LATROBE, PA – Over 100 students from nine area high schools recently participated in Saint Vincent College’s inaugural Data Derby.
The event, held from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 13, introduced high school students to the fields of data science and business data analytics, and gave them the chance to work in teams to tackle a real-world problem using data. Students analyzed and interpreted data to answer an open-ended prompt before presenting their findings to judges. This year’s prompt involved data collected at Saint Vincent College on water purity and quality.
Students from Gateway High School, Greensburg Central Catholic High School, Greensburg Salem High School, Derry Area High School, Bishop Carroll High School, Jeannette Senior High School, Norwin High School, McKeesport Area High School and the Kiski School participated in the Data Derby.
The event featured 101 students who formed 25 teams. They competed in two divisions: the introductory track, which featured high school freshmen and sophomores, and the advanced track, which consisted of juniors and seniors.
The Saint Vincent College Data Derby was organized by Dr. Mary Regina Boland, C’10, assistant professor of data science, and Dr. Justin Petrovich, C’14, associate professor of statistics and business analytics and chair of the Marketing, Analytics and Global Commerce Department at the College. One major goal of the Data Derby was to generate awareness of the fields of data science and business data analytics among area high school students.
“We live in a world where data is proliferating, and jobs that utilize, manage and make sense of data are needed across a broad spectrum of the workforce,” said Boland, who counted healthcare facilities, airports, supply chain management, oil industry and others across that range. “We wanted to create a fun event that would engage high school students in the types of analyses that would be needed if they were to pursue either data science or business data analytics as a career.”
Students were tasked with analyzing data Saint Vincent College collected that measured the vitality of waterways for fishing, human use and other important public health issues. The students engaged with this data, asked critically important questions and answered those questions with the data.
“This was exciting to see and a great example of budding data scientists,” Boland said. “We hope to see all of the students next year either competing again if they are still in high school or here on campus if they are seniors and they chose to attend Saint Vincent College.”
In developing this event, Petrovich said planners have noticed that many high school and college students are not well versed in what data analytics and data science entails, nor are they aware of the possible career paths involved should they decide to study these disciplines.
“We thought that, in addition to arranging a fun competition based on data, we could help solve this problem by bringing together some of our alumni who work in the field, some of our students who are currently studying data science or business data analytics, and some faculty to show how they use data in their fields,” Petrovich said. “By all accounts, we thought the Data Derby achieved these goals and then some. It was great seeing these four groups—faculty, alumni, college students and curious high school students—interact and learn from each other. We were also, frankly, blown away by the creativity and analytical skills of these high school students.
Organizers sought feedback during the event from participants, many of whom were pleased to learn about the wide range of jobs in the fields and “how much data analytics is used in real life.”
“Data is not [just collected] information,” one student shared, “but [can lead to] the realization of something.”
Pam Cullen, STEM coordinator and Tutoring Center coordinator at Greensburg Central Catholic, noted she was impressed with the professionalism on display at the Data Derby.
“Students had the opportunity to speak in a professional setting in front of industry professionals. They were certainly a little nervous but also proud of what they accomplished,” Cullen said. “It was a day of learning, too. Data science and data analytics is a field that I think our students need more exposure to, and meeting and hearing from professionals working in these fields gave them a good introduction.
“I think Saint Vincent did a terrific job of opening this field to them and making the challenge accessible to our younger students. Hopefully, some of them will consider a career in data analytics [or] data science.”
A grand prize of $500 was awarded to the winning team in each competitive track. Second- and third-place teams also received prizes.
Advanced Track
The grand prize in the advanced track went to Gateway students Rocco Donnelly, Sylvie Hardono, Ethan Settlemire and Isabelle Stanley.
Second place went to Greensburg Central Catholic students Nolan Althof, Emma Hrbek, Kennedy Kelly and Trixie Lim.
Two teams tied for third place: Bishop Carroll students Rosalie Golden, Helene Saxion and Sullivan Waterhouse, and Derry Area students Brennan Borbonus, John Kerin, Emily Laughlin and Liam McMahen.
Introductory Track
The grand prize in the introductory track went to Greensburg Central Catholic students Alana Coletti, Cayla Kelly, Maximilian Kline and Rhys Weber.
Second place went to Greensburg Central Catholic students Jason Eziagulu, Timothy Foss, Johaan George and Tommy Stilley.
Third place went to Greensburg Central Catholic students Sam Dlugos, Addie Gill, Vinnie Horensky and Shea House.
Presenters at the event included:
Michael Arabia, C’10, director of operations, logistics services at United States Steel
Zachary Bono, C’11, senior vice president, director of business services at Federated Hermes
Dr. Andrew Herr, professor and chair of the Economics Department at Saint Vincent College
Dr. Stephen Jodis, dean of the Herbert W. Boyer School of Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Computing at Saint Vincent College
Alex Krieger, C’18, business analytics consultant senior at PNC Bank
Patrick McCann, associate manager and HR business partner at Lockheed Martin
Patrick O’Reilly, C’15, associate director, market intelligence at Federated Hermes
Abigail Schwartz, C’23, business process analyst associate at Lockheed Martin
Dr. Peter Smyntek, associate professor of environmental education and biological sciences at Saint Vincent College
Sara Stefanik, C’09, director of the Center for Evidence Capacity at the Data Foundation
Dr. Michael Urick, C’04, dean of the Alex G. McKenna School of Business, Economics and Government at Saint Vincent College
