It was the big return of the Datathon to TBS Education
The two-day contest saw students from schools in France, Norway and Ireland rise to the challenge of solving a business problem posed by partner company, TNP consultants. The contest, organized by TBS Education teaching staff and the Centre for Excellence in Artificial Intelligence, involved students from TBS Education’s MSc Data Science and Artificial Intelligence and the MSc Artificial Intelligence and Business Analytics, the Norwegian University of Science and Technology’s MSc in Informatics, and students on the University of Galway’s MSc Business Analytics program. Dataiku, a well-known provider of top notch data science platforms was also a partner of the event.
Datathon 2024
The expert business consulting firm TNP Consultants came up with the following challenge: implement a “credit scoring” tool to enable a company called “Prêt à dépenser” (“Ready to Spend”) to approve or reject a loan to a client.
The students also had to produce a video describing and explaining Artificial Intelligence.
This multi-country competition in English gave students a chance to develop their international network while working on a professional challenge that involved interacting with leading companies in the world of Data Analytics and Artificial Intelligence.
“The Datathon is the perfect example of all the synergies that are happening in the perimeter of analytics and AI because it connects professors who are experts in analytics and AI, our two MSc programs in Analytics and AI, and it also connects with the industry.” Kevin Carillo.
How is the Datathon organized?
On the first day of the competition, students met on the TBS Education campus for a presentation of the competition and the business problem, then got working on their projects. The aim was to develop the best machine learning algorithm to make the most accurate predictions. Students also had the chance to take part in a Q&A session with Datathon partners and professors. Participants had until midnight to send in their pitch videos.
On the second day, after a debriefing by the teams, participants were able to continue working on their projects, and the 3 best projects then presented a pitch of their work.
The competition ended with an awards ceremony where the students shared social time with the professors and partners.
“What’s really important about Datathon is the development of students’ skills and the exponential learning component.” Jessica Chagnard.
3 challenges = 3 awards!
The Datathon includes 3 challenges, and therefore 3 awards:
- Best Presentation, for the quality of the pitch and project presentation
- Best Model, which rewards the technical quality of the group’s predictive algorithm.
- AI Master Challenge, based on the quality of the group’s final work.
Our partners
This year, the Datathon welcomed two well-known partners in the Artificial Intelligence industry:
TNP Digital Factory, experts in digital transformation, providing complete and personalized solutions for businesses.
“What’s interesting for us with TBS Education is that we can have a partnership with a renowned school with such a high academic level.” Riyad Lounissi from TNP Digital Factory.
Dataiku, a French company specializing in Data Sciences, which develops platforms to analyze data and predict movements in the Big Data environment.
The winners
The winner in the Best Presentation and Best AI Model categories are the PowerPuff Data group, composed of students from the MSc Data Science & Artificial Intelligence (formerly Big Data, Marketing & Management) of TBS Education .
And the winner of the AI Master Challenge category is TBS Education’s MSc Data Science & Artificial Intelligence.
Congratulations to all the students for their hard work and investment in this competition!
An international and professional experience
“I think it’s a great experience for all students to participate in an international event” Patrick Makalif.
This intense 2-day experience enabled all participating students to confront the challenges of professional life by working and interacting, in English, with international students, professors and industry professionals.
“I think that this Datathon what actually does is gives you not only the technical capacity but also the business skills required.” Anastasia Griva