Top 8 Data Science Competitions for Middle School Students
If you’re a middle school student interested in data science, then we hope you’re looking to participate in data science competitions. Competitions are a great way to experience the real-world applications of a subject while also honing your leadership and project management skills!
In this list, we have detailed 10 data-science competitions for middle school students. Note that while all competitions involve data science to some extent, some are science fairs where you have the flexibility to pursue a topic that uses data science concepts!
Imagine Cup is a competition organized by Microsoft where students between the ages of 13 and 18 can use technology to solve some of the world’s biggest challenges. In the competition, you and your team will create a project to develop an original concept addressing the Microsoft AI for Good Initiatives.
Apart from the competition itself, Imagine Cup Junior aims to introduce students to concepts in AI, machine learning and cybersecurity through their deep learning modules, where they will receive 6 sets of in-depth content. So even if this competition is not centered around data science, you will still be exposed to many concepts used in the subject!
Previous winners of Imagine Cup Junior have created AI-driven interactive applications promoting accessibility to chemistry laboratory equipment using motion and AR, or a fact-checking browser to combat misinformation. You can view the winners for 2023 and their projects here! If you are interested in taking part in the competition, check out this blog on how to win the Microsoft Image Cup.
Location: Virtual
Eligibility: Must be between 13-18 years old
Prizes: Certificates and cash prizes (amount not disclosed).
Registration Deadline: To be announced for 2024. The registration date for 2023 was January 11.
Submission Deadline: To be announced for 2024. The submission deadline for 2023 was May 15, 2023.
2. Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge (JIC)
Organized by the Society of Science (the same organization that hosts the Regeneron International Science and Engineering fair), JIC is a research competition where you propose a research project to tackle a societal issue.
While not only a data science competition, this fair gives you the flexibility to choose a topic that involves data science concepts. For example, some finalists for the competition chose to diagnose skin conditions and bug bites on a cell phone using machine learning, or creating a neural-network for Cardiac Auscultation! You can find the project descriptions here!
To participate in JIC, you will have to first participate in an affiliated fair near you. If you score within the top 10% of participants, the fair can list you as a Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge nominee!
Location: Varies based on the fair you choose (you can find a list of fairs here!). The finalists have to travel to Washington D.C.
Eligibility: Open to all middle school students who participate in an affiliated fair.
Prizes: There are multiple prices for winners including a $500, all-expense paid trip to Washington DC for finalists and a parent/guardian. You will also have the opportunity to win more awards - you can find more information here!
Registration Deadline: TBA
Competition Dates: February 1 - June 14 (tentatively, based on previous years dates).
Final Competition Date: October 18 - November 2 (tentatively, based on previous years dates).
3. The Middle Mathematical Content in Modeling (MidMCM)
COMAP’s Middle Mathematical Content in Modeling is an international competition that lets you work in a team of 4 to solve MidMCM problems through modeling, problem solving and writing skills.
In this competition, your team and you will have a 14-day window to download, choose and complete a modeling solution. Previous MidMCM Problems include designing a dog park, or developing a schedule to make a group day at a park as good as possible.
An additional bonus is that participating in MidMCM can prepare you for the High School Mathematical Content in Modeling!
Location: Virtual
Eligibility: Open to all students who are 14 ½ years or younger (by the start date of the contest. You will have to form teams of 4.
Prizes: Not specified
Registration deadline: November 1, 2023
Submission Deadline: November 1-November 14, 2023.
4. Technology Student Association’s Middle School Competitions
Technology Student Association offers 37 middle school competitions, including one in data science and analytics. In this competition, you will have to form a team of 3 members and conduct research on the annual topic by collecting data, using analytics to assess the data and make predictions, and finally documenting your work in a portfolio and a display. For the semi-finals, you will address a challenge presented onsite and will review specific data sets, provide insights and present your findings for evaluation.
Similar to JIC, you will have to qualify the regional and state competitions before proceeding to the finals. For the 2024 and 2025 competitions, 3 teams of 2-3 individuals per state will be chosen for the finals!
Location: Varies based on your location.
Eligibility: Open to all middle school students.
