Arizona Chapter officers promote a DataFest hackathon to Arizona State University students. From left: vice president Jie (Jane) Pu, treasurer Yongzhao Peng, officers Shuo Jiang and Chantal Jubinville, and president Rodney Jee.

The Arizona Chapter kicked off the academic year with a meeting at Arizona State University in which newly elected chapter officers pitched the ASA’s DataFest to students and faculty.

The officers explained to 30 undergraduates from math, business, computer science, industrial engineering, and other majors what a great opportunity it was for them to take part in the 48-hour data hackathon.

Vice president Jie (Jane) Pu of Banner Health referenced past DataFest data to give the students a sense of what an open-ended data analysis task might look like. Officers Shuo Jiang and Chantal Jubinville, both of Discover Financial Services, talked about what student competitors or competition advisers could expect from taking part in the event.

Treasurer Yongzhao Peng of Arizona Heath Services explained that the chapter would take care of all expenses for this DataFest, so the event would essentially be free for them. President Rodney Jee of Discover held pre-registration for the competition and received 22 student entries.

With this strong degree of interest, the chapter will move into preparations for the event by soliciting sponsors, recruiting judges and advisers, arranging for meal service, and working with the university for a date and venue.

The meeting was hosted by John Stufken of the School of Mathematics and Statistical Sciences, which will provide event coordination for the spring competition.