TAMIDS Annual Student Data Challenge
The Texas A&M Institute of Data Science (TAMIDS) hosts an annual, month-long data science competition open to all Texas A&M University undergraduate and graduate students from any major or degree program. Each year, the competition presents a new thematic challenge and awards thousands of dollars in prizes to winning teams.
This Year’s Challenge
The data challenge is an impactful activity for several reasons:
- Real-World Problem Solving: The competition challenges students to develop innovative solutions for complex, real-world problems. Past themes have included analyzing the impact of sea level rise, predicting wildfire behavior, analyzing airline performance data, and understanding the role of money in U.S. presidential elections. For example, the 2023 Wildfire Data Science Challenge was organized in collaboration with the Texas A&M Forest Service to improve wildfire prediction and management.
- Skill Application and Development: Participants apply and enhance their technical skills by defining a problem, analyzing data, and developing tools to visualize their results. Students are often expected to create models, provide actionable advice to decision-makers, and communicate their findings effectively. In the 2021 competition, one team created an interactive website to showcase their analysis of presidential election spending.
- Interdisciplinary Collaboration: The competition encourages collaboration among students from different disciplines, reflecting the nature of modern data science. Teams are often composed of students from various colleges, including Engineering, Science, Agriculture, Business, and Architecture, who bring diverse perspectives to the problem.
- Networking and Career Opportunities: The events provide students with exposure to faculty and industry professionals who serve as judges. Sponsors like Chevron often give presentations on data science careers, allowing students to ask questions and network.
- Recognition and Rewards: TAMIDS awards significant prize money; recent competitions have offered total prize pools ranging from $6,000 to over $9,000. Since 2019, over $52,000 in prize money has been awarded. Prizes are awarded to the top teams in both the graduate and undergraduate divisions, with special awards for categories such as “Best Presentation Design” and “Best Use of Additional Data”.
Past Challenges
2025
Data-driven cybersecurity is essential to combat the growing and increasingly complex cyber threats.
2021
Money in US Presidential Elections
The key idea of democracy is that every citizen should have input, via a vote, as to who is elected.
2020
Use data from the US Bureau of Transportation Statistics to develop performance measures for airlines.
2019
Examine a dataset detailing over 600,000 bicycle commuter trips in Los Angeles, CA.
TAMIDS Sponsored Competitions
We sponsor competitions hosted by other organizations. If you are looking for TAMIDS to sponsor or collaborate on your competition, please contact Drew Casey, TAMIDS Assistant Director for Program Engagement.
TAMU Datathon
TAMU Datathon is an annual, student-led competition that connects the top talent in DS/ML with top companies, lowers the bar to entry into DS/ML, and encourages interdisciplinary collaboration.
TIDALTAMU
tidalTAMU is a student organization that hosts AI-related hackathons and seminars.