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Love Data Week 2024

Event details and data visualization contest guidelines for Love Data Week 2024 hosted by the library Catalyst team.

International Love Data Week 2024 theme My Kind of Data

My Kind of Data: Data Viz Contest

Student data wizards unite! ‍🧙‍
We challenge you to impress our judges with your skills and creativity!

Data visualization is the translation of data into a visual medium such as a map, chart, infographic, 3D-model, or even art pieces. It's also a fun, creative, and effective way to communicate complex ideas through shape, color, size, intensity, and more. Captivate us with your visuals, tell a compelling story, tackle real-world problems, build skills, and have fun.

Submit an original data visualization for a chance to win a cash prize: First: $150; Second: $75; and Third: $50.

 

💖💗💖 Submissions are due Wednesday, February 14 by 5:00pm 💖💗💖

SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW CLOSED

 

Who may submit

Iowa State students, undergraduate and graduate.

Judging criteria

Judges are looking for creativity, clarity, visual interest, and/or reflection of this year’s theme of “my kind of data.”

Rules and Guidelines

  • All entries must be your original work
  • You must have permission to use and share the data for the contest
  • Collaborative and team entries are welcome but you may only submit one entry
  • Only one visualization per submission – showcase your best work
  • AI-generated entries are not allowed

You may submit visualizations that have been previously published within the past 12-months or that you plan to publish or use in a future publication or your thesis or dissertation. 

Submission Instructions

  1. Check the formats section below for details on how to prepare your submission
  2. Complete an entry form
  3. Submit your entry! Upload a completed entry form and a copy of your visualization before Wednesday, Feb 14th by 5:00 pm  

Formats

Images: such as scientific figures, illustrations, or infographics

  • Submit as a high-resolution TIFF, PNG, or SVG file

Videos: such 3D model tours, time series animations, other moving images

  • Submit as a MPEG-4, AVI or MOV file
  • Minimum resolution = 720x480 and maximum run time of 2 mins

Interactive: such as data dashboards or GIS maps;

  • Submit as a link in your application form
  • If multiple datasets are available, please indicate which should be judged in the entry form
  • Must be openly hosted on the web and accessible to the public

 

SUBMISSIONS ARE NOW CLOSED

Questions? Contact Erin Ridnour, emanders@iastate.edu or Megan O'Donnell, mno@iastate.edu

Data Resources

New to data visualization? Looking for data to illustrate? We’ve got you.  

Get Inspiration 

  • Information is beautiful awards from the Data Visualization Society 
  • Information is beautiful - no affiliation with the link above - was founded by a bestselling author of infographic books, this website has lots of examples and “juicy” datasets you can use for this and other projects.  
  • reddit.com/r/DataIsBeautiful is an online community dedicated sharing and celebrating beautiful and useful data visualizations.  
  • Makeover Monday a global initiative by Tableau to encourage creating and reimagining data visualizations
  • The Pudding publishes visual essays backed by data and has received multiple awards from the Data Visualization Society.

Find Datasets 

Not sure where to go to look for data? Here are some great places to start!

There are datasets for EVERYTHING!

Here are a few of our personal favorites: