Info Challenge Projects
Projects and Outcomes for Info Challenge 2024
Congratulations to our 2024 Grand Prize winners! Aayush Sharma, US Naval Academy; Devin Stoltenberg, US Naval Academy; Reese Dalzell, US Naval Academy; Robert Vedra, US Naval Academy. Challenge: U.S. Department of Agriculture: FoodData Central (Data Analytics Level 2). See below for more challenge winners.
USDA FDC – USDA
USDA’s FoodData Central (FDC) is an integrated data system that provides expanded nutrient and food component data in one location. This database provides a snapshot in time of nutrients and other components found in a wide variety of foods and food products. For this project, students will analyze historical data and see how the data has changed and remained the same. This insight will provide a better understanding of which nutrients or components should be analyzed and which ones remain constant.
Award: Outstanding Data Analytics Project (Tie)
Team IC24058
Andreas Mayr, UMD
Challenge: U.S Department of Agriculture: FoodData Central (Data Analytics Level 2)
Project Participants:
Cody Howard, US Naval Academy
Lainey Feighery, US Naval Academy
Nathan Reczek, US Naval Academy
Talley Applewhite, US Naval Academy
Team IC24024
Link to Project
Cole Regan, US Naval Academy
Hiathan Nguyen, US Naval Academy
Michael Jagdon, US Naval Academy
Team IC24025
Link to Project
Jonathon Cruz, US Naval Academy
Lydia Baumberger, US Naval Academy
Team IC24028
Link to Project
Aaron Song, US Naval Academy
Emma Dear, US Naval Academy
Matthew Jao, US Naval Academy
SeungJae Hong, US Naval Academy
Team IC24029
Link to Project
Cory Daut, US Naval Academy
Daniel Prather, US Naval Academy
Jillian Brodeur, US Naval Academy
Team IC24030
Link to Project
Award: Grand Prize
Aayush Sharma, US Naval Academy
Devin Stoltenberg, US Naval Academy
Reese Dalzell, US Naval Academy
Robert Vedra, US Naval Academy
Team IC24031
Link to Project
Aiden Patel, US Naval Academy
Christopher Kim, US Naval Academy
Myles Evans, US Naval Academy
Team IC24032
Link to Project
Angelina Cheng, US Naval Academy
Harrison Morrow, US Naval Academy
Team IC24036
Link to Project
Aidan Aguilar, US Naval Academy
Ashley Yi, US Naval Academy
Cyrus McLeod, US Naval Academy
Nicholas Munoz, US Naval Academy
Team IC24038
Link to Project
Anthony Cheng, UMD
Eric Huang, UMD
Ethan Chang, UMD
Team IC24046
Link to Project
Khoa Huynh, UMD
Sriket Komali, UMD
Trinity Killip, UMD
Team IC24050
Link to Project
Bridgetta Ulrich, UMD
Sushil Shrestha, UMD
Team IC24055
Link to Project
Award: Outstanding Data Analytics Project
Andreas Mayr, UMD
Team IC24058
Link to Project
Rakshanda Hedawoo, UMD
Yash Khanna, UMD
Team IC24061
Link to Project
Green Terp Program – UMD Office of Sustainability
The Green Terp Program is a social marketing effort to promote environmentally responsible choices by all UMD students. From fall 2018 to spring 2023, the program engaged with students through an action checklist, on-going communications, events, and eco-gear to help make sustainable choices easy. Each year all students could participate in the program by pledging to implement at least 10 sustainable behaviors over the year. At the end of the year, students could then certify to indicate if their pledged behaviors were incorporated into their lifestyles. The Office of Sustainability is interested in completing an analysis of this data at certification and registration over the reporting period. The insights developed by student teams as a part of the Info Challenge may help inform future program components and goals.
