Fisher Brings Home the Gold

A team of three students from Fisher’s data analytics program recently earned gold at the American Statistical Association (ASA) DataFest, hosted by Rochester Institute of Technology, held March 21-23.

The annual competition challenges undergraduate students to dive into large, complex datasets provided by a real-world organization. The event brings together students from the Rochester area to tackle data challenges, collaborate, and grow professionally.

Senior Franklin Jones (data analytics major, economics and sport management minor), junior Haley Corteville (data analytics major, biology and economics minor), and first-year honors student Kyler Patrick (data analytics and economics major, sport management minor) competed against numerous teams from other universities. Students were given a large dataset and tasked with conducting visualizations and complex analyses as part of the competition, winning first place in the External Data category.

Jones said that the competition was a great opportunity for the team to apply what they have learned to an industry dataset and to see how other teams approached the same data. They also had the chance to meet with industry professionals.

“Meeting with professionals gave us insight toward how we can grow as analysts. The fact that we won gave us a lot of confidence that the new data analytics program at Fisher has prepared us well in our field,” he said.

Patrick added that because of the category the team chose to compete in, they spent a lot of their time cleaning and preparing the data used for their analysis. Once they integrated it with the data they sourced, they developed a comprehensive report on the analysis and presented it to the judges, competing alongside five teams.

All agree that though challenging, the opportunity to compete is one they would embrace and do again.

“It was a great opportunity to practice practical skills that we have learned in the classroom in more of a real setting. It also allowed us to work together as a team, sharing ideas and skills to reach a common goal,” said Corteville. “It was really great to work amongst students from different teams that share similar interests, and with professors and consultants who had experience and knowledge to share.”

Dr. Ben Niu, associate professor of economics, encouraged the students to pursue the opportunity and is proud of their results.

“Frank, Haley, and Kyler devoted more than 25 hours over the course of this two-day competition to earn a much-deserved victory. We are so very proud of their amazing accomplishment and are honored to have such exemplary students in the Data Analytics Program. They are a credit to St. John Fisher University,” he said.