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Get involved at MUDAC 2024!

We are excited to announce that MUDAC 2024 will take place on April 6-7 at Minnesota State University, Mankato.

MUDAC, the Midwest Undergraduate Data Analytics Competition, is an exciting and prestigious data science challenge that has a strong tradition since 2012. After a multi-year hiatus due to Covid, we are delighted to host this event again!

Throughout its history, MUDAC has provided thousands of students with the opportunity to solve complex data problems, sponsored by industry partners. This rigorous 24-hour, non-stop competition showcases academic talent, innovative thinking, and resilience. In 2024, we anticipate welcoming hundreds of outstanding students from numerous universities across the Midwest. MUDAC is a collaborative effort led by Minnesota State University, Winona State University, and MinneAnalytics. This competition is dedicated to enhancing the education of undergraduate students who will soon be entering the data science/data analytics profession. MUDAC allows participants to showcase their analytical talent and promotes professional development.

MUDAC is a rigorous and prestigious competition. The 2019 and 2020 editions, hosted by Minnesota State University, Mankato, attracted hundreds of undergraduates from dozens of colleges and universities across the Midwest. In 2019, students tackled a complex data challenge concerning Minnesota's water quality. The 2020 event focused on improving Minnesota courts, with Thomson Reuters as the data sponsor.

The data sponsor for MUDAC 2024 is Agricultural Utilization Research Institute (AURI).

Minnesota State University

Registration

MUDAC 2017

Student Team Registration

Details

Due to limited capacity, each institution can register up to three undergraduate teams and one graduate team. Each team must consist of 2-5 students. We have space for a maximum of 40 undergraduate teams and 10 graduate teams, and registration is on a first-come, first-served basis. If more than 50 teams register, we will keep a waiting list and teams on the waiting list will be invited to the competition as spots become available (due to cancellation or a lack of payment). The registration deadline is set for March 29, 2024. However, please be aware that MUDAC reserves the right to close registration early if we reach the maximum team capacity before this deadline. The registration fee is $50 per team, plus an Eventbrite processing fee.

Only faculty advisors or their administrative designee can register student teams. After a team is registered through Eventbrite, the faculty advisors will receive instructions on how to assign individual students to their respective teams.

Undergraduate Team Registration (Eventbrite)

Graduate Team Registration (Eventbrite)

Payment
The cost of registration is $50 per student team plus Eventbrite processing fee. We prefer payment by credit card through Eventbrite. However, if paying by check, payment must be received before March 29, 2024. Make checks payable to Minnesota State University, Mankato. Mail payment to:

MUDAC (Attn: Steph Warning)
Department of Computer Information Science
Minnesota State University
273 Wissink Hall
Mankato, MN 56001

Cancellation/Refund Policy
Cancellations requested on or prior to March 29, 2024, will be eligible for a refund of the registration fee (minus processing fee). After March 29, 2024, however no refunds will be issued.


Judge Registration

Judge Registration (Eventbrite)

MUDAC is in need of industry professionals and college/high school faculty to serve as judges on Sunday, April 7, 2024. Judge check-in and breakfast will start at 8:30 AM, with judge orientation scheduled for 9:15 AM, and the final round ending around 3 PM. If necessary, judges can participate in just the first round, which ends around 12:15 PM. Judges do not need to prepare for the competition in advance. They do not need to be experts in data science, statistics, or agriculture; industry professionals from any background are welcome. Each judge team will include at least one industry professional and one academic professional. If you are an industry professional, we will place you in a team that includes at least one academic, and vice versa. We will provide detailed information about the data challenge and grading rubric during judge orientation.

MUDAC brings together professionals from various fields, providing an excellent opportunity to network with peers, educators, industry leaders, and students. As a judge, you have the chance to inspire and encourage students who are passionate about data science and related fields. Your feedback can significantly influence their future career choices and interest in data science and related fields. For industry professionals, observing the creativity and dedication of students at MUDAC can be immensely rewarding, especially in terms of identifying and recruiting top talent for their organizations.

Judge registration is available at no cost. Throughout the day, lunch, snacks, and coffee will be provided.

Judge Registration (Eventbrite)

Event Schedule

The event schedule will be available soon. Generally, the event will start at 8:30 am on Saturday, April 6, 2024, and will conclude around 3:30 pm on Sunday, April 7, 2024.

Judging

Rules

CONTEST RULES

  1. All participants must be willing to sign a confidentiality agreement regarding the data, if required. All results and conclusions may not be publicized in any form without written consent from the data sponsor.

