Participant Information

Participating in the 2025 Virginia Datathon? All of the information you need is below!

Event Logistics

April 4th: Virtual Kickoff:

Please view the slideshow reviewed during the kickoff here.

View the 2025 Virtual Kickoff below:

April 11th, 2025: In-Person Conclusion of the Event

*Only the top 10 solutions chosen will be displayed at this event. The top 10 solutions will be a surprise to teams displayed at this portion of the event. The top 10 solutions are a SURPRISE! All teams are still welcome to attend the event!

Place: ACCA Richmond Shriners' Center

1712 Bellevue Ave, Richmond, VA 23227

Time: 10:00 AM-2:00 PM

Parking: Parking is provided at the venue.

Food: Lunch will be provided! Pizza (Cheese, Pepperoni, and Veggie!)

Agenda: 

How Each Day of the Event Will Work

Friday, April 4th: Virtual Kickoff for Datathon teams
Saturday, April 5th: Team independent work day
Sunday, April 6th: Team independent work day
Monday, April 7th: Subject Matter Expert Session from 12-1:00 PM
Tuesday, April 8th: Team independent work day
Wednesday, April 9th: Team independent work day
Thursday, April 10th: Submissions due to the Datathon team by 12:00 PM

There will be a pre-judging session after submissions are due on April 10th. Pre-judges will pick the top 10 solutions to be displayed at the in-person conclusion of the event on April 11th. All teams are welcome to 

Friday, April 11th: In-person conclusion of the Datathon- top 10 solutions displayed at the event. 

How to find Data for the Event

• All data for the Datathon will be available on the Virginia Open Data Portal. You can use any dataset found on the Virginia Open Data Portal for the event.
• Steps to find the data for the Datathon:
  • Step 1: Go to the Virginia Open Data Portal
  • Step 2: Click "Organizations"
  • Step 3: Click "Datathon 2025." Datasets sourced for the datathon will be held in this organization "bucket."

This above data will be made available at 8:00 AM on Friday, April 4th for teams to begin analyzing for their solutions!

• There is a wealth of information on the Open Data Portal. Other transportation datasets that are not listed in the "Datathon 2025" organization bucket that may be of interest for the event include:
  • • Virginia Department of Transportation Data
    • US Department of Transportation Data
    • Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation data
    • Various Locality datasets (you'll need to search for these datasets on the organization page of the Open Data Portal)
    • Search for transportation data using the "transportation" tag on the Portal.

This is not an exhaustive list of transportation data on the portal, but serves to provide some examples and encourage you to explore the entire platform as you look for data to build your solution.

• Teams are allowed to look for their own public data for the event but must share it with the other teams for the event. You can submit any public data you find to the Virginia Open Data Portal team at odga@odga.virginia.gov. Participants are not allowed to look for public data not provided on the Virginia Open Data Portal after Tuesday, April 8th.

Subject Matter Experts

ODGA will host one Subject Matter Expert Session for the event on Monday, April 7th at 12:00 PM via teams. The subject matter experts will be in separate team meetings that will take place at the same time. Teams are able to join whatever meeting they'd like to speak to the subject matter expert of their choice.

Subject Matter Experts have been asked to provide teams guidance in a variety of areas for the event. Subject Matters are not to help create solutions for the event, and will not spend longer than 5 minutes with a team per question.

2025 Virginia Datathon Subject Matter Expert Meetings: 

Meeting 1: Open Data Portal Assistance 12:00-1:00 PM on April 7th

• Shwetha Tadimalla, ODGA Data Governance Lead: Expertise in metadata, the Virginia Open Data Portal platform, and locating Datathon data

Meeting 2: VTRANS Data Assistance 12:00-1:00 on April 7th

• Daniel Fourquet, Office of Intermodal Planning and Investment: Expertise in VTRANS data provided for the event and Virginia Transportation Planning

Meeting 3: Virginia Bike Transportation and Transportation Planning 12:00-1:00 PM on April 7th

• Phil Riggan, Virginia Bicycling Federation: Expertise in bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure, trails, and bicycle routes in the Commonwealth as well as Transportation planning, and active transportation.

Meeting 4: Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation Data Assistance 12:00-1:00 PM on April 7th

• Taylor Holden, Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT): Expertise in DRPT data provided for the Datathon
• Janet Mineva, Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT): Rail Programs Data Specialist
• Grace Stankus, Department of Rail and Public Transportation (DRPT): Statewide Transit Planner

Other Subject Matter Experts available by email or upon request from 12:00-1:00 PM on April 7th:

• Payton Lamb, ODGA Data Architect: Expertise in SQL, Data Analysis, and a general data technical expert.
• Bernard Karcher, ODGA Data Engineer: Expertise in Excel, SQL, and general data questions.

Submitting Your Datathon Presentation

1. Submitting your presentation 

• Presentations will be prerecorded and should not exceed 5minutes in length., Judges will watch the first 5 minutes ONLY. 

•  Do not name your presentation in any way that indicates what agency, school, or organization that you are from. Do not include information in your presentation that in any way indicates what agency, school, or organization that you are from. Please do not wear any uniforms (school or work) or school colors in your presentation video.
• Recommended tools for recording team solutions include QuickTime Player (for Mac), a personal Zoom account, Adobe Premiere, or BB Flashback by Blueberry Software on Windows.
• Post your presentation to YouTube and submit the YouTube link to the Virginia Datathon team via email (odga@odga.virginia.gov) no later than 12 PM on Thursday, April 10th. Name your submission using team name and Datathon 2025.  (For example: DataDogs2025Datathon)
• Introduce your team name in the introduction of your presentation. Do not name your team in a way that indicates what organization, agency, or school your team comes from.
• State the problem, your solution, how you got there, the value proposition, and value to the community as well as the Commonwealth. Please cite your sources at the end of the presentation (outside of what you used on the Open Data Portal).  

• Presentations will be scored on the following criteria and your team will be scored 1-5 on the following items.  

Impact (as it relates to the theme 35%) 

Innovation (20%) 

Feasibility (20%) 

Completeness of Idea (15%) 

Presentation (10%) 

PRESENTATIONS WILL BE DISQUALIFIED IF:

• The presentation indicates what organization, school, or agency the team is from.
• If a team submits a presentation after 12 PM on April 10th. 
• If the audio does not work in the video or if it is so quiet that judges will not be able to hear the solution.
• If the video will not play properly or there is a technical issue that prevents the Datathon team from playing the video
• If the video audio is sped up (meaning the audio is playing at faster than normal speed).
• If a team submits a solution that is clearly a sales pitch for a company or organization.

Special Thank You to the Sponsors Who Make the Datathon Possible!

2025 Terabyte Title Sponsor

 2025 Gigabyte Sponsor

2025 Kilobyte Sponsors

2025 Swam Sponsors