MinneMUDAC is a large data analytics competition held annually in the upper Midwest. It is a collaboration of the Midwest Undergraduate Data Analytics Competition (MUDAC) and MinneAnalytics, a large nonprofit organization that promotes sharing knowledge and ideas among analytics professionals.

MinneMUDAC coordinates with an industry sponsor each year to provide an analytics problem to be solved. The sponsor this year was the Minnesota Twins, and the event was hosted at their home, Target Field.

Rachel Knox, a junior data science major from Winona State University, said, “I have always enjoyed baseball and have gone to many MN Twins games, so being able to work on a project that was co-sponsored by the Twins was super cool and such an incredible opportunity. When I heard that the project was baseball related, it got me excited to participate in MinneMUDAC.”

Chris Malone, one of the co-organizers of this year’s competition said, “The MN Twins were wonderful to work with this year. Students were excited to investigate the factors that influence attendance at major league baseball games. Also, you cannot get any better than being able to present your findings to representatives from the MN Twins with home-plate as your backdrop.”

MinneMUDAC 2023 included about 50 academic advisers, who advised 225 student participants. About 125 working analytics professionals assisted with judging throughout the day.

Students participated in one of three divisions—novice, undergraduate, and graduate. Malone said, “For the first time, we had a high-school team participate in MinneMUDAC, and this team—from Minnetonka High School—took second place in the novice division! I can attest to the fact that the academic advisers were actively trying to recruit these students to attend their college.”

Participation in MinneMUDAC has continued to grow, and the event now reaches beyond the upper Midwest. Two teams from Boston University and one from Syracuse University flew to the Twin Cities to participate this year.