University Libraries seeks entries for 2026 BTAA Data Visualization Championship

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State students, faculty and staff are invited to compete in the 2026 Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) Data Visualization Championship, part of upcoming International Love Data Week celebrations. Submissions for the competition are due by Jan. 16, 2026. 

Love Data Week is an international event that celebrates data and raises awareness about data science, management and sharing. It includes lectures, workshops, seminars and data-themed competitions. Penn State students will vie for the championship against BTAA member universities in a data visualization competition using a Big Ten fight songs dataset. 

All participants can showcase their data visualization skills and compete for the prestigious title of 2026 BTAA Data Viz Champion. Students will be provided with the dataset and challenged to produce compelling data visualizations, while faculty and staff may submit existing visualizations that highlight their institution or its projects. Alternatively, faculty and staff may create new visualizations based on Big Ten themes, such as athletics or enrollment data.  

To participate, instructors can consider integrating a fight song dataset into their course materials, assignments or projects prior to the Jan. 16 deadline. This gives students a ready-made opportunity to participate in the competition. 

The University’s winner will represent Penn State at the Big Ten Academic Alliance Love Data Week Data Viz Competition. 

This is a fantastic opportunity for Penn State students, faculty and staff to showcase their data storytelling abilities while connecting with other members of the Big Ten academic community. Penn State University Libraries encourages everyone to participate to continue the University’s tradition of excellence and history of success in the competition. In 2024, Laura Guertin, distinguished professor of earth sciences at Penn State Brandywine, earned the BTAA Data Viz Champion title for her quilted visualization, “Blue Skies and Cloud Cover.” 

Submissions for the competition will be collected using this form and are due by Jan. 16. For more information about the competition, visit the BTAA Love Data Week page. For any questions, contact the University Libraries’ Research Informatics and Publishing team at repub@psu.edu.