DataFest 2026 has wrapped up, bringing together student teams for an intensive data analysis challenge that tested their ability to work quickly, think critically and communicate complex findings clearly.
This year’s competition asked participants to explore anonymized health-care encounter data provided through the American Statistical Association’s DataFest program. Teams were challenged to develop meaningful ways of understanding patient “journeys” through a health system, including how patients move from diagnosis to follow-up care, how different communities may experience care differently, and what patterns might help health administrators better meet patient needs.
Over the course of the competition, students worked collaboratively to define research questions, analyze complex data, create visualizations and present their findings to judges. The challenge encouraged participants to move from smaller questions toward larger stories, reflecting the exploratory and iterative nature of real-world data analysis.
The Department of Statistical Sciences congratulates all participants for their hard work, creativity and professionalism throughout the event.
This year’s award winners are:
Best Insight
Team Blues Data: Ian, Jayathra, Ryan and Yiding
Prize: $300 per team member and a workplace tour with Mehrnoush Divsalar, Back-end Development Manager at Manifold Data Mining, Inc.
Best Visualization
Team amysteriousdataset: Maira, Yiwei, Anh and Shannon
Prize: $250 per team member and a virtual coffee chat and resume review with Michelle Lin, Lead MLE / Software Engineer at Cove Neurosciences Inc.
Best Presentation
Team Fourcast: Felix, Xinyao, Kevin and Nora
Prize: $200 per team member and a virtual coffee chat with Dileshni Jayasinghe, VP of Engineering at Commonsku.
Honourable Mention
Team DeepSeeker: Shiming, Sunny, Nicole and Chuning
Prize: $100 per team member and a virtual coffee chat with Aries Rosales, Founder and Chief AI Strategist at AgentGenius AI.
Additional raffle prizes were awarded to Yamano Toshiaki of Team Outliers - 14; Xiaobin “Steven,” Zixao “Shawn” and Yuzhi “YZ” of Team Android Boys; and Shengqi “Michael” and Minfei “Judi” of Team Crunchers.
The Department of Statistical Sciences is grateful to the industry partners and professionals who contributed to this year’s prizes. In addition to monetary awards, Manifold Data Mining, Inc. offered an office visit, and professionals from Commonsku, Cove Neurosciences Inc., AgentGenius AI and Sun Life offered coffee chats, resume feedback and career-focused conversations. These opportunities gave students the chance to connect with industry professionals and learn more about career pathways in data science, statistics, software engineering and related fields.
Congratulations to the winners, prize recipients and every team that took part in DataFest 2026. The event showcased not only students’ technical skills, but also their ability to collaborate under pressure, ask thoughtful questions and turn data into compelling stories.