UCF Student Team Wins SAS Data Mining Shootout

SAS (News - Alert) recently revealed the winners of the nationwide 2012 SAS Data Mining Shootout, which was sponsored by Teradata Corporation. An analytic offering developed by a student team from the University of Central Florida won the healthcare challenge and was awarded nearly $5,000.

The Institute for Health and Business Insight hosted the Data Mining Shootout this year. All the participants, including faculty and students, were asked to demonstrate their data mining proficiencies in unraveling an imaginary but ordinary business issue.

Participants were asked to develop a program to manufacture and dispense vaccines in order to diminish the spread of influenza with the help of SAS Analytics. The finalists included Oklahoma State University, who came in second, and another team from UCF.

Concurrent epidemics of the flu across four states were reproduced by the three finalists. Applicable information and instructions for deploying suitable data mining methods using SAS software were offered to the top teams.

In a statement, Jerry Oglesby, PhD, director of Higher Education Consulting and Global Certification, SAS, and co-chair of Analytics 2012 said, “As any recent graduate can attest, it’s a competitive job market out there. The Data Mining Shootout allows students to demonstrate their advanced analytical skills at the largest data mining conference in the world.”

Dr. Morgan Wang had supported the victorious UCF team, comprised of Jianbin Zhu, Ruizhe Wang, Hong Zhang, Yue Zhou and Yuting Song. Bill Franks, chief analytics officer for Global Alliance Programs at Teradata (News - Alert), officially awarded the prize money to the winning team. The team was also awarded the honorary Analytic Hero associate status in the SAS and Teradata League of Analytic Heroes along with a membership to the International Institute for Analytics.