Participant Info & Guidelines

Note: This document may be updated as the event approaches; any major updates will be clearly marked.

This is a long document, please take a moment to read over it carefully.

Location

DataFest 2026 @ CSU, Chico will start with registration and end with awards ceremony in the the Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSS) building on Chico State Campus.

Transportation & Parking

  • There is metered parking (free on weekends) on Citrus Ave and Legion Ave.
  • There is additional free street parking near the Gateway Science Museum.
  • Please don’t park in the Bidwell Mansion parking lot or in the residential areas.
  • Chico State offers some further advice about parking.
  • We ask that you carpool with teammates as parking on campus can be tricky.
  • Here is a map of some parking spots on campus.

Lodging

Hotels listed for less than approximately $100 per night are starred (*).

Within 1 mile

Within 2 miles

Within 3 miles

Schedule

The schedule is at https://norcaldatafest.netlify.com/schedule/.

Registration sign in starts at 5pm on Friday.

You are of course free to come and go as you please throughout the event, but here are the times all team members should plan to be on premises:

  • Friday 5pm - Registration, Dinner and Data reveal
  • Saturday afternoon - group photo. Exact time to be announced via Discord
  • Sunday 10 am - Presentation submissions due
  • Sunday 10:30 am - Presentations to Judges and awards ceremony

Food & Caffeine

Our goal is to keep you fed & caffeinated all weekend long. Check the Schedule for mealtimes.

Security & Access

Campus security will open the doors promptly at 8am Saturday and Sunday morning, and come to lock the doors at Midnight Friday & Saturday. It is not advised to leave materials in the building although it will be locked.

Teams who are spotted working in areas other than the official building or after event hours will be disqualified from the competition.

Social Media

Did you know that, this year, DataFest will be held at over 70 universities around the world? DataFest takes place during a six-week window in the Spring, and different universities hold their event at different times.

An essential ingredient of Datafest is that the data be a surprise. There are several reasons for this. One is that it ensures that all teams start on an equal footing. Another is that, even if you research the organization that donated the data, you might still be totally unprepared for the context of the data (and maybe less prepared than had you known nothing!) Finally, it is simply more fun.

You are encouraged to share your excitement on social media and thank our sponsors. However…

PLEASE KEEP THE SECRET!. Teams that leak the name or any information about the identify of the data donor will be disqualified!

Please do not post pictures that reveal any charts/graphs/tables/summaries/models that might reveal the data donor.

Computing and supplies

We recommend that every member of the team bring a laptop, if possible. You might find it helpful to have a mix of PCs and Macs, since they have different strengths.

2026 There is a Computer Lab in the BSS building lobby available to Chico State students.

We recommend that you make sure beforehand that the software you will be using throughout the weekend is properly installed and running on your computer. You will be working with a large dataset so make sure that you have the space for it on your hard drive.

You might want to bring some favorite statistical or computational reference books, if you have them, or bookmark some pages that you routinely refer to.

We will provide meals, snacks, and munchies. Feel free to bring anything additional you might want.

Software

DataFest is software agnostic. If you can analyze and visualize data with it, it’s welcome. We have compiled some brief resources that may be of help.

R

Python

Tableau

Tableau can be problematic because the free version stores the data you upload to the cloud, and that is against the data use rules. However, if you have the desktop version that does not connect to the internet you could take screenshots of your graphs for your presentation.

Data

At the end of the kickoff presentation each team should send one member to the registration desk and check out a USB stick containing the data. When you’re done downloading the data off it please return it to the registration desk so that another team can use it.

Large data advice

The dataset you will be working with is quite large. If you type a variable name to view it, it will take a while to display. Therefore, remember these R commands: head(), tail(), str().

We strongly recommend you create a small data set that you can use to test things on. Then, if it works out, you can apply your procedure to the large dataset. Some procedures can take a frustratingly long time to run on large data sets, and so it will be comforting to know that your procedure works (because you tested it on a smaller data set) while you wait. We recommend taking a random sample of rows from the original data set, but there might be other approaches you find useful.

Presentations, judging, and awards

Presentations

Each team will have 4 minutes + 1 minute Q&A to present their findings to the judges. The requirements for the presentations are listed below. So at some point Saturday night, you might want to set aside time to think about what you want the judges to know. The 4 minute presentation and 1 minute Q&A time limits will be strictly enforced. All team members must be present for the presentation, but not all team members need to actually speak (given the time limitation).