Award: Outstanding Data Analytics Project (Tie)
Team IC24033
Abigail Lutz, US Naval Academy
Ethan Tolentino, US Naval Academy
Gabriel Abreu, US Naval Academy
Justin Werner, US Naval Academy
UMD Office of Sustainability: Green Terp Program (Data Analytics Level 3)
Project Participants:
Conrad Dzikunu, UMD
Swathi Baskaran, UMD
Vincent Leon, Montgomery College
Team IC24012
Link to Project
Shaashvat Shetty, UMD
Team IC24019
Link to Project
Leon Battle, US Naval Academy
Thomas Kephart, US Naval Academy
Travis Hockin, US Naval Academy
Stephen Jones, US Naval Academy
Team IC24023
Link to Project
Micah Williams, US Naval Academy
Team IC24026
Link to Project
Kimberly Van, US Naval Academy
Megan Leitz, US Naval Academy
Shekinah Jaze, US Naval Academy
Team IC24027
Link to Project
Award: Outstanding Data Analytics Project
Abigail Lutz, US Naval Academy
Ethan Tolentino, US Naval Academy
Gabriel Abreu, US Naval Academy
Justin Werner, US Naval Academy
Team IC24033
Link to Project
Christopher Jones, US Naval Academy
Ivan Thomas, US Naval Academy
Jenna Han, US Naval Academy
Team IC24034
Link to Project
Janet Li, UMD
Lucas Gonzalez-Rey, UMD
Team IC24049
Link to Project
Gabriella Chiericoni, UMD
Hibah Beg, UMD
Team IC24053
Link to Project
Aidan Powers, UMD
Areeba Qureshi, UMD
Dunyasha S M Yattogoda, UMD
James Dawson, UMD
Team IC24056
Link to Project
Maria Lanasa, UMD
Ryan Deppe, UMD
Ryan Kim, UMD
Team IC24057
Link to Project
Better Working World Data Challenge: Biodiversity Study – EY
How do you preserve biodiversity with the click of a button? This challenge will be about frogs. Frogs are an indicator species, which means they are a go-to for scientists wanting to find out more about the environmental health of a particular ecosystem. Species distribution models (SDM) are widely used ecological tools, a cornerstone in many countries worldwide of environmental regulation and conservation. Students will develop SDMs of frogs from satellite imagery and complementary geospatial data. They will build a model that can identify the occurrence of frogs for a single location using a single data source.
Award: Best Team Presentation
John Hampton III, UMD
Kelsey Meis, UMD
Sweta Dantu, UMD
Team IC24008
Challenge: EY: Open Science Data Challenge – Biodiversity modeling (Data Analytics Level 4)
Project Participants:
Abdul Hannan, UMD
Sesha Sai Lakkavajjala, UMD
Sivani Dronamraju, UMD
Team IC24005
Ayan Hassen
Sadaf Davre
Thilak Mohan
Team IC24006
Award: Best Team Presentation
John Hampton III, UMD
Kelsey Meis, UMD
Sweta Dantu, UMD
Team IC24008
Bennett Huffman, US Naval Academy
Olivia Love, US Naval Academy
Rhys Winter, US Naval Academy
Team IC24035
Alexander Grande, US Naval Academy
Daniel Taylor, US Naval Academy
Tanner Kelly, US Naval Academy
Team IC24037
Ke Xu, UMD
Muyan Cheng, UMD
Qiao Qin, UMD
Xueyan Geng, UMD
Team IC24047
Aditi Ganesh Joshi, UMD
Ashish Murlidhar Pagote, UMD
Sanjana Vasudev, UMD
Surbhi Garg, UMD
Team IC24048
Prahar Modi, UMD
Rutvik Patel, UMD
Team IC24064
Lichen Zhang, UMD
Yushan Dong, UMD
Team IC24067
Peeyush Dyavarashetty, UMD
Subha Venkat Milind Manda, UMD
Team IC24070
Jewel or Counterfeit? – GreenStar, Inc.