  2. All work must be completed in the designated space and time frame for the contest.

  3. Participants may seek guidance from the following

    • Contest Coordinators
    • Designated Faculty Advisors (though this guidance will be limited to designated times)
    • Any learning resource (e.g. textbooks, course notes, wiki pages, software documentation, sample code, websites, etc.)
  4. Any communication with anyone not directly involved with the competition is strictly prohibited.

WRITTEN SUMMARY RULES

The written summary should clearly describe your approach to the problem, with a prominent focus on your most important conclusions. More information about the rules will be provided soon.

ORAL PRESENTATION RULES

The information regarding the rules for the oral presentation will be provided soon on this website.

FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions:

Who may participate and what exactly constitutes a team?

A team consists of 2-5 undergraduate or gradute students. If an institution has too few (or too many) students to form teams of 2-5 people, the organizers will place any extra students into a team from another institution so that they can participate in the competition. Each team must consist exclusively of either undergraduate or graduate students; a mix of undergraduate and graduate students within the same team is not allowed. The challenge questions for graduate teams will feature additional complexity and rigor.

Is there a registration fee?

For MUDAC 2024, a registration fee of $50 plus processing fee per student team will be required to help cover expenses.

When will you open student team registration?

The online registration process will open on January 22, 2024 through Eventbrite.

How do I register my team(s)?

Initial team registration will be initiated by the faculty advisor of the team(s). Please visit the registration page for further details.

Is there a registration deadline?

Yes. For MUDAC 2024, all participants must register and pay the registration fee by Friday, March 29, 2024. Due to space limitations, we may close registration at an earlier time.

Is there a limit on how many teams a school can enter?

A maximum of three undergrduate teams and one graduate team per university/college will be allowed to register. Requests for additional teams will be considered if there are still spaces open.

What resources will be provided for each participant?

Each team will be provided with:

  • An independent workspace (most likely a classroom)
  • Snacks and beverages
  • Lunch on Saturday and Sunday
  • Breakfast on Sunday
  • Dinner on Saturday evening

Will sleeping arrangements be made for the students?

No formal sleeping arrangements will be made for students; however, we encourage students to bring a sleeping bag / pillow so that they can get some rest during the event.

If a faculty advisor is unable to attend the event, can they still provide some guidance to their students virtually?

Yes, limited guidance can be provided by advisors virtually. Advisors will be asked to adhere to an Honor Code to ensure fairness.

Will sleeping arrangements be made for faculty advisors?

Faculty advisors will need to make their own hotel arrangements. Below is contact information for some Mankato hotels. There are additional hotels in the area and can be found by doing a quick search for Mankato hotels.

What should teams bring?

  • Laptops with software installed
  • Reference materials (helpful textbooks, notes from past classes, etc.)
  • A sleeping bag
  • A water bottle, garments, a toiletries bag, medicines, a cell phone
  • Lots of energy!

Who are the judges?

Judges will consist of faculty from the various institutions, industry representatives, and domain experts.

When do you need the judges?

The judges are needed from 8:30 am to 4 pm on Sunday, April 7, 2024. This exciting event will be an opportunity to help students enrich their analytics skills and to network with academics and industry professionals from throughout the Midwest and industry professionals from Mankato, the Twin Cities, and the surrounding area. Lunch and snacks will be provided to the judges.

What are the competition guidelines?

All participants and advisors may need to sign a confidentiality agreement prior to the start of the competition, which will be done when teams check in on Saturday morning.

The integrity of the competition is of utmost importance, so faculty advisors will be able to provide only limited guidance to their students throughout this competition. The expectation is that students, not faculty advisors, are directing and completing the work. Finally, to ensure that all teams are making progress toward meeting the competition goals, all participants meet as a large group at specific time periods to obtain data briefings.

What level of statistics and computing background is necessary?

This data-intensive competition requires that all participating teams have completed at least one college course in statistics and/or computer programming. Additionally, teams should be proficient in handling large datasets using standard data analytics software, such as SAS, JMP, Minitab, R, Python, Tableau, or SPSS. However, having an advanced analytics background or experience in data science or statistics does not guarantee success. Historically, competition winners have stood out for their innovation, creativity in summaries and visualizations, and the ability to communicate their findings in a clear, understandable manner.

How many divisions are there this year?

Teams can compete in one of three divisions: novice, undergraduate, and graduate. The novice division is meant for students who are generally freshmen and have taken just one course in either statistics, computer programming, or both. The undergraduate division is meant for students who have taken more than one course in statistics or data science. A team should register in the graduate division if it has one or more graduate students in it. After the faculty advisor or their designee has registered the team, they will be provided with information about assigning individual students to a team and division.

What can you tell me about this year's data challenge?

The tradition at MUDAC is that we never disclose the data challenge or provide access to the data in advance. This practice ensures the rigor for which MUDAC is known. The only information we disclose prior to the competition is the identity of the data sponsor, which is the Agriculture Utilization Research Institute (AURI).

