28th Annual Meeting of the RSSB

What is it?

A mini-hackathon consists in working in teams on a challenging project defined by an expert. In a limited time period, the team members need to derive a solution and present it in front of a jury.

RSSB2021 Mini-hackathon: when and how?

The RSSB mini-hackathon is scheduled on Friday 22 October afternoon. Each team will have the opportunity to work on its favorite project among the three following proposals outlined by our partners:

• Project on insurance data with Ethias
• Project on the analysis of official data relative to Belgian households with Statistics Belgium
• Project on the analysis of medication intake data with Aardex

Additional information on the three projects will be given one week before the meeting, allowing you to look for and/or prepare the most appropriate tools for dealing with the project.

On Friday early afternoon, the three partners will present the whole picture before leaving the floor to all teams which will have 2h30 to discuss, brainstorm(*), attack the problem of their choice and prepare a 3-minute presentation. Hackathon facilitators will go from one group to the next in order to boost the team dynamic.

After the presentations, a jury composed of the President of the Royal Statistical Society of Belgium, the three partners and professors in the corresponding themes will then select the best performing teams. The day will finish with a prize ceremony followed by an after work drink at the Palais des Congrès, the drink being then possibly followed, for the most courageous, by a night tour on the famous Liège (October) Fair.

(*) Post-it, posters, pens will be provided in order to facilitate the brainstorming work; each team needs to have its own laptop and software.

Who can participate?

All participants are invited to register in teams of 3 to 4 members. If you are willing to participate but cannot find 2 or 3 colleagues or acquaintances willing to play the game with you, you may still register as an individual participant and you'll have the opportunity to form a team before the Hackathon.

The organizing committee hopes that this original way to conclude the meeting will be attractive to all participants, and especially to PhD candidates who could seize this opportunity to improve their statistical skills and also hone their soft skills like team work, communication and persuasion.

The mini-hackathon should be seen as a friendly competition in a spirit of team building.

Join the competition

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In case some participants of the meeting do not wish to play an active role in the mini-hackathon but would still be happy to attend the final presentations, the award ceremony and the after work drink, a visit to a nearby museum in Liège is planned during the 2h30-period of the team work (please register for it when registering for the meeting).