We are currently accepting entries for our 2026 challenge!
Are you a data storyteller excited to show the campus community what you can do? Are you a student looking for a fun way to highlight your data viz skills? Are you a researcher interested in new and innovative ways to communicate your research?
Bucky’s Data Viz Challenge provides a platform for UW–Madison students, faculty, and staff to showcase their creative data visualization skills.
Check out the details for our student contest and faculty and staff competition for inspiration. We are currently accepting entries. All entries are due by 11:59 pm on Wednesday, January 7, 2026.
This annual challenge determines UW–Madison’s entries in the BTAA’s Data Viz Championship held during Love Data Week, a celebration of data held each year during the week of Valentine’s Day.
Love Data Week at UW—Madison has more information about events and activities for Love Data Week 2026 (February 9 to 13).
I had a great time working with the data and did my best to visualize it using the skills I’ve learned in the GIS master’s program. This competition is so meaningful, and it has definitely made my winter break more colorful!
Eugenie Huang
GISPP Fellow with the State Cartographer’s Office and UW—Madison’s 2025 student entry for the BTAA’s Data Viz Championship
Student Challenge
Students must use the FiveThirtyEight fight song dataset to produce a data visualization for submission.
- Be creative! Show off your ability to analyze data and share it in an innovative, easy-to-understand way.
- Find a partner! You can work with another person as long as both are credited.
- Explore a new tool! Any tool (or a combination of tools) may be used. This is not limited to Tableau or Power BI.
Submission details and timeline for Bucky’s Data Viz Challenge.
Why should you participate?
- Participating helps you build your portfolio and resume.
- Bragging rights if you win!
- Entries are promoted on various campus media channels, helping your work and skills gain visibility.
- One entry will represent UW–Madison in the BTAA’s Data Viz Championship.
Data analysis and design resources
Faculty and Staff Competition
Faculty and staff, this is your opportunity to share your innovative visualization and research with new audiences.
You can submit an existing visualization or design a new one. Examples include:
- An existing visualization that shares public research you are involved in.
- A visualization that highlights information about UW–Madison as a whole or about a specific initiative or population.
- Create a visualization using publicly available Big Ten data, such as athletics, enrollment data, and other relevant metrics.
New and creative ways of visualizing data are encouraged.
One entry will represent UW–Madison in the BTAA’s Data Viz Championship. All submissions must follow institutional and research data policies and guidelines.
Submission details and timeline for Bucky’s Data Viz Challenge.
Submission details and timeline
Entries are submitted via a Google form and are due by 11:59 pm on Wednesday, January 7, 2026. All submissions must include:
- thumbnail image of the entry,
- visualization title,
- short description (no more than 250 words), and
- publicly available URL.
Submit your entry for Bucky’s Data Viz Challenge!
Please share this information with interested students, faculty, and staff. If you have any questions, email us at dapir@provost.wisc.edu.
BTAA Data Viz Championship
The Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) Data Viz Championship is a showcase of data storytelling talent across Big Ten institutions. This exciting competition invites students, faculty, and staff to demonstrate their data visualization skills and vie for the title of BTAA Data Viz Champion.
From UW-Madison’s submitted visualizations, a group of campus faculty, staff, and leadership will select one student and one faculty/staff data visualization to represent UW–Madison at the virtual BTAA Data Viz Showcase held during Love Data Week. Additional details about the showcase, including how to vote, will be shared in early 2026.