WashU Data Viz Competition

The competition is open to WashU students, faculty, and staff. 

• Students must be currently enrolled at the university, either as undergraduate, graduate, or continuing education students, and actively engaged in coursework, thesis, or dissertation work.
• Faculty, staff, or trainees (postdocs, residents, and fellows) must be actively employed by the university and engaged in research, academic, clinical, or administrative roles.  
• Participants may form cross-functional teams or submit individual entries. A single team captain will submit the entry and receive the award.

• Entries must include a minimum of one data visualization. 
• Any tool (or a combination of tools) may be used. The competition is tool-agnostic.  
• Participants must include a citation/credit section within the submission to attribute support and data sources.
• All submissions must comply with institutional data policies: Data Sharing Agreement, Research Data Management with no inclusion of sensitive information, such as Social Security Numbers, HIPAA-protected health data, or confidential student records.  
• All visualizations must be accessible through a public link that does not require a login during the judging and showcase phases. 

• Participants may use one of the supplied datasets (see below), or they may use one of their own.
  • Gallup Global Wellbeing Initiative
  • Library checkouts for 500 ‘greatest’ novels
  • Impact of Social Media on Wellbeing
• Additional publicly available data may be used to supplement the chosen dataset.

Prizes will be awarded in two categories: students and faculty/staff. There will be first-, second- and third-place award for both categories. Additionally, a People’s Choice Award for each category will be selected by attendees at the Love Data Week Showcase and Awards Reception. Winners will be featured on WashU’s digital and social media platforms. 

Students 

• First Place: $150 gift card 
• Second Place: $100 gift card 
• Third Place: $50 gift card 
• People’s Choice Award: $50 gift card 

Faculty/Staff 

• First Place: $150 gift card 
• Second Place: $100 gift card 
• Third Place: $50 gift card 
• People’s Choice Award: $50 gift card 

The WashU community is invited to view the entries at the 2027 Showcase and Awards Reception, which will be hosted in collaboration with the Graduate Research Symposium this year at Frick Forum in Knight Hall. Competition entries will be showcased, and attendees can vote to determine the People’s Choice Award. All competition participants are encouraged to join us at this event, where they will receive a free participation t-shirt and event stickers.

1. Communication and narrative:
   • Does it tell a compelling and clear story? 
   • Is the narrative logical and engaging? 
   • Does it deepen understanding of the data or theme?
2. Design and aesthetic quality:  
   • Is the design aesthetically pleasing? 
   • Are layout, typeface, and/or colors used appropriately to enhance understanding? 
   • Are labels, titles, and data points easy to read and well-organized? 
3. Data integrity and accuracy:  
   • Is the data accurate and from a reliable source? Are data sources clearly cited? 
   • Are findings correctly represented?  
   • If original data processing is involved, is it transparent? 
4. Accessibility and inclusivity:  
   • Do the design decisions support interactions with all users? 
   • Consider color contrast, color blindness and alternative text where applicable. Are visuals color-blind friendly? 
   • Does it use inclusive language, and consider representation equitably? 
5. Creativity and originality:  
   • Does it employ creative techniques and design approaches? 
   • Is this a novel way of displaying data? 

The annual 2027 Love Data Week Data Visualization competition is tool-agnostic, welcoming diverse approaches to data visualization. 

For questions regarding the submission form, please contact Renée Racette at rener@wustl.edu.  

Participants may use AI tools to support their work, but the ideas, interpretation, and design decisions must be their own. AI-generated analyses, text, code, or visualizations may not be copied directly into a submission without review and verification. Participants must disclose which AI tools they used and how, and are responsible for the accuracy of all analyses, data representations, and citations.

Submit your data visualization competition entry here by Sunday, January 24th by 11:59 pm. Late entries will not be accepted.