On November 21–22, the Skyline College STEM Center hosted the Skyline College Datathon, a two-day, beginner-friendly data science event that brought together 28 students from a wide range of STEM majors, business administration, economics, and psychology. The Datathon was organized by Luis Prado, Program Services Coordinator for the STEM Center and Math Professor and MESA Co-Director Denise Hum, who teaches Math 211: Introduction to Data Science. Students from Laney College and San Jose City College also joined through MESA’s partnership with Growth Sector, expanding the event’s reach and impact.
Supported by volunteer mentors Janice Johnson, a UC Berkeley molecular and cell biology major and Skyline College alumna, and Bryan Swartout, a Skyline College data science professor, students collaborated in teams to analyze the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) California 2022 dataset. This real-world public health dataset was chosen intentionally during outreach to recruit new students into data science. Professor Hum surveyed classes and found that the issues Skyline students care most deeply about are health and mental health. The Datathon was designed to provide students with a structured, supportive environment to investigate these topics using authentic data.
To allow students to try out data science and to support those with little or no coding experience, the STEM Center offered a Python for Data Science workshop series in the weeks leading up to the event. ”This Datathon welcomed participants with widely varying levels of experience, including many with none at all. For most participants, this Datathon was their very first experience with data science or hackathon-style teamwork. The event demonstrated how accessible and relevant data analysis can be to students across all majors, and gave them the chance to apply newly acquired skills to questions that matter to them and their communities.
The Datathon produced a wide range of thoughtful, creative, and socially relevant projects, with top teams receiving prizes sponsored by the Data Science Club and the Associated Students of Skyline College (ASSC). First place went to “An Analysis of Systemic Oppression on Health,” presented by Noel Zwe Htet Aung, Jillian Lampaya, Keilani Mejia, and Isabella Woo, who examined how social inequities shape health outcomes. Second place was awarded to “Health and Well-Being Insights” by Madison David, Noel Amankrah-Bonsu, Tommy Zhang, and Andre Inobe, who examined patterns in wellness, chronic conditions, and lifestyle factors. Third place went to the team of Jiaxuan Qiao, Danqing Shi, Mengling Wang, Hanya Zhang, and Zeluo Wang, whose project, “How do exercise frequency and sleep duration differ between low-income and high-income individuals?” Other teams examined topics such as the relationship between income and life satisfaction and how mental health varies across age groups, demonstrating the wide range of questions students can explore using data.
A volunteer panel of judges, STEM Dean Jessica Hurless, STEM Retention Specialist Portia Luong, and Professor Bryan Swartout, evaluated the final presentations. Dean Hurless, drawing on her background teaching communications studies, offered students thoughtful feedback on effective presentation strategies and answered questions about how to communicate their findings clearly and confidently.
Skyline College plans to host the Datathon again next fall. Students interested in continuing their data science journey can enroll in Math 211: Introduction to Data Science or participate in DataJam, a semester-long “data for good” project where teams receive weekly mentorship while working with local and statewide open data.
This work is supported by a grant from the California Education Learning Lab Data Science Grand Challenge INCLUDE project.
