By Maria Larson

Copy Editor

Metro State students are putting their data skills to work on a problem affecting communities across Minnesota: food insecurity.

Through MinneMUDAC 2026, student teams will analyze data for The Food Group, a Minnesota food-equity nonprofit, and present their recommendations Oct. 17 at St. Catherine University in St. Paul. Minnesotans made more than 9 million visits to food shelves in 2025, an all-time high, according to The Food Group.

The challenge gives students several weeks to work with real client data, develop insights and explain their recommendations to judges from the analytics community. Teams compete in novice, undergraduate or graduate divisions.

For students, the event is more than a chance to demonstrate technical ability. They must work with imperfect data, divide responsibilities, develop a clear recommendation and communicate their work to people with different levels of technical knowledge.

From classroom to client work

Dr. Wei Wei, professor and chair of Metro State’s Mathematics and Statistics Department, advised a Metro State team during the 2025 MinneMUDAC competition.

Wei said the event allows students to apply techniques learned in the classroom to a large-scale, real-world project while strengthening programming, data analysis, teamwork and communication skills.

The 2025 Metro State team included Data Science and Mathematics students Ian Wallin, Pa Yang and Dennis Campoverde-Lema. Wei said she saw substantial growth in both technical and professional skills from the beginning of the project through the final presentation.

“What impressed me most was their resilience and willingness to learn,” Wei said. “When encountering challenges, they actively sought out resources and taught themselves new techniques.”

Wei said MinneMUDAC creates a different environment from a standard classroom project because students work collaboratively under tight deadlines while learning to communicate findings to diverse audiences.

Telling the story behind data

For Wallin, one of the biggest lessons from MinneMUDAC was that good analysis still has to be communicated effectively.

While the 2025 Metro State team did not advance as a finalist, Wallin said the group realized after watching finalist presentations that it had focused too heavily on its technical process rather than the story and recommendation behind the work.

“It’s important to be technically savvy, but it’s far more important to tell an effective story,” Wallin said.

The team had to condense weeks of work into a six-minute presentation. Wallin said an effective presentation needs to identify the problem, explain the work and findings and provide a useful solution.

The competition also exposed him to the difference between classroom datasets and real client data.

“The data I worked with in class and other projects were cleaned, curated, and small,” Wallin said.

Wallin said real-world data can include missing or incorrect values, inconsistent formatting and variables that require additional investigation. He recommended that teams develop a schedule early, assign roles and maintain open communication.

He said students should prepare for questions from judges with different professional perspectives. Some may want to understand a modeling decision, while others may focus on the practical value of a proposed solution.

Students can explore the Metro State team’s 2025 work through its public GitHub repository. The repository includes the team’s project materials, giving prospective competitors a concrete example of how a prior Metro State team approached a MinneMUDAC challenge.

Applying data to food insecurity

This year’s partnership with The Food Group gives students an opportunity to apply analytics to a community issue rather than a hypothetical case.

Wei said working with actual data helps students investigate evidence and uncover insights that can inform decisions for community organizations.

“Projects such as this year’s food insecurity challenge also help students understand how data can be used to address complex social problems,” Wei said.

Wallin said a local issue can change how students think about the purpose of analysis.

“It’s easy to get focused on the data and numbers, but when it’s a real-world issue you are working with, and a local one, it’s very grounding,” Wallin said.

Food-shelf visit totals do not equal the number of individual Minnesotans experiencing food insecurity. They measure the use of food shelves, rather than serving as a complete count of hunger, according to The Food Group.

Learning through competition

Students who are interested in MinneMUDAC should not assume they need extensive technical experience before participating. The competition includes novice, undergraduate and graduate divisions based on students’ academic and experience levels.

“I strongly encourage students to participate in MinneMUDAC even if they feel they do not have extensive technical experience,” Wei said.

Teams may have up to five students and one faculty or staff adviser. They will make 5–7 minute presentations to multiple judging teams during the first round, with judges asking questions about their work.

Students seeking teammates or an adviser can contact the Metro Analytics Club at Feifei.li@my.metrostate.edu or the club’s faculty adviser, Dr. Yue Zhang, at yue.zhang@metrostate.edu, according to Wei.

Students should review the current MinneMUDAC 2026 event page for registration information, deadlines, rules and division requirements.

Wallin encouraged students who are uncertain about competing to treat the event as a chance to gain the experience they feel they lack.

“Even if you don’t feel prepared, take the leap,” Wallin said. “It’s such an effective opportunity to make yourself prepared.”

Metro State students Ian Wallin, Pa Yang and Dennis Campoverde-Lema participated in MinneMUDAC 2025 with faculty adviser Dr. Wei Wei. The competition challenged the team to analyze real-world data and present its findings to judges. Photo courtesy of Ian Wallin.