Seven teams of Rose-Hulman students are competing in this year’s Crossroads Classic Analytics Challenge (CCAC), an annual academic competition that brings together undergraduate and graduate students from top Indiana schools to solve real-world business challenges through data analytics.

Led by Dr. Olga Scrivner, assistant professor of computer science and software engineering, Rose-Hulman’s teams—Data Dynasty, Cluster Busters, NaN, Data Dunkers, The Dream Team, Squizz, and March Metrics—are taking on this year’s challenge: analyzing data related to the NCAA Division I Basketball Championship bracket challenge.

The competition kicked off January 31 at NCAA headquarters in Indianapolis, where 13 Rose-Hulman students attended in person to learn about the case and explore data mining in sports analytics. The event featured a keynote address by a NASA astronomer and professor of astrophysics and computational science, providing students with insights into advanced data mining applications.

During the kickoff, students also engaged with industry leaders, including Oracle, Salesforce, and Visualize Your Technology, while exploring graduate school opportunities.

“This competition gives our students a chance to tackle real-world business challenges using data analytics,” said Scrivner, a CCAC faculty champion. “It’s an invaluable experience that not only sharpens their technical expertise but also strengthens their problem-solving and communication skills—key assets for their future careers.”

Over the next two weeks, teams will develop predictive models using Kaggle, with access to hands-on coding and Tableau training provided by Salesforce. Their submissions will be judged by Rose-Hulman faculty experts based on both technical accuracy and business insights. Only one team will advance to represent Rose-Hulman at the final competition on March 7.

Rose-Hulman’s teams are competing against student teams from Purdue University, Butler University, Indiana University Bloomington, Indiana University Southeast, Ball State University, and the University of Indianapolis.