DataFest Germany 2024

The event is a data-based competition, also known as a “hackathon” which takes place annually, alternating between Mannheim and Munich, and hosted in cooperation with partners from industry and research institutions. 

Bachelor and Masters-level students of all subjects participate in teams of 3–5 persons, having 48 hours to gain the best insights and derive relevant analysis from an extensive data set, which is not revealed until the start of the event. Data is visualized, analysed, modelled and much more. At the end of the event, the students present their results to a jury of renowned data experts from business, science and DataFest alumni. Prizes will be awarded for the categories “Best Insight”, “Best Visualization” and “Best Use of Outside Data”.

During the competition, students are supported by a team of statistics and computer science experts from University of Mannheim as well as professional consultants from external partner institutions. In addition, participants have the opportunity to make contact with potential employers at the event's internal CareerFair.

Our Datafest Germany, is a celebration that follows upon the model initiated in the USA. DataFest™ has been a permanent feature of the American Statistical Association for several years now. The world's first DataFest took place at the University of California in 2011; since then, many other universities have taken up the format and offer DataFests. Today there are DataFest events worldwide. 

This year, we are glad to announce our partnership with the Competence Center for Data Quality in the Social Sciences (KODAQS), which will strengthen our mission to contribute to the professional development of future data scientists and growth of the data science community network in Germany. A team of Doctoral and Postdoctoral researchers will participate parallelly (and separately) to the main Datafest contest, with the mission to develop analytical proposals, methodologies and tools for data quality measurement. KODAQS is a collaboration between LMU, University of Mannheim and GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences. The project aims to foster a new culture for teaching data quality skills in the social sciences. For more information about KODAQS, please contact Dr. Luis Mejia Lopez (datafestmail-uni-mannheim.de)