Faculty of Education team place highly at UN Datathon

A University of Melbourne-led team has achieved 2nd place on the international stage in the UN Datathon competition.

The Down Under Data Wizards, co-captained by Dr Sundance Zhihong Sun, a Research Fellow at the Faculty of Education, recently participated in the global competition featuring over 400 teams from more than 100 countries.

Comprising five members hailing from various universities and research centers in Australia, the team united a diverse array of skills and perspectives. Their focus centered on a pivotal challenge: the transition to clean and affordable energy. Specifically, they engineered a solution pinpointing optimal locations for solar power and integrated it with a method to identify areas with the highest demand for solar energy.

Reflecting on the competition, Dr Sun expressed, "Upon realizing that the rest of my team members have a background in data science, and I am the only one from social sciences, I initially felt a bit intimidated. I even considered withdrawing from the participation."

“What stood out more to me than winning any award was the encouragement and support I received from the organisers and my team members. I've come to realise that I wouldn't have achieved what we did without their collective effort and support. It goes to show that sometimes, it's not just about the accolades, but the journey and the team that make the experience truly rewarding" Dr Sun emphasised.

The 2023 UN Datathon invited teams of up to 5 from across the public and private sector to develop innovative data-driven applications, tools or statistical models combining geospatial data with other data sources to help advance the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.