My faculty advisor has registered our team. When will we get information about the next steps?

Expect to receive an email at the address your advisor has provided to us by April 1. However, please plan to arrive by 8:30 AM on the day of the event (April 6), at Minnesota State University, Mankato. The email will include additional details, such as parking information.

Media Coverage & Photos

MUDAC 2019 Media Coverage

Telling a story through statistics: MSU hosts data analytics competition (The Free Press)

Students Tackle Water Quality with Data Analytics (KEYC - News 12)

MNSU hosts eighth annual MUDAC conference (The Reporter)

Midwest Undergraduate Data Analytics Competition Coming to Minnesota State Mankato (MNSU)

MUDAC 2019 Photos

Group Photo

MUDAC 2019 Participants

Data Briefing

"Meet & Greet the Data" Session

Reception

Reception & Dinner

Bollywood Dance

Bollywood Dance (Reception)

Drumline

Maverick Machine Drumline (Reception)

Judging

First Round Judging

Judging

First Round Judging

Career Fair

MUDAC Career Fair

First Place

First Place: UW-Eau Claire (team 30)

Second Place

Second Place: University of Iowa (team 33)

Second Place

Third Place: Carlton College (team 03)

Data Visualization - First Place

Data Visualization First Place: University of Minnesota, Duluth (team 52)

Data Visualization - Second Place

Data Visualization Second Place: Minnesota State University, Mankato (team 56)

MUDAC 2020 Winners

  • First Place: Minnesota State University, Moorhead (team 32)
    Eric Honebrink, Thierry Oke, Jacob Pawlowski, Gabriel Wilberscheid, Tomas Zamba
    Faculty Advisor: Kristofer Schlieper

  • Second Place: Winona State University (team 26)
    Aaron Augustine, Connor Demorest, NDri Diby, Adam Funk
    Faculty Advisor: April Kerby

  • Third Place: University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire (team 14)
    Collin Goldsworthy, William O'Brien, Andrew Senapatiratne, Isaac Swenson
    Faculty Advisor: Abra Brisbin

  • Data Visualization First Place: University of Minnesota, Duluth (team 39)
    Kellen Bergs, Anna Plotnik, Matthew Schmitz, Kameron Stone, Lane Vugteveen
    Faculty Advisor: Steve Sharkey

  • Data Visualization Second Place: Minnesota State University, Mankato (team 37)
    Taisuke Usumi, Nusrat Chaity, Lindsay Miller, Alison Millerbernd, Junsoo Seo
    Faculty Advisor: Soumya Banerjee

  • Serendipitous Discovery: University of Wisconsin-Madison (team 25)
    Kexin Hu, Haiyan Tian, Zhilin Wang, Fengyi Zheng, Xiaoyuan Zhong
    Faculty Advisor: Anna Bykhovskaya

  • Honorable Mention: University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (team 08)
    Nathaniel Budijono, William Chan, Stuart Fronk, Kevin Meng-Lin
    Faculty Advisor: Gary Hatfield

  • Honorable Mention: University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire (team 20)
    Matt Derksen, Tyler Jeffries, Jordyn Lipsey, Eric Mallmann, Brady Welsh
    Faculty Advisor: Abra Brisbin

The first round rankings and scores have been sent to the student teams and their advisors.

Contact

Inquiries: MUDAC Support Team
Email: mudac2024@gmail.com
Phone: 507-389-1304

MUDAC 2024 Steering Committee:

  • Dr. Rajeev Bukralia, Minnesota State University, Mankato (Chair)
  • Dr. Chris Malone, Winona State University (MUDAC Founder)
  • Dan Atkins, MinneAnalytics (Lead Sponsor/Industry Lead)

MUDAC 2024 Organizing Committee:

  • Dr. Rajeev Bukralia, Minnesota State University, Mankato (Chair)
  • Stephanie Warning, Minnesota State University, Mankato (Event Logistics Lead)
  • Katie Hodgden, Minnesota State University, Mankato (Employer Lead)
  • Ben Braswell, Minnesota State University, Mankato (Sponsorship Lead)
  • Saumya Gautam, Minnesota State University, Mankato (DREAM/student representative)
  • Dr. John Burke, Minnesota State University, Mankato
  • Emily Fredrick, Minnesota State University, Mankato
  • Dr. Janice Aanenson, Minnesota State IT Center of Excellence
  • Dr. Michael Hart, Minnesota State University, Mankato
  • Dr. Flint Million, Minnesota State University, Mankato
  • Dr. Mezbahur Rahman, Minnesota State University, Mankato
  • Dr. Namyong Lee, Minnesota State University, Mankato