Winning at the Intersection of Math, Statistics, and CEL

An outstanding showing from a foursome of awesome SCH statisticians: sophomore Jack Cook and seniors Teddy Tasman, Shawn Gindea, and Aidan Villasis! The team recently participated in the 1st Annual High School Analytics and Data Visualization Competition sponsored by Saint Joseph's University’s Haub School of Business. The six-week competition which included 30 area high school teams, culminated in a one-day on-campus event last week.  And, at the end of the day, the SCH team walked away with 2nd Place and $1,000 in prize money!

Throughout the competition, teams were challenged to expand their working knowledge and understanding of analytics by exploring a data set, creating visualizations from that data, and presenting their findings to judges who work as industry leaders in business intelligence and analytics.

Gindea shared, “We spent weeks analyzing the data using an analytics software called Tableau and developing a strategy proposal, which we presented during the first round of the competition. In the second round, we were given a brand new data set and had three hours to analyze it. This competition was a really interesting intersection between our math/statistics classes and CEL. Our team's learning from the CEL curriculum as well as the math curriculum at SCH is what we believe helped us compete and win in this competition.”

Student mentors were assigned from the business school, and local Philadelphia-area artists worked with the teams as they explored the world of non-fungible tokens, the theme of the data set. The organizers of this unique competition stated, “This is really about problem-solving, finding patterns that may not be obvious, and being able to tell a story about data while simultaneously developing critical thinking, presentation, leadership, and other transferable skills.”

The team: (l to r) Jack Cook, Teddy Tasman, Shawn Gindea, and Aidan Villasis.