GreenStar, Inc., a US-based global engineering firm specializing in software and information technology, has just completed a large acquisition of one of its competitors, Bluewave, Ltd. Issues began after the acquisition when GreenStar tried to incorporate Bluewave into the GreenStar ecosystem including culture, methods, processes, and governance. Build a strategic action plan that GreenStar, Inc. executives can follow to aid in protecting their acquisition investment. Include a plan for managing the “Jewel” program to include its scope, financials (cost and profit), change management, quality, and stakeholders.
Award: Outstanding Project Management Project
Team IC24013
Carmen Beleho, UMBC
Olaronke Afolabi, UMD
Ryan Collingham, Montgomery College
Challenge: GreenStar, Inc.: Jewel or Counterfeit? (Project Management)
Login Analysis – EY
Controls to mitigate against cybersecurity attacks are an important component of an entity’s overall IT control environment and are especially important in protecting intellectual and physical assets. As such, it is increasingly important for external auditors to be aware of the risks that clients face because of poor or inadequate cybersecurity processes and controls. Students will be performing tests related to simulated authentication logs.
Award: Outstanding Security Project
Team IC24044
Chris Humber, UMBC
Dale Neumeister, UMBC
Leon Tang, UMBC
Oluwatimilehin Olayinka, UMBC
Challenge: EY: Login Analysis (Security
Project Participants:
Chisom Okorie, Montgomery College
Saharath Chaveeruk, Montgomery College
Team IC24002
Dataset Levels
Level 2: Participants with basic data analysis knowledge. The problem statement is open-ended yet straightforward. The dataset has a standard structure suitable for beginners. Creative and interdisciplinary solutions are welcomed.
Level 3: Participants with some data analysis background. The problem statement is open-ended about what the final product may look like. The dataset may contain many variables of interest. Analyses from different angles by various techniques are encouraged.
Level 4: Participants with advanced data analysis skills. The problem statement is open-ended and requires multitudes of analytical perspectives and visualizations. The dataset has a complex structure, numerous variables of interest, and spatial-temporal dimensions.
Projects and Outcomes for Info Challenge 2023
Congratulations to our 2023 Grand Prize winners! Dharini Chandrashekar, UMD and Amanpreet Kaur, UMD. Challenge: CoPAR Website Concept Design – UMD INFO (Design). See below for more challenge winners.
The University of Maryland Global Classrooms program allows UMD students to gain international experience in a virtual learning environment. After the COVID-19 pandemic, Global Classrooms courses and participants have increased significantly, and the Office of International Affairs seeks to understand student diversity trends for past semesters. Students will use their creative insights on how variables such as gender, race, ethnicity, age, and residency from past student data can be used to compare diversity trends by semester, academic year, and student status.
Project Participants:
Alanna Hart, Anita Conteh
Mentor: Margaret Kahl
Link to project
Brita Laveck, Ellen Kim, Tartela Tabassum
Mentor: Adam Lee
Link to project
Jaehyun Lee, Daniel Yu, Eojin Kim
Link to project
Majdoleen Mohammedaman, Reem Saleh
Mentor: Prasad Senesi
Link to project
Grant Glasgow, Ben Keenan
Mentor: Mark Magsino
Link to project
Harshitha Ramachandra, Shashank Ramprasad
Mentor: Tatyana Yevgrafova
Link to project
Osinakachi Amaefule, Cecilia Chavez, Jaclyn Tran
Mentor: Jeffrey Zuback
Link to project
Christine Wang, Anthony Avelar
Mentor: Jeffrey Zuback
Link to project
Ramith Wijesinghe, Matthew Chin, Kidus Solomon, Courtney Brandon
Mentor: Maria Bardossy
Link to project
Sehba Wani, Josue Tlapechco, Vienna Nguyen
Link to project
When crisis responders react to ongoing emergencies, they need to know what new critical developments have occurred in the past several hours. Oftentimes, responders are able to find this information through social media, however, finding the most important information first is crucial. By analyzing different social media platforms and news sources, construct daily summaries of Hurricane Florence and Hurricane Dorian using a digital version of FEMA’s Incident Status Summary form and utilize this data to assess which platforms provide the most useful information for emergency response personnel.
