HSRW – Johannes Baeumer
Two data sets, 22 students and 24 hours to solve the challenges. Rhein-Waal University of Applied Sciences (HSRW) hosted its first HSRW Datathon on the Kleve campus at the end of September. Using data from Kleve Zoo and the Kalkar-based company BBMED, students from various degree programmes tackled exciting tasks relating to the analysis and use of data.
Little sleep, a long night and an exciting new challenge: that was the first cleve.code.connect Datathon organised by HSRW. A total of 22 students from all over the world and from various degree programmes at the Kleve and Kamp-Lintfort campuses took on the challenge in small groups. They were tasked with tackling two different challenges. In the beginner’s challenge, participants had to forecast visitor numbers for Kleve Zoo using ticket sales figures from previous years. In the advanced challenge, automatically and manually recorded production data from the Kalkar-based company BBMED had to be merged with energy consumption data. The aim was to gain insights for future production.
The groups then presented their results to the jury in short presentations. The jury consisted of Prof. Dr Matthias Krauledat, Professor of Computer Science at HSRW; Judith Schindler and Jonas Lehmann from Kleve Zoo; Dennis Scheufler from scheufler.it; and Nikita Chirkov from BBMED.
HSRW – Johannes Baeumer
The competition was won by students Jakob Feldmann, Lucien Victoria Pfister, Ammar Elsayed and Nick Chen. As a prize, they each received a free ticket to Kleve Zoo and a small gift pack from the university shop.
“The Datathon isn’t about winning. It’s about the fun of solving challenges under time pressure and about networking with like-minded people and local businesses,” explains Fabrice Kirsch, a research assistant at HSRW and the organiser of the Datathon. He is particularly pleased with the positive feedback from both the sponsors and the participants. Preparations for next year will therefore begin shortly.
HSRW – Johannes Baeumer
Sponsors are already being sought for the next Datathon. “Whether in the form of data, traditional sponsorship or as an opportunity to meet motivated students during the event, we welcome any support,” says Kirsch, inviting interested companies to get in touch. Anyone interested is welcome to send enquiries to: Fabrice.Kirsch(at)
