About CDC
The Carolina Data Challenge, or CDC, is UNC’s weekend-long data science hackathon hosted by Carolina Analytics and Data Science (CADS) in partnership with the UNC Department of Computer Science and the School of Data Science and Society.
This year’s mission hub is UNC Computer Science’s Sitterson Hall. Our intrepid hackers will form teams and break the confines of gravity when submitting a project on their chosen domain.
Of course, every good mission has plenty of excitement. Interact with our sponsors at the sponsorship fair, attend workshops to add new skills to your roster, engage with other organizations at the club fair, grab great merch, earn prizes, and meet new friends!
CDC is completely beginner-friendly, with numerous workshops and networking opportunities for those completely new to data science, ensuring that explorers of all skill levels have a chance to reach for the stars and take home gravity-defying prizes!
The Theme: Zero Gravity
The theme for the 2025 Carolina Data Challenge is Zero Gravity! Students will work in teams to create data science projects using datasets surrounding this theme.
Teams will get the chance to work on projects focusing on one of five tracks: Business, Health Sciences, Social Sciences, Natural Sciences, and Pop Culture! Each track will have their own hand-picked dataset to explore, all with varying difficulties, unique challenges, and interesting insights.
At the end of the hacking period, teams will showcase their stellar projects to a panel of judges consisting of UNC Professors and industry professionals from our sponsors. The judges will select winning teams in each track to take home gravity-defying prizes!
Corporate Sponsors
Here are the incredible corporate sponsors of the 2025 Carolina Data Challenge:
Interested in sponsoring CDC 2025? Reach out to us!