Expanded data analytics challenge kicks off
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A data analytics challenge designed to give Indiana college students the chance to address real-world business needs kicked off Monday with an expanded group of participating universities.
The Crossroads Classic Analytics Challenge was established in 2021 with teams from Butler University, Indiana University, Purdue University and the University of Notre Dame.
This year’s competition adds the University of Indianapolis, IU Southeast, Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, and Ball State University to the mix.
Frances Bowen, assistant professor of data analytics and business intelligence in Butler’s Lacy School of Business, told Inside INdiana Business the program brings many benefits to students.
“Students have the opportunity to showcase the skill set that they’ve acquired at their respective universities,” Bowen said. “In addition to that, we bring together like minded people. So there’s a whole networking aspect amongst the students. And third, we also bring together people in industry with the students. This competition has placed people in jobs, it has formed new friendships, and it gives everybody a friendly forum to share their love for data.”
The focus of the 2024 challenge will be on fans of NCAA Division I women’s basketball and their propensity to buy tickets to championship events.
The NCAA is collaborating with the universities on the challenge by providing datasets of D1 women’s basketball customer information that can be used to create predictive models related to tickets sales for games.
For example, the students will work to determine if it’s possible to use the information the NCAA has on customers, along with external data, to predict whether or not a customer will purchase a ticket, and if so, if the ticket be purchased on the primary or secondary market.
The models created through the competition, according to the NCAA, will help identify potential customers, including those attending all rounds of the 2024 Division I Women’s Basketball Championship.
“When approached to collaborate with these schools from Indiana, it was an enthusiastic ‘yes!'” NCAA Senior Vice President of Business Performance Brian Higgins said in written remarks. “We are excited to help provide an opportunity for these talented students to gain valuable experience while helping us improve the experience for student-athletes and fans at our championships.”
But simply creating the predictive models is only one part of the competition. Bowen said there will be a heavy emphasis on communication. The students will focus part of their presentation on data visualization and explaining their models in an easy-to-digest way using a Salesforce program called Tableau.
“They’re trying to hit the all three points, which is the effectiveness of their model and how the NCAA can make business decisions from that, how do you deploy the model, but then tying that all together in an easy to digest way through data visualization,” Bowen said. “So the final judging will look at all three of those components.”
From now until the round one deadline on Feb. 29, students will participate in a series of virtual Q&A sessions, as well as a sports analytics town hall discussion at Butler. Final invitations will be sent on March 1, with presentations taking place at the NCAA national office in downtown Indianapolis on March 8.
Awards for the undergraduate and graduate competitions will be $2,500 for first place, $1,500 for second place and $500 for third place. The top teams in each division also will receive championship rings.
The addition of more higher education institutions to the competition has always been a goal for the program, but Jason Davidson, assistant professor of information systems in the Lacy School of Business, said another goal is to incorporate more high school students.
Davidson said students from Shortridge High School in Indianapolis were brought in to be a part of Monday’s kickoff event.
“The NCAA was very enthusiastic about it,” he said. “They allowed them to sit in and see the presentation of the case, and they addressed the students and talked about what it looked like to get a career in data analytics. We’re just thrilled about starting at the high school level thinking about what that career at an advanced STEM area would be.”
While no concrete plans are in place, Davidson said he’d love to have a high school component in next year’s competition while also potentially moving some of the events, such as the sports analytics town hall discussion to a local high school where students could attend.