Freed-Hardeman Hosts Tennessee DataFest, Wins Two of Three Top Awards

Freed-Hardeman University hosted the inaugural Tennessee DataFest April 24-26, bringing the international analytics competition to the state for the first time and capturing two of the three top awards.

Teams representing Freed-Hardeman and Rhodes College had less than 48 hours to dig into a 7-million-row real-world dataset and present conclusions to a panel of judges from industry and academia.

The Best Use of Outside Data Award was given to the FHU group of Tristin Smith, a computer science major from Henderson, Tennessee; Kali Bonner, a management major from Edgewater, Florida; Dev Prakash, a business analytics major from Hodal, India; and Caleb Todd, a computer science and cybersecurity major from Dyer, Tennessee.

The prize for Best Insight went to an FHU team of Maddox Andrews, an accounting major from Louisville, Kentucky; Carson Ladd, a business analytics and sport administration major from Nolensville, Tennessee; Logan Chambers, an accounting major from Benton, Kentucky; and Brady Webb, an accounting major from Jackson, Tennessee.