Project Participants:
Ivan Thomas
Mentor: Dan Roche
Link to project
Bennett Huffman, Maurice Salayon
Mentor: Dan Roche
Link to project
Hanna Zakharenko, G Goodwin
Link to project
Sadaf Davre, Tiara Eltrevoog, Sarah Zachariah
Link to project
In 2018, Washington State enacted stronger distracted driving laws, and in response, a survey was developed to evaluate residents’ understanding of the new Driving Under the Influence of Electronics Act, which was conducted in one-month time periods over the past four years. We are curious to know how public perceptions of this new act have changed over time, particularly among demographic subgroups. This analysis will be used by the Public Health Seattle-King County (PHSKC) to target specific subgroups for media outreach, materials, and infographics, which students can also contribute to in addition to their analysis.
Project Participants:
Aditya Kiran Aswin Kumar, Rajeevan Madabushi, Sravya Lenka, Srikanth Parvathala
Mentor: Brian Wilkinson
Link to project
Manas M Bhat, Shantanu Parab, Vineet Singh
Mentor: Jeffrey Zuback
Link to project
Gunakshi Sharma, Dhiraj Lahoti, Shweta Salelkar, Sakshi BR Patil
Link to project
Thomas Cho, Jenna Han, Joshua Kang, Daniel Shin
Mentor: Duy Duong-Tran
Link to project
Malcolm Rivers, Ryan Grafman, Christopher Hom
Mentor: Nate Chambers
Link to project
Angelina Cheng, Caroline Irwin, Harrison Morrow
Mentor: Duy Duong-Tran
Link to project
Aedan Ounsamone, Lindsey Beiche
Mentor: Nate Chambers
Link to project
Justin Werner, Alexander Grande
Mentor: Duy Duong-Tran
Link to project
Aiden Patel, Chris Kim, Myles Evans, Ola Kwasniewski
Mentor: Justin Blanco
Link to project
Ashley Yi, Nicholas Munoz
Mentor: Nate Chambers
Link to project
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Washington State has experienced an unprecedented year-over-year increase in traffic fatalities. The Washington Traffic Safety Commission (WTSC) manages traffic safety behavior programs and media outreach for various communities. However, we are curious to know if the people living in these communities are the same people involved in the crashes where occur there. By analyzing datasets of crash data, students can answer questions such as: what proportion of drivers are involved in crashes in communities where they live? Are there specific zip codes where higher-risk drivers tend to be more common than others?
Best Team Presentation
Micah Tracy, US Naval Academy
Rhys Winter, US Naval Academy
Kaosi Unini, US Naval Academy
Ryan Zhang, US Naval Academy
Team IC23044
Challenge: Washington Fatal Crash Files – WTSC (Data Analysis, Level 4)
Mentor: Fiona Knoll
Outstanding Data Analytics Project (Tie)
Gabriel Duran, UMD
Keshav Gupta, UMD
Soham Pawaskar, UMD
Team: IC23048
Challenge: Washington Fatal Crash Files – WTSC (Data Analysis, Level 4)
Mentor: Vikrant Aute
Outstanding Data Analytics Project (Tie)
Anna Lavrentieva, UMD
Iris Yu, UMD
Ethan Taggart, Montgomery College
Christopher Way, UMBC
Team: IC23058
Challenge: Washington Fatal Crash Files – WTSC (Data Analysis, Level 4)
Mentor: Chauncey Robbs
Project Participants:
Jarrar Haider, Akhil Reddy, Eshan Agarwal, Chaitanya Pohnerkar
Mentor: James Li
Link to project
Xirui Han, Johannah Ryan, Tam Thu Doan, Kevin Weiner
Mentor: Kunpeng Zhang
Link to project
Jimmy Nguyen, Anthony Capasso, John Dutan
Mentor: James Li
Link to project
Zizheng Zhang, Xiaoze Liu, Wangxi Pan
Mentor: Vikrant Aute
Link to project
Matthew Purvis, Aidan Aguilar, Olivia Love, Danny Taylor
Mentor: Justin Blanco
Link to project
Caden Chau, Christopher Jones
Mentor: Dan Roche
Link to project
