Students Compete at USF Business Analytics Hackathon

Students are able to learn a wide variety of skills in various classes but rarely have the chance to use all they have learned on one project. However, the hackathon was a unique chance for our team to use an array of classroom skills in conjunction to tackle a single problem. Working closely with my team members in a project outside of class or a club was a much different dynamic than what I had experienced before. The hackathon gave our team broad space in which to build our predictive policing solution. Thanks to the open-ended nature of the Hackathon I was able to learn new strategies and technologies that peaked my individual interest and apply them for the benefit of the team. Most notable was the integration of TabPy, an open source server, that allows Tableau to execute and display Python code within the visualization software.  

The final presentations from the competing schools were also an unexpected learning opportunity. The different approaches to the same problem spurred interesting and unique strategies I had not considered. That exchange of ideas between the teams presented me new ways of tackling problems in the future to develop more creative and encompassing solutions to business problems. The Hackathon was an event that gave me unexpected insight into what aspects of Business Analytics I am most interested and fostered a stronger desire to experiment with technologies I might not have had the chance to work with in a classroom setting. The opportunity to participate in the Business Analytics Hackathon was a true delight and is an experience I am proud to say I represented Cal Poly Pomona at.