Join the Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences (QMSS) program for our 2nd annual Hackathon! A hackathon is a fantastic opportunity to practice your data cleaning, data analysis, data visualization, and data interpretation skills & leave with a data analysis project that you can post about on a professional website, write about on your resumes, and talk about during job interviews as an example of what you know how to do. In QMSS's Hackathon, we will use real, publicly available data to answer real, socially-relevant questions so that you can see the true power of the data cleaning, analysis, visualization, and communication skills you're developing in QMSS (and other!) courses. This year's theme is economic inequality & well-being!

Skills from QMSS 201 are sufficient to fully participate in the hackathon -- including students CURRENTLY taking QMSS 201! Students with more advanced skills from QMSS 301, 395, 495, and/or other data science and statistics courses will also be able to flex their data muscles, use more advanced techniques, & gain incredibly valuable experience from this event.

How it works:
- Register with a team of 2-5 students OR select that you'd like to be a "free agent," and we will create a team for you!
- Teams who register by Thursday, April 3rd will receive the Hackathon project instructions & a welcome video on Friday, April 4th. Teams that register between April 4th - April 6th will receive project instructions on Monday, April 7th. Any late registrations between Monday April 7th and 12pm on Tuesday, April 8th will receive project instructions by 4pm on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.
- Teams will work together to complete their projects for submission by 8am on Friday, April 11th.
- QMSS will provide 2 opportunities for teams to get together and complete their projects with QMSS Peer Mentors available for assistance: Community Hours on Tuesday, April 8th from 6-9pm and a second opportunity on Thursday, April 10th from 6-8pm. You will receive additional information about these dates, times, and location with your Hackathon project instructions! Teams are more than welcome to work outside of these times in whatever ways work best for them.
- The projects should not take more than a couple of hours to complete as a team, though you are welcome to put as much time in as you need or want!
- All teams who have submitted projects will attend the Hackathon event on Friday, April 11th from 2-5pm in Weiser 110. Teams will have an opportunity to connect, briefly prep, and grab lunch at the start of the event prior to project presentations.
- A winning team will be voted on and selected by the end of all presentations. The winning team will split a basket of U-M gear prizes!
- All teams who fully participate (complete & submit a project & present it on the day of the event) will receive a QMSS Hackathon Completion Certificate signed by Dr. Ajogbeje & a QMSS Hackathon t-shirt (while supplies last)!
- Any students who are currently enrolled in a QMSS course this semester that fully participate (complete & submit a project & present it on the day of the event) will also receive extra credit in that course. Please see your faculty member for details about extra credit!

This event is open to ALL students, regardless of your affiliation with QMSS, but it has been designed with QMSS students (those with interests in social science applications of data analytics & statistics skills) specifically in mind!