Prizes: Not specified
Registrations deadline: TBA
Competition Dates: Varies based on your location - you can find a list of the regional/state competition and their dates here!
5. American Statistical Association’s This is Statistics
‘This is Statistics’ is a website and campaign to raise awareness of the career opportunities in statistics. To generate more K-12 student success, they created the Fall Data Challenge where you can analyze real-world data and make recommendations to address important issues.
Some examples of the themes you can get is ‘After the Bell’, where you will work in teams to explore data on the impact of school choice and family engagement in school activities and homework. You will also provide recommendations on factors that will optimize family involvement and support of K-12 academic excellence!
Note that while this competition is open to middle school students, your projects will be judged in the high school category.
Location: Virtual
Eligibility: Must be in a team of 2-5 students who are currently enrolled in a middle school. Each team must have a sponsor(e.g. a parent or teacher).
Prizes: $50 Amazon gift card, a student membership to the American Statistical Association among other prizes.
Registration Deadline: To be announced for 2024.
Submission Deadline: To be announced for 2024. Tentatively, the deadline would be some time in November.
Kaggle is a data science and AI platform that hosts contests, normally hosted by large organizations, with some form of monetary prize. Their NFL Big Data Bowl 2023 is a competition where you can use the NFL dataset to generate actionable and novel stats.
You will have access to the ‘NFL’s Next Gen Stats’ dataset, including player tracking, play, game, and player information. Your role is to create new metrics and stats to analyze linemen on passing plays. The submissions are graded based on 5 categories - innovation, accuracy, relevance, clarity, and data visualization. As a bonus, you can win prizes of up to $10,000!
Location: Virtual
Eligibility: Open to everyone who has a Kaggle account. Note. If you are under 18, you will have to obtain parental permission and be approved by the sponsor to participate
Prizes: Up to $10,000
Registration deadline: To be announced for 2023 – 2024, Registration is likely to open around October 2023
Submission Deadline: January 2024 (tentatively, based on previous years)
7. Machine Hack’s Data Centric AI Competition
MachineHack, in collaboration with Cleanlab, have launched the Data-Centric AI Competition where you will predict the correct class associated with each datapoint in a test set using a machine learning classifier trained on a training dataset. There are 2 components to the event and in the first 5 weeks, you will be analyzing a text data set, while in the latter 3 weeks, you will be analyzing image data.
For the 2023 edition, your text data set consists of reviews from Amazon and their ‘star’ rating. You will have to build and optimize a classification model that predicts the star rating given a review. On the other hand, the image dataset consists of alpha-numeric character images. You will have to build and optimize a classification model that predicts the character type given an image. Note that this competition is not restricted to middle school students and anyone with a Machine Hack account can participate.
Location: Virtual
Eligibility: Open to all students who have a Machine Hack account
Prizes: Not specified
Registration deadline: Rolling Registrations
Competition Date: January 23rd - March 21st, 2023 (for both components of the competition).
8. CodaLabs
CodaLab Competitions is an open source framework for running competitions that are typically about machine learning and data science. The topics of these competitions can range from comparing dictionaries and word embeddings to detecting partially fake audio.
One active competition right now is the Alice Benchmarks competition. Alice Benchmarks aims to test domain adaptation methods when the source data is synthetic data. In this competition, there are 3 tasks - identifying pedestrians, identifying vehicles and segmenting both during a scene (i.e. the query image). Your role will be to retrieve the pedestrian instances of the same ID as the query image. If you are interested in learning more about this specific competition, here is the overview!
Codalabs has similar competitions across all experience levels. It is a great opportunity to explore real life applications of data science!
Location: Virtual
Eligibility: Open to everyone
Prizes: Not specified
Registration deadline: Varies based on competition
Competition Date: Varies based on competition
To prepare for these competitions and learn the fundamentals of data science and computer science, consider applying to the Veritas AI Programs!
Veritas AI is founded and run by Harvard graduate students. Students get the opportunity to learn the fundamentals of AI and computer science through hands-on, real-world projects. You can also work 1-1 with a mentor to build unique, personalized projects at the intersection of AI and CS. You can apply for the programs here.
Image Soure: Microsoft Imagine Cup Junior Logo