Two teams of Rose-Hulman students are taking part in the Crossroads Classic Analytics Challenge (CCAC), an annual academic competition that brings together undergraduate and graduate students from top Indiana schools to compete while solving the real business challenges.  The competition is co-sponsored by NCAA, Tableau, and Visualize Your Technology.

This year's challenge focuses on ticket sales for the 2024 NCAA Division I Women's Basketball Championship.

Taking on the task are teams with eight students majoring in computer science, software engineering, and mathematics. The Fighting Engineers team is led by senior Dillon Duff and includes classmates Will Hawkins, Lyra Lee, and Emma Letscher. The Rose Miners team is led by William Gardner and has fellow seniors Xander Good, Xianshun Jiang, and Nathan Loafman.

Supporting the students’ efforts are faculty members Olga Scrivner, PhD, assistant professor of computer science and software engineering, and John McSweeney, PhD, associate professor of mathematics.

“This data analytics competition allows our students to apply their technical knowledge to address a real business challenge,” said Scrivner, one of the CCAC faculty champions. “It’s a great resume-building experience that emphasizes communication skills in addition to data science skills. This year’s (February 5) kickoff event at NCAA is particularly special as we hosted Indianapolis Public Schools students to raise awareness in data analytics and encourage them explore our undergraduate college programs.”

Participating students also can collaborate with Sales Force (Tableau) representatives and learn about sports analytics from leading industry experts in a virtual Town Hall.

Over the next month, Rose-Hulman’s teams will analyze ticket sales data and external information to develop predictive models that identify potential customers for women's basketball championship events. The Kaggle competition leaderboard will rank teams’ progress. Only one team from each college will be invited to the final round, presenting their analytics approaches and visual insights to judges March 8 at the NCAA national office in Indianapolis. Cash prizes and championship rings will be awarded to members of the top student teams.

“We are excited to help provide an opportunity for these talented students to gain valuable experience while helping us improve the experience for student-athletes and fans at our championships," stated NCAA Senior Vice President of Business Performance Brian Higgins in a news release announcing this year’s event.

Other Indiana colleges with student teams participating in this year’s CCAC are Ball State University, Butler University, Indiana University, Indiana University Southeast, University of Indianapolis, and Purdue University.