COVID-19 DISCLAIMER AND INFORMATION
Due to unforeseen circumstances regarding COVID-19, STEM Fellowship has taken the initiative to make the Big Data Challenge take place entirely online. This means that there will be absolutely no need to attend in-person workshops and training sessions, and everything will be delivered online.
Public Announcement
This year we had a record-breaking number of registrations with 179 registered teams for our annual Undergraduate Big Data Challenge (unBDC)! This year’s challenge resulted in a diverse amount of participants. The teams consisted of 519 participants in total, with 249 of them identifying as female and 270 as male. The participants weren’t alone however, as we had over 48 mentors there to guide and encourage the participants.
The 2020 unBDC has 3 separate publication prizes, as well as 2 prizes for engaging with large health organizations, being Diabetes Action Canada and Roche Canada. Winners were eligible to win prizes with this year’s pool consisting of over $7500 worth in monetary and technological prizes! The Big Data Challenge takes place from May 22 – 31, 2020, with the finale event held in mid-July. In order to determine a winner in the best way possible, there will also be a total of 9 different judges.
This year’s theme of Personal and Public Health Decisions in a New Open Data Reality, encouraged students to apply analytical and computational approaches to analyze the open data. This year’s analysis was based on open data from Health Canada, United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Drug Bank, the National Cancer Institute, Google Data Search, and more. The 5 different workshops as well the unBDC were held entirely online.
How It Works
- Form and register teams of up to 4.
- Participants are offered data science workshops, various analytical tools like SAS, R, and Python, and mentorship from experts in academia and industry.
- Teams submit their results as research manuscripts.
- The finalists are then invited to defend their findings in front of a panel of experts to compete for prizes.
- All submitted abstracts are published in the peer-reviewed STEM Fellowship Journal through the NRC Research Press.
- The BDC will take place from May 22 to 31, 2020, with the finale event held in mid-July.
- All aspects of the BDC will occur online.
Theme
Exploring the complexities and challenges of public and personal health decisions using open biomedical, social, and economic data.
The challenge will be based on the analysis of open data from:
Through this challenge, students will:
- Collect and analyse data to investigate the validity of popular health claims within the media, by critically considering the implications of the data and attempting to establish objectivity.
- Gain insight into how public health data plays a role in public policy, individual decisions, and economic/financial actions.
- Characterise, understand, and predict the public health and socioeconomic effects of potentially disingenuous health claims within the media.
- Explore a wide variety of open data in order to test novel hypotheses.
Identify and suggest policies and decisions in various areas of health and biomedical science that impact both individuals and the general public.
Why Participate?
- Participate in workshops to learn key data science skills.
- Interact remotely with mentors and students across Canada.
- Have your work published in the peer-reviewed STEM Fellowship Journal! The top 3 finalists have full manuscripts published and all participants have their abstracts published.
Prizes
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National Diabetes Repository Data and Workshop
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Opportunity to engage with Roche
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Public and Personal Health Presentation Awards
- 1st Prize: $1500 + Publication
- 2nd Prize: $600
- 3rd Prize: $400
Public and Personal Health Decisions Research Excellence Awards- 1st Prize: $1500 + Publication
- 2nd Prize: $600 + Publication
- 3rd Prize: $400
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$1500 worth of technological prizes
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More to come soon!
WE EMPHASIZE FOUR KEY SKILLS
Computational Thinking
The ability to translate aggregates of data into abstract concepts and conduct data-based reasoning.
Social Intelligence
The ability to participate in the collaborative construction of solutions.
Design Mindset
The ability to create solutions in contexts where only part of the requirements are known.
Cognitive Load Management
Examine many data sources and filter excess information in order to produce successful solutions.
BIG DATA CHALLENGE WORKSHOP
Here are samples of last year’s workshops to give you an idea of this year’s live, interactive workshops. This year, we will have workshops that focus on statistics, data manipulation, data analysis, machine learning, and more! We encourage you to read these ahead of time to help prepare you for the upcoming BDC.
WHAT IS THE BIG DATA CHALLENGE?
The Big Data Challenge (BDC) for undergraduate students is an inquiry-driven experiential learning program that invites students from across the country to strengthen their problem-solving and critical thinking skills while gaining familiarity with the fundamentals of data science.
DO I NEED PREVIOUS PROGRAMMING EXPERIENCE?
You do not need previous experience with programming, although it is recommended. We welcome all students who are eager to put effort into learning and expanding their skillsets, as well as those who show any level of interest in data science or the challenge topic.
HOW DO I FORM OR JOIN A TEAM?
We encourage participants to start forming teams before the event. You may also register and participate on your own or request to be placed into a team after registration.
DO I NEED TO HAVE AN IDEA FOR MY PROJECT?
Think about what interested you the most in the field of the provided topic. Reflect on your day-to-day; talk to your friends and professional network from academia and industry; explore emerging technologies and platforms; read the internet and research articles. In hackathons like these, many teams come up with their topics in the first few days of the challenge, rather than beforehand.
DOES STEM FELLOWSHIP PROVIDE TRAVEL GRANTS?
We subsidize travel expenses for our finalists to attend the Big Data Day, up to a fixed amount. You will need to fill out the following application by October 15th.
I RECENTLY GRADUATED, AM I ELIGIBLE TO PARTICIPATE IN THE UNDERGRADUATE BIG DATA CHALLENGE?
Yes, anyone who has graduated within 12 months is eligible to register for our Big Data Challenge.
Interested, but not an undergraduate student?
Check out our High School Big Data Challenge Click Here972 total views, 2 views today