6th Annual Datathon Offers Real-World Experience to UMD and AU Students

More students from American University participated in the event this year which represented nearly 50 different majors and programs across the two universities.

The Robert H. Smith School of Business in collaboration with Deloitte hosted its 6th Annual Datathon at the University of Maryland (UMD) and welcomed students from across the American University (AU) community to participate. “The Annual Datathon is designed to closely model a real-world, industry scenario that requires a data-driven solution,” said Smith Analytics Consortium Director, Associate Department Chair and Associate Academic Director, MS Information Systems, John Bono.

The event included 44 students from AU, with 14 of the 41 teams having a combination of students from UMD and AU, which provided those teams with bonus points. “When you go and work at a company like Deloitte, for example, you can’t say well I only want to work on a UMD team, I only want to work on an AU team, or I only want to work with other students in the same major,” Bono said. “So, it incentivises students with these bonus points by having different levels, graduate students vs. undergraduate students, majors/programs, and giving them a bonus point for having an AU student on a team of UMD students or you have an AU team with a UMD student.”

“For me it’s just a great way to have a friendly, cross-campus university competition between the two [schools]. I think it’s fantastic,” said Shawn Janzen, Professorial Lecturer at the Kogod School of Business. “They have an analytics program and we have an analytics program. The students aren’t necessarily learning the same things in both areas. So it’s a way for them to also learn from each other.”

Data Science Master’s student from AU, Jesse Brandt ’26 said the opportunity to work across disciplines and schools was “an incredibly valuable experience.”

The finale, featuring the top six teams, was hosted by the consortium at the Smith School in collaboration with American University and Deloitte on April 11, 2025. To reach the finale, student teams first competed in a preliminary round, where faculty judges evaluated their presentations. Finalist teams were then given a brief two-day window to prepare for the final presentation, with $7,500 in cash prizes at stake. The first-place team also received one-on-one sessions with Deloitte practitioners and leaders to discuss career opportunities.

Dean Prabhudev Konana welcomed students and congratulated the six remaining teams, reiterating that the datathon is important because it helps to develop “a core skill.”

“Programs like the Datathon simulate management consulting as they require students to apply a range of academic concepts to a real-world business challenge,” said Daniel Spar, managing director at Deloitte and University of Maryland alumnus. “Synthesizing an effective response requires a multi-disciplinary approach combined with pragmatic actions. This is best learned through case studies, and the Datathon provides this with the added energy of a fast-paced competition.”

The scenario at the center of this year’s competition was for the teams to help Spotify choose artists that would be the most profitable for a six-hour concert at Capital One Arena. The teams were provided with data such as the top 50 songs from 2024 as well as data on music streaming, ticket prices, concerts and artists. This information was used to inform the students’ recommendations on a lineup that will maximize the profit of the event.

Before the judges revealed the winning teams, Spar provided all participants with some general feedback and words of encouragement. “You are all so far ahead of where I was when I was at this stage of the game, you’re only going to go forward even better from here,” he said. Spar served as a judge at the final event along with Paul Baliff, managing director at Deloitte and Jared Townshend ’08, also a managing director with Deloitte.

Macrodata Refiners, a UMD team, took first place with students Samantha Coccia ’24, Anna Farley.’24, MSBA ’25, Braedan Henegar MSIS ’25, Parker Homann ’25, Thomas Hyland ’25, Alexa Lichtenberg ’24, MSBA ’25 and Abena Owusu-Brako ’24, MSBA ’25.

“It’s really nice to kind of work with real-world data because a lot of our class teachings are very clean, very workable data sets, and to be able to work with real data like this that’s been kind of compiled for us really lets us put our skills to the test,” Homann said. “So it’s really interesting, and of course, to hear the feedback from the judges is great, too.”

“Deloitte has so many opportunities, you can work with data, you can be a consultant,” Owusu-Brako said, and she is hoping to learn more about those pathways in the coveted one-on-one meeting with Deloitte, part of the grand prize for the winning team.

“As a University of Maryland alumnus, these judging opportunities allow me to give back to the institution that shaped my career trajectory,” said Baliff. “There is something deeply rewarding about helping current students navigate similar challenges I once faced, while sharing insights from my professional journey.”