Presentations should include

  • Title slide with team name and members names
  • Generative AI disclosure statement (how did you, if at all, use GenAI)
  • Two (2) content slides only. No “workarounds” by adding animation to one slide to add more stuff.

Optional

Along with your presentation you are also allowed to turn in a one-page write-up of your project. You can think about this as the text of your presentation. The judges can refer to these during deliberation. You will upload these documents along with your presentation. Only 1 page will be printed.

Submitting your presentation

At the specified time on Sunday, all work must stop and you must upload your presentation and your optional write up to the submission website linked at the top of this page (available starting Sunday AM). If you are having technical difficulty, you can ask a coach or event coordinator for help.

Teams who fail to upload their presentations and write-ups will not be eligible to have their presentations judged.

File naming

The files you’re submitting must be named in the following manner:

  • [Team Name] - Presentation
  • [Team Name] - Writeup

Allowed file formats

  • We very strongly recommend using PDF, Keynote, or PowerPoint.
  • If using a web-based tool like GoogleDocs or Prezi, please ensure the URL to your presentation is visible to the public (no sign in required). Submit your URL via a text document.
  • You will not be able to use your computer during the presentation.

We don’t want to restrict your creativity but it is your responsibility to make sure that your presentation works seamlessly before the judging session begins.

Judging

The Judges will convene in a side room to deliberate and rank their nominations.

Awards will be given in three categories:

  • Best Insight
  • Best Use of External Data
  • Best Visualization

These are listed in no particular order.

The judges also have the option to name a fourth winner as Judges’ Pick.

Winners will receive medals and books as well as one-year student memberships to the American Statistical Association. See http://www.amstat.org/membership/ for membership benefits.

Raffle prizes

  • Throughout the event we will be giving out raffle prizes. Announcements for these will be shared on social media or through Discord. Follow these channels to get a chance to win one of these sweet prizes!
  • Winning will also require that you are on premises at the time a prize is announced.

Recruiting

DataFest is a great recruiting opportunity for many employers, and surely they won’t miss it!

Many of our sponsors are attending the event so you can find out more about them.

Most of our coaches are coming from companies who are recruiting or at a minimum wanting to meet you, so chat with them, find out what they do, network.

Rules

  • You can come and go as you please, but all work must be completed on premises.

  • Do not use any space other than Sylvesters, or work after midnight. Students found working in other areas or after midnight will be disqualified from the competition.

  • You must follow the Code of Conduct. This can be found at https://norcaldatafest.netlify.app/faq/, emailed to you by Wednesday of event week, and printed copies are available at the event.

  • Do not share the name of the data source publicly or on social media before May 4th. There are many other upcoming DataFests around the country and we want to make sure the dataset remains a surprise for them.

  • Before your team gets the data all members must have signed Non-Disclosure agreement on file at the registration desk. You can freely share your results, presentations, findings, etc. as part of your digital portfolio, however you are not allowed to share the raw data with anyone outside of DataFest. At the end of DataFest, you must delete all data from thumb drives, hard drives, etc. The data are sensitive.

  • As much as possible during the event there will be a friendly coaches present. These are faculty, grad students, or other professionals from our community. Not all will have field specific knowledge on the data set. They all have different areas of expertise, so if you get stuck on something and one consultant isn’t able to help, ask someone else later. Feel free to ask anything. This is not an exam, but a collaborative competition. Do not expect the consultants to write code for you, or do data management, etc. They are there to help point you in the right direction, but you’re responsible for getting there on your own.

  • PLEASE KEEP THE SECRET. Teams that leak the name or any information about the identify of the data donor will be disqualified! Please do not post pictures that reveal any charts/graphs/tables/summaries/models that might reveal the data donor.

  • Please do not tweet, create a TikTok, hashtag, Reel, Facebook, snapchat, etc about the identify of the donor or the context of the data. This means you should refrain from any hints, explicit or implicit statements that might reveal the context of the data.

Proprietary Notification

Data for DataFest is not public. These data are proprietary and are only to be used for the purpose of the American Statistical Association’s DataFest.

