Data Visualization for good: EDHEC teams up with Unicef, Tableau and Mazars to #makeanimpact with Data

The European Student Dataviz challenge is designed promote the importance of data visualization, encourage the development of data-based decision making in future managers and support UNICEF’s mission to provide humanitarian and developmental aid to children. In its third year, the 2022 datavisualization challenge has been one of the most international and competitive yet.  

Data analysis - an important skill for future decision-makers 

Between mid-March and May 1st, we received 38 entries from contestants studying at schools and universities in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Poland, Italy, Spain and the UK. Only ten entries made it to the final, which was held in June on EDHEC’s stunning Paris campus. “Data is everywhere and companies need more people capable of analysing and using data to make the right decisions.” said Ashley Koen fromTableau, in her opening keynote at the Dataviz final. “Jobs in the datascience field will increase by 30% by 2026 and Tableau’s mission is to create a data literate world.”   

Data experts united to make an impact  

The Dataviz Challenge is an opportunity to use data with real- life relevance and make an impact on important subjects. Using data provided by UNICEF and Tableau’s data visualization platform, the participants had chosen social-impact subjects as diverse as Education in Africa, HIV and Aids and how they disproportionately impact women, Female Genital Mutilation (FGM), child mortality or the impact of migration on children. The talented finalists were as diverse as the subjects they had chosen : from students actually studying data science to an engineer who taught himself how to use Tableau through video tutorials during Covid-lockdown.  Each finalist had 3 minutes to pitch their dataviz to an expert jury, followed by a 2 minutes Q&A session.

The jury panel included experts like: 

• Claire Cizaire, Group Chief Technology and Innovation Officer at Mazars 
• Yvan Fornes, Business Analyst at AWS and Data Visualization Teacher at EDHEC 
• Karoline Hassfurter, Data Communication Specialist at UNICEF 
• Ashley Koen, Academic Program Marketing Manager (EMEA) at Tableau 
• Florian Pelgrin, Director of the EDHEC's MSc Data Analytics & Digital Business, and  
• Océane Lucas, 2021 Data Viz Challenge Winner and currently Data Visualization officer at UNICEF  

Given the quality and relevance of the finalists’ entries, the jury had a difficult task indeed, as moderator Sandra Richez, Director of the EDHEC Global MBA programme, pointed out. “How did you choose your subject?”, “How and why did you choose the visuals and the data to integrate and compare?”, “What was the most surprising element during your datavisualization project and the most important take-away of your analysis? “, these were only some of the questions the expert panel asked the finalists. During the jury’s final deliberations, the impressive datavizzes were judged for beauty & design, analytical relevance, storytelling and overall meaning. 

“Data visualization can be daunting, given the sheer amount of data nowadays at our disposal.” said Claire Cizaire from Mazars. “At first you are amazed by all the data you need to look at in the end you want to have more.” Which made the quality of the datavizzes all the more impressive. And sometimes, even “missing data can be a message. It tells you what else you need to find out and collect data on” added Karoline Hassfurther.  

Real-life data for impactful visualizations 

One thing all the finalists had in common was that they were clearly passionate about their subjects remarked Florian Pelgrin, congratulating them. In the end, it was Qiaolong Lin’s data visualization on malnutrition in children that impressed the jury most.  

Chen Li’s data visualisation on child mortality and Hugues Rubin de Cervens’ presentation on education in Africa came a close 2nd and 3rd place respectively in the Student Dataviz Challenge 2022. 

“I am very happy about this 1st place and even happier that I could use everything I learned from my programme and learn from peers, industry experts and improve my skills. This encourages me to improve even further.” said winner Qiaolong Lin delighted.   

EDHEC Business School and its partners Mazars, UNICEF and Tableau would like to thank all the students for their involvement, their commitment and their desire to drive a positive impact on society, thanks to data visualization.