Subject: Upcoming Patriot Data Challenge for NVTC Competition



Dear Colleagues,



George Mason University will hold its first Patriot Data Challenge (co-hosted by the College of Science and the Volgenau School of Engineering). From this, five students will be chosen to represent George Mason in the 2018 Northern Virginia Technology Council (NVTC) Capital Data Summit "University Challenge" on February 28, 2018.



This competition is open to undergraduate and graduate students from multiple disciplines who will create teams and pursue a challenge question relating to a topic or issue of some societal or policy impact. The interdisciplinary teams will analyze and respond to the question(s) using any combination of data sources, mathematical modeling, big data, and statistical and related techniques available to them. Successful teams will be comprised of students from various fields such as communications, policy and health, with a variety of computational, problem solving and communications skills.



The team presentations will be judged by Mason faculty. Cash prizes will be awarded.



During a Meet & Greet on Wednesday, December 13, 2017 from noon to 2:00 p.m. in 3301 Exploratory Hall, interested students can gather and introduce themselves to coalesce their teams. Pizza will be served.



Once again, this competition is open to all Mason undergraduates and graduate students, and successful teams will demonstrate talents from a variety of fields.



Check datalab.gmu.edu/challenge to register or to ask questions. https://datalab.gmu.edu/data-challenge-2/



We ask that you share this invitation with your colleagues and students.



Sincerely,



Peggy Agouris
Dean, College of Science
On behalf of the 2018 Patriot Data Challenge Steering Committee