Union' s Center for Data Analytics held Open Data Day hackathon last Saturday, March 7.

The event attracted about 40 participants including local high school students, teachers, Union students, faculty and guests. The guests included acting chief data officer from the New York State Office of Technology Services - an office responsible for making New York State data open.

The event featured workshops that introduced participants to working with data using Python, R and Tableau. Participants then used these tools to find their own insights. Nick Webb, assistant professor of computer science; Mason Stahl, the James M. Kenney Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering; and Tomas Dvorak, professor of economics, conducted workshops. Roger Hoerl, the Donald C. Brate '45-Stanley G. Peschel '52 Associate Professor of Statistics; and Sean Tennant, Schaffer Library postdoctoral fellow, assisted.

At the end of the event, participants shared their new insights, including senior Justin Cohen's impressive hockey analytics, and junior Beck DeYoung's work on groundwater arsenic data.