By using this data, you agree to the following:

  1. During participation in ASA’s DataFest, store and manage the data securely and privately. This means you may NOT upload the data to websites that may provide access to the data to anyone other than yourselves. (For example, if using Tableau or GitHub, make sure privacy settings prevent others from seeing or accessing the data.) If you are not sure, then don’t use that service! (Note: RStudio Cloud does not have access to your data; therefore, you can use it.)
  2. Erase all data after your ASA’s DataFest participation is complete.
  3. Do not identify or attempt to identify the people whose information is contained in the dataset, nor contact any of the individuals whose information is contained in the dataset.
  4. Comply with all applicable U.S. federal and state laws and regulations relating to the maintenance of the dataset, the safeguarding of the confidentiality of the dataset, and the use and disclosure of the dataset.
  5. Do not publish results of your analysis of the data, except that the final products of the competition (video, slide deck, one-page summary) may be displayed on team members’ websites and on campus ASA DataFest websites.
  6. Do not share the data with anyone who is not an ASA DataFest participant. Finally, please do NOT reveal the source or any features of the data to ANYONE before May 2. This will ensure that all ASA DataFest participants around the globe have the same experience with the data as you. This means not posting anything to social media that might reveal clues and ensuring that public GitHub repositories are not discoverable (and, if they are, that identifying work is removed).

Rules for Generative AI Use

Be aware that many generative AI models, particularly free or publicly available versions, use your prompts and inputs to train. If you input DataFest data into these models, you are breaking the proprietary notification (see above). To protect the data, you are required to abide by these guidelines.

  1. Do not upload, paste, or otherwise input any portion of the DataFest datasets provided to you into any generative AI product. This includes free chatbots, online modeling tools, or any platform whose data-handling policies you cannot verify.
  2. You may only use generative AI models that do not store your input or use it for training their models. Most generative AI products licensed by universities and colleges meet this condition. Check with your institution to verify.
  3. If using coding assistants (e.g., GitHub Copilot for R or Python), do not type, print, display, or preview any portion of the dataset in the script, source, or prompt window of the AI assistant. Use these tools only for general coding support (e.g., syntax help, debugging patterns), not for data-driven suggestions that would require the model to see the data.
  4. Violation of these rules may lead to disqualification from the event.

Code of Conduct

NorCal ASA DataFestTM is committed to providing a welcoming and harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, age, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, ethnicity, religion (or lack thereof), or technology choices. We do not tolerate harassment of event participants in any form. Sexual language and imagery is not appropriate for any event venue, including talks, workshops, social activities, social media, and other online media. NorCal ASA DataFestTM participants violating these rules may be sanctioned or expelled from the event at the discretion of the conference organizers.

This code of conduct applies to all participants, including organizers, mentors / VIP coaches, judges, and helpers and applies to all modes of interaction, both in-person and online, on NorCal ASA DataFestTM Community, and event specific Discord channels, and social media.

ASA participants agree to:

  • Be considerate in speech and actions, and actively seek to acknowledge and respect the boundaries of fellow attendees.
  • Refrain from demeaning, discriminatory, or harassing behavior and speech. Harassment includes, but is not limited to: deliberate intimidation; stalking; unwanted photography or recording; sustained or willful disruption of talks or other events; inappropriate physical contact; use of sexual or discriminatory imagery, comments, or jokes; and unwelcome sexual attention. If you feel that someone has harassed you or otherwise treated you inappropriately, please alert any organizers in person.
  • Take care of each other. Alert a member of the organizers if you notice a dangerous situation, someone in distress, or violations of this code of conduct, even if they seem inconsequential.

For more on the code of conduct, please see the ASA Meeting Code of Conduct.

Need Help?

Please speak with an event coordinator on site, email datascience@csuchico.edu, or send a message via the Discord during the event.

If any attendee engages in harassing behavior, the event organizers may take any lawful action we deem appropriate, including but not limited to warning the offender or asking the offender to leave the conference. (If you feel you have been unfairly accused of violating this code of conduct, you should contact the organizers with a concise description of your grievance.)

We welcome your feedback on this and every other aspect of the NorCal ASA DataFestTM events, and we thank you for working with us to make it a safe, enjoyable, and friendly experience for everyone who participates.

The text above has been only slightly modified from Duke’s DataFest website: https://www2.stat.duke.edu/datafest/coc/. Parts of above text is licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Credit to rOpenSci and SRCCON. Also inspired by the Ada Initiative’s “how to design a code of conduct for your community”.