Love Data Week: Faculty, staff and students invited to participate

Purdue faculty, staff and students are invited to participate in the Boiler Up, Hammer Data Challenge ahead of Love Data Week on Feb. 9-13. This annual event is part of the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) celebration of data, culminating in a week of free, virtual events. Session topics for 2026 include hallucinations in large language models, practical strategies for responsible AI implementation, careers in data, the BTAA Data Viz Championship Showcase and more. Interested participants can register for events and visit the Love Data Week webpage for complete Boiler Up, Hammer Data Challenge competition information and submission forms.

The BTAA Data Viz Championship showcases data visualization expertise across Big Ten institutions. For 2026, Boiler Up, Hammer Data Challenge winners (one student submission and one faculty/staff submission) will advance to the championship to represent Purdue. The BTAA Championship will hold public visualization displays and voting Feb. 9-13, with a virtual showcase on Feb. 13.

Faculty and staff can compete in the Boiler Up, Hammer Data Challenge by submitting an existing data visualization used at Purdue to communicate information about our university or one of its projects (including resources created for visualizing research results). Visualizations must be submitted by Jan. 19. Faculty and staff who work with students are encouraged to promote the Boiler Up, Hammer Data Challenge and invite student participation.

Students can compete in the Boiler Up, Hammer Data Challenge individually or in teams of two to create a visualization using the Fight Song Dataset and address research question(s) of their choice. Visualizations must be submitted by Jan. 19. Students are eligible for one of three prizes ranging from $500-$1,000 and the opportunity to represent Purdue at the BTAA Data Viz Championship.

Boiler Up, Hammer Data Challenge winners will be announced the week of Jan. 26. Voting information will be shared on the competition website when available. For more information or questions, contact idata@purdue.edu.