DSU Sweeps Data Analytics Competition

March 25, 2026

Three student-led teams from Dakota State University swept top honors at the 4^th annual Data Analytics Competition, hosted by the College of Business & Information Systems and Sanford Health this week.

Eddie French, Wyatt Olson, and Gabe Delle represented team Data Dawgs in the competition and took home first place. That group, which won $2,500 for their efforts, was advised by Dr. Andy Behrens, Assistant Professor in the College of Business & Information Systems.

Two other DSU teams, Precision Solutions and Data Diggers, finished tied for second place and each earned $1,250. Precision Solutions was advised by Dr. Behrens and included Mason Dana, Kirubel Tefera, and Abel Degu. Data Diggers included Anshu Adhikari, Sarad Gaihre, and Aagat Adhikari. Dr. Ganga Basyal, Assistant Professor, was their advisor.

"This competition highlights the expertise of our students and faculty and allows for critical thinking to solve real-world problems," said Dorine Bennett, dean of the College of Business & Information Systems. "Our Sanford Health partners had great things to say about the quality of the problem solutions and presentations from our teams, and it was a wonderful way to start Research Week at DSU."

25 teams from eight different universities were given opportunities to respond to the problem statement, and for the first time, finalists in the competition were all from Dakota State University.

This year's problem statement, announced in December by Sanford Health, focused on predicting emergency department demand. Using more than five years of historical data (and roughly 175,000 patient encounters across four large hospital emergency departments), teams forecasted when patients are likely to arrive by month, day of the week, and time block. Based on those forecasts, teams also predicted how many of those patients would ultimately be admitted to the hospital.

Tags: College of Business & Information Systems All News Research Student Life