The Government Statistics Section (GSS) will sponsor a data challenge in 2015. The contest, which challenges participants to analyze a public data set using any statistical and/or visualization tools and methods, is open to anyone, including college students and professionals from the private or public sector.

The data set is the U.S. Census Bureau’s tract- and block-planning databases.

Eight contestants will present their work in two sessions during JSM 2015 in Seattle. Four will give oral presentations in a topic-contributed session, while another four will give poster presentations as part of the GSS speed session.

There will be two $500 awards given, one for students and one for professionals.

The topic-contributed session is scheduled for August 12 from 2:00 p.m.–3:50 p.m. and includes the following presentations:

• Tailoring Outreach to Boost Mail Self-Response in Geographic Areas with Similar Low Response Rates —Darryl Creel
• Exploring the Census Bureau’s 2014 Planning Database Using Topological Data Analysis—Robert Baskin
• Informing Natural Disaster Response with Census Data —Jonathan Auerbach
• Optimizing Survey Cost-Error Tradeoffs: A Multiple Imputation Strategy Using the Census Planning Database—Shin-Jung Lee

The speed session will take place August 12 from 8:30 a.m. –10:20 a.m. and include the following presentations:

• Who Are the Nonvoters?—Bingchen Liu
• Census Tract-Level Disparities: Examining Food Swamps and Food Deserts—Lucy D’Agostino McGowan
• Exploring the Modifiable Areal Unit Problem—Talha Ali
• Determinants of Poverty in U.S. —Guillermo Basulto-Elias

We hope you will support Data Challenge 2015 by coming to these sessions in Seattle.