Student finalist
About the championship
The Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) Data Viz Championship challenges students, faculty, and staff at Big Ten schools to turn data into a visualization that tells a clear, compelling story. Students compete in one track, and faculty and staff in another. UMD judges choose one Maryland finalist in each track, and those finalists take on the other Big Ten schools in Big Ten voting during Love Data Week, where each track crowns its own champion.
Browse past winners to see what stands out.
Browse past winners to see what stands out.
- Days to the UMD deadline
- DEC 11Entries close Dec 11 at 11:59 p.m. EST
- Tracks
- 2Students, and faculty & staff
- Big Ten voting
- FEB 8–12During Love Data Week
Vote for Maryland
Voting is live
Big Ten voting runs Feb 8–12, and anyone at a Big Ten school can vote.
Meet UMD’s finalists
Faculty & staff finalist
To be announced
Championship tracks
NCAA Women's Basketball Data Set
This year's featured data set spotlights NCAA women's basketball, with play-by-play stats, box scores, rankings, and more.
- Must be actively enrolled during Spring 2027 in a UMD degree-granting undergraduate or graduate program
- Enter on your own or as a team of two
- Must use the official data set; you may add other publicly available data
Institutional Showcase
Show off your institutional work or research around Big Ten themes, such as athletics, enrollment, campus initiatives, or academic population data.
- Enter on your own or with co-authors
- Must follow UMD institutional data governance policies
- Must be publicly accessible without a login
Which track is for me?
I am a…
- UMD undergraduate or graduate student using the official data setStudent track
- UMD graduate student using my own data, or any other data sourceFaculty & staff track
- UMD faculty or staff member, postdoctoral scholar, or postdoctoral fellowFaculty & staff track
How winners are chosen
UMD judges pick one finalist in each track, who faces the other Big Ten schools' finalists in Big Ten voting. People at every Big Ten school vote, and each track crowns its own champion.
- Student track: UMD student entries are due Dec 11, and UMD judges select one UMD student finalist. Other Big Ten schools select their own student finalists.
- Faculty and staff track: UMD faculty and staff entries are due Dec 11, and UMD judges select one UMD faculty and staff finalist. Other Big Ten schools select their own.
- Big Ten voting, Feb 8–12: people at every Big Ten school vote in both tracks.
- The student champion and the faculty and staff champion are crowned at the virtual showcase, Feb 12.
Big Ten voting
Student track
Faculty & staff track
Championship timeline
Key dates for the 2027 BTAA Data Viz Championship.
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Open now
Submissions open
Internal registration is open for all UMD submissions.
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Dec 11
UMD deadline
Internal entries close at 11:59 p.m. EST. UMD judges select institutional finalists.
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Feb 8–12
Big Ten voting
Online voting opens across all BTAA partner universities during Love Data Week.
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Feb 12
Virtual showcase
Finalist presentations and the live crowning of the BTAA winners.
FAQs
Adapted from the BTAA FAQs.
Why should I participate?
- For bragging rights!
- It makes a great line on a resume.
Are there minimum requirements for my viz?
- Any tool may be used (or combination of tools). This is not limited to only Tableau or PowerBI.
- Visualizations must be publicly accessible via a link that requires no login at the time of the championship voting.
- Student track additional requirements:
- Students must use the specified dataset, identified above, at minimum.
- Students may supplement with additional publicly available data should they opt to do so.
- Faculty & staff track additional requirements:
- The viz be used to share information about the institution – be it the institution as a whole, a specific initiative/population, or the theme of the Big Ten.
- All submissions must follow the schools' institutional data policies and guidelines (I.e., please do not submit a viz with Social Security Numbers, PII, or other personal information).
Can I collaborate on my presentation?
- Students can submit a work that is the result of collaboration with another person, but both must be credited.
- Faculty and staff should credit all who were involved as authors on the work.
- When collaborating, at least one person should be identified to present the work during the showcase.
Can I use AI?
- Yes, using generative AI is permitted, but it must be noted in your submission.
- Use of AI is permitted and will not impact the rubric or evaluation of your viz.
How is judging happening at the university level?
- Each institution will set its own guidelines for determining a viz to showcase in the Championship.
- Here at UMD the entries will first be judged by a group of data professionals organized by the Love Data Team; the final selection will be made by senior academic leaders. Those interested in participating in the judging can volunteer to do so by emailing reportsupport@umd.edu.
- Submissions will be judged internally at UMD according to the UMD Data Viz Championship Rubric.
Will the data behind my work be available to download?
- Please work with your university to ensure that data downloads are disabled.
- UMD students, faculty, and staff may submit questions to reportsupport@umd.edu.
