determining judges to the nitty-gritty details in between, the entire QUESTech committee was hands-on. The finalized judges were esteemed QUEST alumni, Vivek Banerjee (Cohort 34) and Josh Kohn (Cohort 18), and CEO of Fifth Tribe, Khuram Zaman.
QUESTech’s goal was to create a Datathon that anyone could join to learn more about data analytics, and the Datathon helped with just that. A wide range of people, from experienced seniors to sophomores who had never taken a technical class, were able to participate and succeed in this opportunity. “You can use any coding method, not only Python,” co-lead Mathur emphasized. “Even Excel is a powerful tool for data analysis.”
Datathon Winners celebrate after the Final Presentations
Congratulations to all of the Datathon winners, and check out the QUESTech notion page for more information on their findings!
- 1st Place (tie): Mausam Patel (Cohort 33) & Sally Zhao (Cohort 36)
- 2nd Place: Michelle Lui (Cohort 34) & Rohit Tiwari (Cohort 36)
- 3rd Place: Amanda Liu (Cohort 37), Richard Zhou (Cohort 37), Daniel Choi (Cohort 37) & Rohan Uttamsingh (Cohort 38)