November 15, 2023

A team from the University of Missouri Institute for Data Science and Informatics (IDSI) and Data Science and Analytics (DSA) program recently placed second in the National Geo-Spatial Intelligence Agency’s Geo-Hack for Humanity.

Student teams were instructed to conduct their problem-solving and data analysis based on a real-world prompt, which asked teams to analyze key indicators related to food availability in a region of the world. Analysis included a wide variety of approaches, such as predicting food availability based on crop yields, soil moisture, regional impacts and human population.

The Mizzou TIG-REX Team focused on characterizing soil moisture and its relationship to agro-ecological regions, land cover and other factors such as populated places, riparian areas and developed roadways in Nigeria. Their analysis covered a period of imagery from 2015 to 2022, including normal years and drought years.

The TIG-REX Team consisted of seven members: Justin Krohn, Krutika Deshpande, Yves de Jesus, Newgin Sam, Helder Dinis, Ajay Karera and Sam Spell.

Learn more about the master’s in Data Science & Analytics at Mizzou.

This story originally appeared on Show Me Mizzou.