Rhys Winter, Micah Tracy, Ryan Zhang, Kaosi Unini
Mentor: Fiona Knoll
Link to project
Keshav Gupta, Soham Pawaskar, Gabriel Duran
Mentor: Vikrant Aute
Link to project
Kent O’Sullivan, Nicole Schneider
Link to project
Iris Yu, Anna Lavrentieva, Ethan Taggart, Christopher Way
Mentor: Chauncey Robbs
Link to project
The Council on the Preservation of Anthropological Records (CoPAR) was an organization founded in the 1990s to promote archiving and discovery of archival materials for cultural materials around the world. Since then, its website has remained the main resource for information about where to find anthropology archives, and how to encourage archiving practices among anthropologists. The current format of the CoPAR website is outdated, counterintuitive, and difficult to search and navigate, and resources are not presented in a visually compelling format. Students are tasked with brainstorming ideas and redesigning the website, improving user-friendliness, and developing visualizations that will facilitate greater access.
Grand Prize
Dharini Chandrashekar, UMD
Amanpreet Kaur, UMD
Team IC23063
Challenge: CoPAR Website Concept Design – UMD INFO (Design)
Project Participants:
Dharini Chandrashekar, Amanpreet Kaur Sareen
Link to project
Candace Sun
Mentor: Brittany Johnson
Link to project
Hannah Milillo
Mentor: Jacob Davidson
Link to project
The Pygmalion tool can be used to create interactive visualizations of the meanings associated with a word, or vice versa of different words associated with similar concepts, to provide researchers, teachers, and learners with an instrument to visually represent the heterogeneous and complex information presented by dictionaries in a more intuitive way. The tool offers both interactive linear visualizations and network visualizations of a word, however, the interactivity and readability of these maps could be improved. Students will brainstorm ideas and design concepts to increase the interactivity of these visualizations and make them more user-friendly, as well as brainstorm ideas for the use of this tool in educational environments.
Outstanding Design Project
Fatema Motiwala, UMD
Pooja Gajera, UMD
Pratya Nellore, UMD
Shaunak Bhanarkar, UMD
Team: IC23025
Challenge: Pygmalion Tool Maps Design – University of Neuchâtel (Design)
Mentor: Dan Forest
Project Participants:
Fatema Motiwala, Pooja Gajera, Pratya Nellore, Shaunak Bhanarkar
Mentor: Dan Forest
Link to project
Vimbainashe Mabvaru, Runyararo Mucheche
Mentor: Dan Forest
Link to project
Controls to mitigate against cybersecurity attacks are an important component of an entity’s overall IT control environment. As such, it is increasingly important for external auditors to be aware of the risks that clients face because of poor or inadequate cybersecurity processes and controls. For this challenge, students will play the role of an external auditor for a public company, tasked with evaluating and testing internal controls. More specifically, students will evaluate and test passwords–a crucial component of access controls. Students will evaluate, perform, and document a series of steps as part of reviewing password management as a key Information Technology General Control (ITGC) and have the option to develop a system to automate the process.
Outstanding Cybersecurity Project
Ivan Bajceta, US Naval Academy
Michael Huizenga, US Naval Academy
Strahinja Janjusevic, US Naval Academy
Eric Liu, US Naval Academy
Team: IC23038
Challenge: Cybersecurity Controls: Audit, Automate, and Advise – EY (Cybersecurity)
Mentor: Fiona Knoll
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