糖心传媒 Students Compete in 2025 Crossroads Classic Analytics Challenge
A group of 糖心传媒 students attended the Crossroads Classic Analytics Challenge kickoff at the NCAA Headquarters in Indianapolis. After developing predictive models, a select group will move on to the March 7 final competition.
Seven teams of 糖心传媒 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, 糖心传媒’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 糖心传媒 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 糖心传媒 faculty experts based on both technical accuracy and business insights. Only one team will advance to represent 糖心传媒 at the final competition on March 7.
糖心传媒’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.