{"id":34336,"date":"2025-03-28T11:05:15","date_gmt":"2025-03-28T15:05:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/?p=34336"},"modified":"2025-10-15T10:37:55","modified_gmt":"2025-10-15T14:37:55","slug":"addition-financial-analytics-competition-winners-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/addition-financial-analytics-competition-winners-announced\/","title":{"rendered":"Addition Financial Analytics Competition Winners Announced"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A team of two Knights takes home the grand prize at the Big Data Analytics Symposium<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

By: Emily Dougherty | March 28, 2025<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Addition Financial team members pose with faculty from the Department of Statistics and Data Science and the winning students of the Addition Financial Analytics Competition at the Big Data Analytics Symposium.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The UCF Department of Statistics and Data Science collaborated with Pegasus Partner,\u202fAddition Financial,\u202fto host its annual analytics competition and named its winners at the Big Data Analytics Symposium<\/a>, hosted at UCF this past month. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Big Data Analytics Symposium is a day-long series of speakers and networking opportunities hosted at UCF, connecting students to industry professionals to explore the practical applications of big data and data analytics in the modern marketplace. This year\u2019s sponsors included Addition Financial, Voloridge, Intego Group, Playfair Data. And the UCF College of Business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vice President of Research and Innovation Winston Schoenfeld, Ph.D., welcomed attendees to the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis event serves as more than just a learning opportunity\u2014it is a gateway to real-world applications and career opportunities,\u201d says Schoenfeld. \u201cThe presentations, networking sessions, and discussions you participate in today may spark new ideas, forge valuable connections, and even lead to your next big career move.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Three
Winston Schoenfeld, Vice President of Research and Innovation at UCF, talks with alumna and Symposium presenter, Shengwei Wu, and Sultana Ali, Director of Marketing and Communications for the UCF College of Sciences at the Big Data Analytics Symposium.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A unique valuable learning opportunity is through the Additional Financial Analytics Competition. UCF student participants apply their education to a real-world problem, analyzing real-world data to gain actionable insights into the factors influencing consumer decisions when choosing financial institutions for mortgage loans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The winning team, comprised of Jackson Windhorst, a senior studying data science, and Katelyn Choudhari, a data science major and statistics minor, presented their research and findings to the room of attendees, which included industry partners, faculty, and fellow students. They were recognized, along with the second and third-place winners, by Addition Financial at the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Along with the winners, other fellow Knights studying data science, had big wins too. Kyle Brinker came in second place and Aamogh Sawant, Colin Montie, Nathaniel Wright came in third place as a team in the competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The winning UCF College of Science students were recognized at the Big Data Analytics Symposium on March 24 in a special presentation led by Sital Nayee, Systems Analyst at Addition Financial. Nayee\u2019s enthusiasm for data science extends into personal projects and continuous learning endeavors, in particular, this annual competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe wanted students to have a compelling question and have the opportunity to research publicly available data to discover solutions. This is a real-time opportunity for both Addition Financial and the students who participated in the competition,\u201d says Nayee. \u201cWe were impressed with the winning team\u2014the depth of research they conducted and insights are actionable for our business operations.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the winning team, Choudhari and Windhorst had an opportunity to present their findings centered around the question: What causes consumers to choose one financial institution over another for their loans\/mortgages?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In their presentation, they explored the reasoning behind why people choose specifics banks for financing. By utilizing different data sets and research methods, Windhorst and Choudhari were able to come to five causes: accessibility and convenience, significance of financial terms, reputation and trust, competitive and transparent rates and fees, and regional economic factors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through the top five causes, they both were able to generate suggested actions that Addition Financial can focus on in their business operations to aid consumers in decision making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choudhari shares what it means to her to have the opportunity to show her team\u2019s hard work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt was fun to showcase our project at the Symposium. It felt great to share what we\u2019d worked so hard on and to connect with both students and professionals in the field,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Group
UCF statistics and data science students talk with alumni and CEO of Playfair Data, Ryan Sleeper, about the opportunities in the industry during Speed-Round Table Networking Sessions at the Big Data Analytics Symposium.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Winning the Addition Financial Analytics Competition came as a surprise to Windhorst; he shares that he took on this competition to further his professional experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt feels shocking since I did not expect to win. I was initially doing this project for my resume to show recruiters how I had grown from this project,\u201d Windhorst says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pair\u2019s road to victory was a learning journey. Choudhari says it taught her more about the value of collaboration and communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJackson and I communicated regularly over Discord and divided up the work based on our strengths,\u201d she says. \u201cWe\u2019d check in with each other to go over what we completed, talk through what did and didn\u2019t work, and compared our findings to build our final conclusions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through this experience Windhorst says that he learned a lot about data through real world experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe biggest lesson I learned was that the data in the real world is not always going to be in ideal shape,\u201d Windhorst says. \u201cThere will be a lot of unformatted entries, and errors. This is why it\u2019s the data scientist’s job to clean up the data to the best of their ability.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Choudhari says she\u2019s glad she\u2019s been able to grow her experience and knowledge in a unique way through the Addition Financial Analytics Competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis experience really boosted my confidence and showed me that I can take on complex, real-world data problems,\u201d Choudhari says. \u201cIt\u2019s been a great reminder that learning doesn\u2019t stop in the classroom.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For fellow Knights who are interested in taking part in this competition, Windhorst shares his advice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFor anyone thinking about entering the competition for next year, don’t think about it, just do it,\u201d he says. \u201cNo matter what you do, if you put effort in you may just surprise yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A team of two Knights takes home the grand prize at the Big Data Analytics Symposium By: Emily Dougherty | March 28, 2025 The UCF Department of Statistics and Data Science collaborated with Pegasus Partner,\u202fAddition Financial,\u202fto host its annual analytics competition and named its winners at the Big Data Analytics Symposium, hosted at UCF this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":250,"featured_media":34337,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3,38,6489,6525,6491,28,29],"tags":[376,736,6418],"class_list":["post-34336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-awards","category-breaking-news","category-featured-statistics","category-sdmss","category-statistics-data-science","category-top-news","category-ucf-news","tag-awards-2","tag-college-of-sciences","tag-statistics-and-data-science"],"yoast_head":"\nAddition Financial Analytics Competition Winners Announced - 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