"Data4Resilience" Challenge Launches for Students of the University of Bologna

What impact has climate change had on the socio-demographic dynamics of Emilia-Romagna's municipalities over the past two decades? The answer will come from the students of the University of Bologna, who, as part of the "Data4Resilience" challenge, will develop projects to interpret over 5.5 million observations and 516 indicators related to demographic, climatic, and territorial variables. These data are part of EcoPop-ER, a database developed as part of the MEMOREC project at the University of Bologna.

Open until 31 March 2025, the challenge will be introduced during the event "A Demographic Lens: From Data to Data Visualization to Focus on Society", organised by Istat and the Italian Statistical Society, with the support of the Union of Italian Provinces and the National Association of Italian Municipalities. The event will take place at 09:45 on Monday, 28 October, in Classroom III of the Department of Statistical Sciences, as part of the Fourteenth Italian Day of Statistics.

During the event, speakers and workshops will demonstrate the use of demographic data and data visualization techniques, followed by the presentation of the data challenge.

The competition is open to all students of the University of Bologna, who can participate individually or in teams of up to three members. Participants should develop a project related to population evolution and climate conditions in the regional territory.

The projects submitted should fall into one or more of the following categories: graph, cartogram, interactive map, dashboard, infographic, statistical model estimation, or other statistical applications. A panel of experts will evaluate the originality, methodology, and potential for communication and enhancement of the database.

The winners will receive a certificate and a shopping voucher for University of Bologna merchandise at UniboStore, with the following prizes: 200 euros for the first place; 100 euros for the second place; 50 euros for the third place. All participants will receive a certificate of participation.

Online workshops will be held on Friday, 6 December, and 28 February, at 3:00 PM, explaining the database contents and how to use them for the data challenge. A final Q&A session will be held on Friday, 21 March, at 3:00 PM, offering participants the opportunity to ask questions to the experts.

For further information.