UNC Charlotte students take honors in international data analytics competition

A team of four UNC Charlotte students was recognized with the People’s Choice Award in the 2016 Teradata University Network (TUN) Data Challenge, an international data analytics competition.

Laxmi Narayana Atluri, Sri Harsha Degala, Vrushali Sawant and Freddy Cabrera, all graduate students in data science and business analytics, demonstrated their findings at the 2016 Teradata PARTNERS Conference and Expo, and won the support of 3,500 of the world’s most advanced data and analytics experts and business leaders.

Student advisor and Belk College of Business Associate Professor of Management Information Systems Kexin Zhao said UNC Charlotte’s recognition is proof of the University’s success in preparing students to meet the demand for “big data” experts.

“The outstanding performance of our students indicates UNC Charlotte’s commitment and ability to produce the world’s best analytics professionals,” Zhao said.

Since 2014, the Teradata University Network has organized student competitions through both a “Data Challenge” and an “Analytics Challenge.” This year, UNC Charlotte had the highest representation among the 17 final teams, with two UNC Charlotte teams selected as finalists in the Data Challenge and three UNC Charlotte teams as finalists in the Analytics Challenge. Throughout the competition, they went up against more than 70 global teams from schools such as Carnegie Mellon University, North Carolina State University, University of Waterloo and the NIDA Business School in Thailand.

In this competition, student teams were provided the same data set to examine, analyze and visualize, and they were tasked to present their findings and results. The data set for the 2016 TUN Data Challenge was provided by Hire Heroes USA, a nonprofit organization that empowers transitioning U.S. military members, veterans and their spouses to succeed in the civilian workforce. Teams were evaluated on originality and ability to take business action based upon questions and answers provided by the team’s analysis of the data set; how compelling were the presented business and analytical arguments; and quality and organization of presentation materials.

Jared Hansen, UNC Charlotte associate professor of marketing, was an advisor to the student finalists in the 2016 Analytics Challenge.

“It is wonderful to see that the significance of the projects that our students are completing are of industry-recognized, award-winning caliber,” he said. “This recognition speaks volumes to the quality of our DSBA-related program courses, faculty, and most importantly, the students. It is great to see the students have this opportunity to showcase their learning.”

University student teams coordinated their TUN challenge submissions with final projects required for several data science and business analytics graduate classes. “Big Data,” “Advanced Business Analytics” and “Visual Analytics” were some of the classes that prompted TUN submissions.

UNC Charlotte’s Professional Science Master’s (PSM) program in Data Science and Business Analytics (DSBA) is an interdisciplinary program at the intersection of business, computer and information sciences, statistics, and operations research. DSBA graduates are well equipped for employment in a wide variety of data-intensive industries, such as financial services, energy, retail/supply chain, or health care, where the need for business analysts with quantitative, computational, and sophisticated analytical skills is growing at an explosive pace.

Photo (from left) Laxmi Naragana Atlurri, Sri Harsha Degala, Ramesh Sharda (TUN executive director), Vrushali Sawant and Freddy Cabrera.