Note: This document may be updated as the event approaches; any major updates will be clearly marked.
Code of conduct: https://datafest-edi.github.io/web/coc
Event schedule: https://datafest-edi.github.io/web/schedule
Gather (26 March, Friday, 6pm - 28 March, Sunday, 5pm): https://gather.town/app/PbWqm8eRXiMV0weZ/datafestedi
Consultant schedule: http://bit.ly/df21-consultant-schedule
Submission: http://bit.ly/df21-submit
Crowd sourced photos: http://bit.ly/df21-photos
Award ceremony (2 April, Friday, 12-12:30pm):
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/81929164489 (password: datafest21)
DataFest 2021 @ EDI will take place virtually, on Gather. This space will be available to your 24 hours, consultants will only be available until midnight.
The schedule is at https://datafest-edi.github.io/web/schedule/.
Kickoff begins at 6pm on Friday on Gather. Your presentations and writeups need to be submitted by 5pm on Sunday.
You are of course free to come and go as you please throughout the event, but we strongly recommend attending the kickoff. The consultants will be available for help until midnight; you can work as late/early as you like. We recommend checking out the consultant schedule to plan out your weekend.
Throughout the event we will be giving out raffle prizes. Announcements for these will be shared on Gather and/or Slack. Follow these channels to get a chance to win one of these sweet prizes! Winning will also require that you are on premises at the time a prize is announced.
When you get to Gather, you’ll land in a “reception area” where you can also find an information desk that will be staffed with one of the organizers before the kickoff. For the kickoff session head to the lecture hall. Once that’s over you’re welcomed to work in the workshop room (find the table with your team’s name on it) or hang out on the rooftop. We’ll hold social hours on the rooftop as well. Feel free to explore around and work with your team wherever it feels comfortable. Note that when you’re at a designated spot (like your team table) you’ll be able to talk to / share screen with just your teammates.
There is also a green “rug” in the workshop room where consultants will hang out after they’re done doing rounds. If you’re looking for a consultant, you can find them there. They’ll also name themselves with [Consultant] after their name, so that will be another way to recognize them.
You need to have your own computer to participate. We will provide RStudio Cloud access for those who are interested, but you’re welcomed to use any software/language/tool you like for your analysis. (We’ll share the RStudio Cloud link with you at the kickoff session.)
We recommend that you make sure beforehand that the software you will be using throughout the weekend is properly installed and running on your computer.
You might want to have handy some favourite statistical or computational reference books, if you have them, or bookmark some pages that you routinely refer to.
At the end of the kickoff presentation you will be given a secret link to download the data. This link will go offline by midnight. If you need to download the data again after that time, you can ask one of the organisers. The data will also be available on RStudio Cloud.
You will also be given a link to a Google Doc where you can ask questions about the data and a representative from the provider will answer them periodically throughout the event. We’ll share the link for this on Slack.
Each team will have 6 minutes to present their findings to the judges. That’s exactly 6 minutes, not 6 minutes and a few additional seconds, but it’s perfectly fine if your presentation is shorter. All team members should take part in the presentation. You will record this presentation using any tool you like. The easiest option might be to set up a Zoom call with your team and record it. We don’t expect any fancy editing, we just want to be able to see your slides/visualizations well and hear you well.
Along with your presentation you will also turn in a one-page write-up of your project. You can think about this as the text of your presentation. The judges will refer to these during deliberation.
If you’re also using a slide deck for your video, you should submit that as well. Or if you’ve made a web app, that must be deployed on the web and the link must be included in your write up. In short, make sure you give the judges everything they’ll need to evaluate your work.
You must upload your video and write up by 5pm on Sunday.
Teams who fail to upload their presentations and write-ups by 5pm will not be eligible to have their presentations judged.
The files you’re submitting must be named in the following manner:
If you’re also using a slide deck for your video, you can also submit that as
Best approach: Walk through it in your video and include a link to it in your write up / slide deck.
Judging will take place over the following week and the award ceremony will take place on Zoom on Friday, 2 April, 12pm-12:30pm UK time.
We will award prizes in the following categories:
These are listed in no particular order.
The judges also have the option to name a fourth winner as Judges’ Pick.
Winners will receive medals, and one-year student memberships to the American Statistical Association. See amstat.org/membership for membership benefits and e-student memberships to the Royal Statistical Society with free print copies of the Significance magazine.
Do not share the name of the data source publicly or on social media before May 1st. There are many other upcoming DataFests around the country and we want to make sure the dataset remains a surprise for them.
Clicking on the download link for the dataset means that you agree to the following Proprietary Statement from the data provider. You can freely share your results, presentations, findings, etc. as part of your digital portfolio, however you are not allowed to share the raw data with anyone outside of DataFest. At the end of DataFest, you must delete all data from thumb drives, hard drives, etc. The data are sensitive.
At all times between 9am-12 (midnight) there will be a friendly consultants present. They all have different areas of expertise, so if you get stuck on something and one consultant isn’t able to help, ask someone else later. Feel free to ask anything. This is not an exam, but a collaboratory 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.
Social media & Slack
We will use Slack and Gather for all internal communication during the event, as well as some surprise prizes! Make sure that you’re checking regularly.
You can also follow us on on Twitter @DataFestEDI and don’t hesitate to share the fun and thank our sponsors (except for the data provider, which we need to keep a secret for the time being) with the hashtag #ASADataFest21.