TIBCO Analytics Forum 2021 Hackathon Winners | The TIBCO Blog

TIBCO Analytics Forum 2021 Hackathon Winners Reading Time: 4 minutes

The virtual TIBCO Analytics Forum (TAF) 2021 Hackathon was a resounding success! With winners showing amazing aptitude at both data exploration and problem solving, the hackathon once again proved to be a major highlight for many attendees. 

What is the TIBCO Analytics Forum Hackathon?

Designed with TIBCO SpotfireⓇ analysts and developers in mind, the four-hour, self-paced hackathon challenged participants to use Spotfire advanced features to answer real business questions. Attendees were given a dataset to work from and used their analytic skills to interrogate the data.

Plus, the TIBCO Spotfire Advanced Training Part 1 and Part 2, available during day two of the event, provided attendees with deeper knowledge around the features covered in the hackathon. You can still catch these sessions on-demand through the virtual platform until June 25. Login here or register now to gain access. 

What happened at this year’s hackathon?

This year’s hackathon focused on analyzing wind power production in Texas. The year 2020 marked a record year for the global wind industry. Participants used real-world data from multiple sources like Electrical Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to model wind power production from weather patterns and wind farms’ metadata. 

The open-ended challenges prompted participants to build visuals and highlight analytics from both geospatial and time-series data. By taking data from disparate weather stations around Texas, participants needed to interpolate and transfer wind data spatially onto individual wind farms, and then merge that environmental data with wind turbine power curves to accurately estimate power generated. Some of the tricks planted along the way required participants to join together datasets, construct layers on map charts, create calculated columns, and configure data functions from R code. In the end, successful participants could clearly show and predict locations and wind farms in Texas producing the most wind power, and the top submissions also took advantage of Spotfire’s Mods, scripting, and maps.

Hackathon winners were selected based on their ability to take data visualization to places we’ve never seen before. 

Drumroll, please! And the winners are…

The following participants put their knowledge to the test and proved themselves up to the challenge. They all displayed data literacy and the ability to select the best data visualizations needed to represent and communicate their findings to business users. 

• First Place Winner – Jolene Robertson: Creating a balance of reference data that augments and highlights key data, while weaving in meaningful analytics, Jolene packed so much into a simple and easy-to-understand dashboard. She also created dynamic parameterization of heatmap calculations and customized menus and actions so what-if scenarios could be evaluated and explored

• Second Place Winner – Ryan Hartquist: Ryan has a talent for cohesion, usability, and communication. He submitted a comprehensive visual application that uses statistics, reference data and parameterization controls to allow a business analyst to make impactful business decisions.

• Third Place Winner – Jade Liu: Straight to the point. Jade used visual best practices and clear communication to get right to the heart of the problem and clearly communicate results in a straightforward and effective manner.

• Fourth Place Winner – Braeden Gilchrist: Using linear regression to first determine relationships between temperature and wind speed, Braeden went on to create an animated Spotfire Mods visual that explains the deeper statistical relationships in the data. He also creatively explored new visual types.

• Honorable Mention – Jon Henderson: Jon has a knack for stunning visual communication and aesthetics. A glowing surface of wind data is easily distinguishable in his geoanalytics which emphasizes the most important aspects of the calculations and relevant insights.

Congratulations to everyone who participated, dedicating time and energy to increasing their familiarity with advanced analytic features. 

The virtual TIBCO Analytics Forum (TAF) 2021 Hackathon was a resounding success! With winners showing amazing aptitude at both data exploration and problem solving, the hackathon once again proved to be a major highlight for many attendees.  Click To Tweet

Continue learning: how to up your Spotfire skills 

But it doesn’t have to stop here! Whether you participated in this year’s hackathon or not, you can up your Spotfire analytic skills by attending the next Dr. Spotfire Office Hours webinar. Hosted each month by Spotfire experts, the Dr. Spotfire program aims to help new and advanced users overcome unique analytic challenges and improve their day-to-day skills.