NESS Statathon 2024

Introduction

Statathon will be held by New England Statistical Society during the 37th NESS Symposium (May 20, 2024 – May 24, 2024). Statathon is a statistical data science invention marathon. Anyone who has an interest in data science can attend Statathon to approach a real-world data science problem, some of which are local, in new and innovative ways. It emphasizes the statistical aspects (insight, interpretation, significance, etc.) of data science problems that are often overlooked in many hackathons.

Timeline (subject to change)

28 March, 2024,
Thursday

Registration Opens

Online registration has started! Fill out this form to sign up. (Data sets to be released early April.)

26 April, 2024,
Friday

Registration Closes

Teams or individual participants should register by this deadline. Online registration will close at 11:59 pm EDT.

8 May, 2024,
Wednesday

Submission Deadline

Deadline for teams to submit their work for the panelist to review. Submission will close at 11:59 pm EDT.

14 May, 2024,
Tuesday

Notification

Finalist teams are selected and notified.

21 May, 2024,
Tuesday

Presentation

Finalist teams present to the review panel in the 37th NESS symposium, virtually or in- person. The presentation is tentatively scheduled for 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm EDT on May 21, 2024 (Tuesday).

00 TBD

Award

Awards to winning teams at the closing ceremony.

Theme and Data

Theme: Auto Quote Customer Conversion Model

Travelers Insurance Company is looking for expert modelers in their personal automotive insurance department. For personal auto, anyone that asks for an estimated price for a policy from your company (also known as a quote) will receive one. However, of those quoted, only a fraction will choose this company as their insurer (versus other companies they also received quotes from). Your team has been asked to build what is known as a conversion model, with the goal of understanding the population of policies Travelers Insurance Company is most likely to write (a.k.a. issue or convert). In other words, what types of customers is your company writing over its competitors? Your goals are to (1) identify quoted policies that your company will convert (a.k.a. issue), (2) understand key characteristics of policies your company tends to write, as well as those they tend not to write (e.g. understand quoted policies with both high and low conversion rates), and (3) provide a recommendation on how this information could be leveraged at Travelers Insurance Company.

Logistics

Registration

All teams should register online. If you already have a team or want to participate as an individual, please register using the following link.

Registration form for teams or individual participants.

Each team may have up to four team members, and only one registration form should be submit by each team with all names of the team members.

Report submission

All teams should submit their work by the deadline (May 8, 2024 11:59 pm EDT). Teams are encouraged to create a Git repository (e.g., Bitbucket, GitHub, or GitLab) to host their source code and data information. However, this is not a review factor in the competition.

Team presentations

Five teams will be selected in the finale, and they are invited to give a team presentation to the review panels in the afternoon of May 21, 2024. Each team will have 20 minutes to present their findings and products.

FAQ

Who can participate?

Students from universities and high schools can participate. We will not distinguish high school students, undergraduate students, and graduate students among participants.

Do I have to pay to participate?

No. Participation is free for Statathon. We will select five finalist teams to come and present during the 37th NESS symposium.

Will the presentation take place in person?

To be determined. Presentations may well be hybrid this year.

How big can a team be?

Each team can have up to 4 participants.

How can I form a team?

Participants can form teams (or work individually) among peer students with common interests and/or complementary expertise. Remember a participant can be a member of only one team.

When can I start working on the problem?

You can start working on the problem when the data sets are released. We are working to release the data sets early April.

What programming language can I use?

You can use any programming language or software packages.

Will there be prizes?

Yes! There will be cash prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place teams for the theme ranging from $100 to $300 dollars.

Where can I find the data?

We will let you know once the data sets are made available.

When do I need to finalize my team?

Teams must be finalized no later than April 26, 2024 when the registration closes.

Can a professor or another professional act as a team mentor?

Yes, a professor or another professional can act as a team mentor. However, a mentor is not a participant and therefore cannot implement any work for the team. In addition, no one on the organizing committee or the refereeing committee is allowed to supervise any participating team or individual.

Contact Info

Committee

Shane Sacco, University of Connecticut (Chair)

Ming-Hui Chen, University of Connecticut

Gazi Inkiyad, Travelers (Co-Chair)

Kelly Li, Travelers

Runzhi Zhou, Travelers

Lubing Wang, Travelers

Adnan Smajic, Travelers

Heeju Lim, University of Connecticut (Technical support)

Email

For any further questions, please send them to

Shane.sacco@uconn.edu