About
Vizathon 2021 is a free, 4-day visualization hackathon for students passionate about producing and visualizing data-driven insights in public health, social justice and economics. The event will provide opportunities for high school and college students to enhance their data science skills, explore career paths in data science and obtain mentorship to create stunning visualizations.
Don’t have any experience in data science? Not a problem! The event is designed to be beginner-friendly as well.
Visit us at our website: https://vizathon.understandcovid.org/
Connect with us on our Linkedin and Instagram (@joinerevna & @covisualize).
Tracks
Public Health
With the adverse effects of COVID-19 still lingering in several countries, analyzing public health has never been more crucial. This track will focus on crunching and visualizing data from hospitals, medical organizations and the public health community, with the aim of inferring or predicting meaningful results either quantitatively, qualitatively or visually. Some examples can include studying patient data (in keeping with confidentiality terms), morbidity and mortality rates, public health infrastructure versus COVID-19 response, vaccination rates, non-COVID related public health analysis, etc.
Social Justice
The social justice track delves into all domains related to social good, justice, politics, law, etc. Some examples could include analyzing and visualizing the political climate in war-stricken countries, leveraging AI for social good, picking a social cause and extracting meaningful insights from relevant datasets, analyzing intriguing legal chapters of history, etc.
Economics
The economics track will deal with all domains concerned with finance, economics and their consequent effects on the world. Some sample topics which are presently relevant include cryptocurrency (Bitcoin), Wall Street versus Reddit: The GameStop phenomena, the COVID-19 economic downfall and resurrection after vaccinations, etc.
The hacker guide will be released to all attendees closer to the start of the event.
Requirements
Complete both links given below. This step is mandatory for each individual/team. Complete your Devpost submission on our Vizathon Devpost and fill out the Typeform link before the Vizathon week ends (Sunday, August 1, 2021 at 1 PM ET).
- Vizathon Devpost Link: https://vizathon-2021.devpost.com/
- Vizathon Registration Typeform: bit.ly/vizathon-attendee
- We recommend a submission of 3-5 visualizations per team.
- A participant (either as an individual or team) is requested to limit one’s submission to a single track by adhering to an overarching, focused theme for all visualizations.
- Every submission must include a GitHub link to any code written for the visualization.
- Every submission must include a < 2 minute demo video showcasing the key features of the visualization, with a highly recommended minimum resolution of 720p. Projects without a demo video will not be judged.
- Please include links to all data sources in the submission.
For a detailed description of our submission guidelines, check out Vizathon 2021 - Submission Guidelines.
Prizes
$19,920 in prizes
Best Public Health Visualization ($200 for the team)
This award will go to the team that creates the overall best visualization in the public health track. Vizzes will be judged holistically. A team’s interpretation of their chosen public health data, technical skill, clarity, organization, aesthetic appeal, and connection to the theme (public health) will all be considered.
Eligibility: submit under the Public Health track. Please note that teams may only submit under one track.
Best Social Justice Visualization ($200 for the team)
This award will go to the team that creates the overall best visualization in the social justice track. Vizzes will be judged holistically. A team’s interpretation of their chosen data, technical skill, clarity, organization, aesthetic appeal, and connection to the theme (Social Justice ) will all be considered.
Eligibility: submit under the Social Justice track. Please note that teams may only submit under one track.
Best Economics Visualization ($200 for the team)
This award will go to the team that creates the overall best visualization in the economics track. Vizzes will be judged holistically. A team’s interpretation of their chosen economic data, technical skill, clarity, organization, aesthetic appeal, and connection to the theme (Economics) will all be considered.
Eligibility: submit under the Economics track. Please note that teams may only submit under one track.
Best Beginner Visualization ($150 for the team)
This award will be given to a beginner team in any track who produces an outstanding visualization. Beginners are defined as those who self-identified as being in high school or having never attended a hackathon/vizathon before on their registration form.
