Fall Data Challenge 2019: Congratulations to our Winners!
November 21, 2019
In this year’s Fall Data Challenge, 55 teams submitted their recommendations on how to help solve homelessness in Los Angeles, Seattle or New York City using the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s 2018 Point-in-Time Estimate of Homelessness in the U.S. dataset.
According to HUD, an average of 553,000 people in America experienced homelessness on any given night in 2018. As homelessness becomes a greater issue year over year, creative solutions are needed. Statisticians are a key part of understanding the causes and coming up with ways to mitigate the homelessness crisis.
Students recommended creative and thoughtful ways to help solve homelessness in either Los Angeles, New York City or Seattle, including taking a deeper look into local housing pricing and crime rates, mental health and unemployment rates in order to fully understand the broader concept of homelessness. Student teams recommended establishing assistance programs, rapid rehousing, safe overnight parking, affordable housing and better shelter locations among other insightful suggestions.
Congratulations to our winning teams!
Best Overall:
Undergraduate:
Elena Martinez and Jack Mauro
Sponsored by Dr. Anna Bargagliotti
Loyola Marymount University, Los Angeles, CA
High School:
Kaushik Devireddy, Raymond Kuan, Martin Liu, David Shao
Sponsored by Claudia Smith
Valley Christian High School, San Jose, CA
Honorable Mention, Best Visualization:
Undergraduate:
Lev El-Askari, Gregory Gandy, Monce Barajas Gomez
Sponsored by Heather Kitada Smalley
Willamette University, Salem, OR
High School:
Cathy Chang, Kyle Lee, Judy Zhu
Sponsored by Claudia Smith
Valley Christian High School, San Jose, CA
Honorable Mention, Best Use of External Data:
Undergraduate:
Carl Bock, Daniel Hauptmann, Carl Lackmann
Sponsored by Dr. Michael Massmann
WHU, Otto Beisheim School of Management, Germany
High School:
Kartik Adimulam, Jameson MacMillan, Annie Ping, Brandon Tran, Elisa Zhang
Sponsored by Claudia Smith
Valley Christian High School, San Jose, CA
Thank you to all the teams that submitted their thoughtful and thorough analysis to this year’s Fall Data Challenge. Your statistics skills will be a force for positive change for years to come!
Stay tuned for our next contest! Statsketball launches this spring. Be the first to know by signing up for our email list here.






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