This year, Drake and DMACC are partnering to host the 2021 Basketball Data Analytics Battle to bring together high school and middle school teams to predict the results of the NCAA Basketball Tournament. Student teams use college basketball data from the last six seasons to create an algorithm that can predict the ten teams with the highest probability of winning the 2021 NCAA Tournament. The goal of this student challenge is to encourage and inspire high school and middle school students to compile collected data to make more careful and transparent decisions. Additionally, we hope that students can gain knowledge and experience through problem solving, analyzing, working with a team, compiling information, and creating an algorithm.
The pre-competition kick-off event is a virtual event which exposes attendees to education and career opportunities related to data analytics. Each year, the student team turnout and support for this event continues to grow. We appreciate the hard work of the student teams as well as the support from teachers, mentors, coordinators, student volunteers, and other supporters. Our program this year includes a number of inspirational leaders in the area of data analytics and we look forward to seeing you!