Eligibility: all members of a team must meet the definition of a ‘beginner’ outlined above. This award is open to all tracks.
Best High School Visualization ($25 Art of Problem Solving Coupons for each team member)
(2)
This award will be given to a high school team in any track who produces an outstanding visualization.
Eligibility: all members of a team must be in high school. This award is open to all tracks. A team cannot win both the “Best Beginner” and “Best High School” award.
Harvard Center for Geographic Analysis - Best Challenge 1 Visualization ($125 for the team)
This award will be given to the top team whose submission falls within the boundaries of the first challenge set by the CGA (more information on a separate document).
Eligibility: submission must meet the requirements of the first Harvard CGA challenge.
Harvard Center for Geographic Analysis - Best Challenge 2 Visualization ($125 for the team)
This award will be given to the top team whose submission falls within the boundaries of the second challenge set by the CGA (more information on a separate document). Eligibility: submission must meet the requirements of the second Harvard CGA challenge.
Wolfram Award (Top 12 Teams, valued at $375 per team member)
(12)
This award will be given to all individuals in the top 12 teams across the three tracks at this event. This award is for a year of Wolfram|One Personal Edition plus a one-year subscription to Wolfram|Alpha Pro.
Eligibility: This award is open to all tracks.
Narrative Award ($40 for the team)
This award will be given to a team that creates a story with their visualization. Their work has a clear, compelling, and creative narrative. They are able to effectively show patterns and insights from their data in a way that is accessible and insightful.
Eligibility: this award is open to all tracks.
Aesthetic Award ($40 for the team)
This award will be given to a team that creates an outstandingly visually attractive submission. Their work is stunning and beautiful. Every element of the submission is clearly purposeful and well-designed.
Eligibility: this award is open to all tracks.
Innovation Award ($40 for the team)
This award will be given to a team that displays outstanding creativity and innovation in their work. They may make unique use of our sponsor-provided resources, or use visualization tools in a novel way. The overall submission is one-of-a-kind and impressive in its concept and execution.
Eligibility: this award is open to all tracks.
Interdisciplinary Award ($40 for the team)
This award will be given to a team who thoughtfully takes ideas or inspiration from multiple disciplines in their visualization. They combine fields in a way that allows their visualization to make the most of their data. This visualization tells a story that couldn’t be found in one discipline alone.
Eligibility: This award is open to all tracks.
Accessibility Award ($40 for the team)
This award will be given to the team that is best able to take complex information, concepts, and data, then visualize it in a way that is accessible and easy-to-understand. Their visualization could be understood even by those who are younger (i.e., middle school) and those with no experience in data science and statistics.
Eligibility: This award is open to all tracks.
Interactivity Award (Headset and Mouse from HyperX for each team member)
This award will be given to a team whose submission has interesting and compelling interactive elements. Their visualization is fun to play around with and allows viewers to engage with the data in a way that static visualizations cannot always achieve.
Eligibility: this award is open to all tracks. Due to the agreements of our sponsorship with HyperX, teams must be from the US or Canada to win this prize. The specific products available are Cloud II – Red Gaming Headsets and Pulsefire Core Gaming Mice.
Devpost Achievements
Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:
Judges

TBD

Jungwhan Kim
CGA

Melinda Laituri
CGA

Vijay Prakash

Roman Ivanov

Ali Zhagparov

Ali Zhagparov

Syed Kashif Rafi

Exile Njoka

Ilia Kniazev

Hannah Zimmerman

Harsh Verma

Meghana Kshirsagar

Sergei Golitsyn

Vadim Atamanenko

Scott Blender

Marco Antonio Ribeiro
Judging Criteria
-
Interpretation of Data
This category examines the more technical aspects of visualization and the submission’s treatment of the data. -
Clarity and Organization
This category examines how well-organized and clear information in the visualization is. -
Presentation and Visual Appeal
This category examines the design choices and visual appeal of the submission. -
Connection to Track / Theme
This category examines how well the submission is connected to the track/category. -
Creativity (Bonus)
This is a bonus category to reward especially innovative submissions
Questions? Email the hackathon manager
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