The Melissa Team sponsored UC Irvine ’s second annual datathon, “Atlantis” last weekend on April 13-14, 2024. This datathon had 128 participants. Project submissions were judged in-person; each team was allotted five minutes to present their projects.
For Atlantis, Melissa’s Chief Data Officer, Daniel K. Le, delivered a keynote speech during the opening ceremony and hosted a workshop on data manipulation.
Jason, Daniel, Ha, Gillian, Tram & Bill - the Melissa Education team at the Atlantis Datathon hosted by Data@UCI (April 13, 2024)
CDO Daniel speaking during the Atlantis Datathon Opening Ceremony
Atlantis Datathon attendees in Ha & Daniel's workshop on Data Manipulation
During the first day of the datathon, Melissa set up a sponsor table to give attendees 40 oz. tumblers with branded event stickers. Attendees lining up at Melissa's table also received details of the data challenge, which required participants to demonstrate an understanding and utilization of Melissa’s APIs or datasets, in an innovative and creative way.
Atlantis Datathon attendees lining up at the Melissa Edu table
The Melissa Edu team showing datathon attendees Melissa's verification tools in action
Melissa CDO with the winner of last year's Embark Datathon
The winning team that provided the Best Use of Melissa APIs/Data Sets AND People's Choice was Geodle, with team members: Sam, Ryan, Dennis & Keisun. Congratulations to Geodle - the winning team used ZIP Code data to create this hybrid game, a mix of Geoguessr and Wordle - try it out for yourself here. To view their project submission, click here.
The Melissa challenge winners with Geodle. Photo: Sam P.
Team members were rewarded with exclusive Melissa swag, 40K Melissa Credits — valued at $60 to use for Melissa Lookups and Cloud APIs, a tour of Melissa’s headquarters in Rancho Santa Margarita and $50 gift cards to Amazon! Click here to view all Melissa project submissions!
Atlantis Datathon attendees greeted by CDO Daniel at the Melissa Edu table with info & swag
Jason & Gillian eager to meet Atlantis Datathon attendees
Aside from swag, Melissa gave students a demo of their Education Portal at the sponsor table. The online portal supplies students and teachers with free data sets — even international students! If attendees are interested in these free resources, they may sign up for the Education Portal by creating a Melissa account at no charge. To use the portal, attendees must sign up using a .edu email address.
Since 1985, Melissa has specialized in global intelligence solutions to help organizations unlock accurate data for a more compelling customer profile. More than 10,000 clients worldwide in industries such as retail, education, healthcare, insurance, finance and government rely on Melissa for full spectrum data quality and ID verification software, including data matching, validation and enhancement services, to gain critical insight and drive meaningful customer relationships.