The European Big Data Hackathon organised by the European Commission (Eurostat) was held on 5–9 March. The event was attended by Statistics Lithuania team comprising data analysts Marijus Bernotas and Jonas Bačelis, and partner Julijonas Kikutis who is working with the State Data Management Information System.

Lithuanian team developed an interactive application using data on international trade covering the 20-year period, real-time visualization, trade models, products, transport. Summary information provided in several pages included visualization components: dynamic and interactive maps, graphs, charts, time series.

According to the project team, data visualization is their strength.

“I believed in our team from the beginning, I was sure it could achieve much in this Hackathon. Maybe even they did not believe in their victory as I did”, said Tomas Rudys, the Head of the Data Technology Group of Statistics Lithuania, who brought the team together.

This year’s Hackathon was focused on the impact of the pandemic on the economy, economic recovery policy topics. The teams analysed big data in international trade.

Applications to participate in the Hackathon could be submitted by teams comprising the representatives of the national statistical institutes or public data researchers and partners. A total of 34 teams were allowed to participate in the Hackathon (31 teams delegated by national statistical offices, and 3 – by the members of the EMOS (European Master in Official Statistics) network).

During the Hackathon, the teams developed prototypes of data products. After two days, participants had to present their product idea. The evaluation team selected the best ideas. The first place was taken by the Italian statistics group, the second place went to the Polish and the third – to the Lithuanian statistics group.
 

* Hackathon is a marathon of various professionals aimed at development of new software products. It is a joint event for data scientists, analysts, programmers, marketing specialists, designers, project managers and various other professionals involved in the development of a software product. Professionals engaged in different fields of activity generate ideas, exchange experience, communicate and develop a new product (a mobile app, a new service that requires software, a website, etc.) in a very short time – a few days.