2026 Data Hack Competition

Data Hack is a class where students learn about data cleaning, visualization, and descriptive analysis using R programming language. Throughout the quarter, the students learn the whole process of obtaining raw data and making it ready for analysis, therefore covering a wide variety of topics such as web scraping, merging and reshaping datasets, and coding with AI.

At the end of the quarter, the students present the skills they learned in a competition for cash prizes. They are randomized into small groups, where they have the freedom to choose a public policy issue in California, describe it, and present the evidence in front of a panel of external judges.

This year's winners covered the following topics:

1^st Place: The Salton Sea’s effect on health

2^nd Place: Education: Funding Equity and student outcomes in California School Districts

3^rd Place: Analysis of Californias flavored vape ban

This year's winners were:

1st Prize: Group Salton Sea Project:

Karen Luo, Annie Lack, Finn Case, Giselle Alexander, Maria Dyukareva, Jesu Rosas.

 2^nd Prize: Group Education Formula Project 

Sanjeeta Pannu, Natassja Upton, Alice Yan, Shengbo Lin, Arturo Espana.

3rd Prize: Vape Ban Project

Zo Keck-Choeff, Aris Zhou, Chloe Philippe, James Liang.

We want to thank Camilo Abate for teaching this class.

We also want to thank our fabulous judges: Chris Lee, Jimena Rico-Straffon, and Heather Royer.