MinneMUDAC is open to:

• Students: Undergraduate and graduate students welcome. Please note that you must enter the team name and name/email of a faculty or staff advisor to register. See team guidelines below.
• Faculty/Staff Advisors: Each team requires a faculty or staff advisor to provide guidance throughout the challenge. One advisor may advise up to three student teams. Advisors assisting more than one team must register for each team.
• Judges/Mentors: Share your experience with the next generation of analytics professionals. Industry professionals who would like to judge and provide mentorship may register by selecting the “Judge/Mentor” ticket option.

Student teams must meet the following guidelines:

• Each team requires a faculty or staff advisor to register as well as provide support throughout the competition.
• Teams are limited to five students and one faculty or staff advisor.
• Colleges and universities outside of Minnesota are encouraged to participate.
• MinneAnalytics is able to provide Friday night accommodations for teams traveling two hours or more; however, the number of rooms available is limited. The team faculty advisor must request accommodations during initial registration.
• More than one team from the same college or university may participate. Individual students may only join one team.
• There is a limit to three teams from the same college department.
• Blended teams of students with different majors and skill-sets are encouraged.

Each student team competes in one of four divisions:

• Open Division: For accomplished career professionals that are adding a second advanced degree or enhancing their skill set, or elite teams that want to compete against the best. Note: No cash prizes are awarded to teams participating in the Open Division.
• Graduate Division: For teams with advanced data management, data programming, and statistical/analytic skills to support predictive modeling, including at least one graduate student. Any team with one or more Graduate students will automatically be in the Graduate division.
• Undergraduate Division: For undergraduate teams with advanced data management, data programming, and statistical/analytic skills to support predictive modeling.
• Novice Division: For students early in their studies who have limited experience and have novice to intermediate data management, data programming and statistical/analytic skills. Any team with Freshmen and Sophomores will be in the Novice division. Any team whose school’s data science program is less than two years old will be in the Novice division.

Division level is chosen by the team’s faculty or staff advisor during registration.

High school level teams may participate in the Novice Division. Contact dan@minneanalytics.org if your high school team is interested.

Student teams will present their findings on March 25. During the first round (9 am-noon), teams have five minutes to present their model to a series of judging teams. Judges will also have the opportunity to ask questions of each team. Student teams should expect to pitch 4-6 times with each interaction lasting 7-12 minutes. After breaking for lunch, the finalists will present to all the judges.

See the 2023 challenge materials for information about this year’s challenge and awards.

The MinneMUDAC 2023 Challenge is centered on America’s National Pastime – Baseball!  We’ve teamed up with the Minnesota Twins for this year’s challenge. Student teams should consider the Minnesota Twins / MLB as their clients. Participants will be required to gain an understanding of how various factors influence attendance at Major League Baseball (MLB) games. View all the challenge details and resources here.

Participation from professionals from the analytics community is key to the success of the MinneMUDAC competition. Judges/Mentors are grouped into small teams of 3 or 4 (ideally with at business professional, a technologist, and an academic to create a blended mentoring teams). If you are a business professional that’s been pitched a presentation before, a technologist that understands computer science and/or math/stats, or an academic that regularly engages students, then you are qualified to be on a judging team. Register on the registration page by selecting the Judge/Mentor option.