The ‘TracHack’ hackathon is a three-week competition where students collaborate virtually in small groups to create predictive models to address situations that TracFone data scientists handle every day as the organization continues to seek innovations to improve customer experiences.
“The TracHack has allowed me to work with a team and brainstorm strategies on how to best use machine learning in order to tackle a practical, real-life problem,” said Miami Herbert student Jose Mota Lebron. “It has also introduced me to emerging, new tools and technologies (such as Bitbucket) that are utilized by cross-functional teams to collaborate in projects together.”
The top three teams receive distinguished honors, trophies and a cash prize. Should the student’s solution prove more effective than TracFone’s own machine learning models, the company will adopt that solution.
“The TracHack kickoff event was a great introduction into our project with TracFone, which allowed us the opportunity to apply what we learned in class to an actual data set to help answer a real question,” said Miami Herbert student Danielle Sheerer. “The knowledge and insight from TracFone, especially their preparedness and willingness to support us throughout the event, made me feel encouraged and eager to explore this real-world problem.”
