Citadel's annual Data Open goes virtual in 2020

Who better than teams of college data scientists to ace — remotely — a contest for cash and the chance to work at one of the world's best-known hedge funds?

Because of the COVID-19 crisis, Chicago-based hedge fund manager Citadel LLC and sister company Citadel Securities LLC held their third-annual Data Open Championship virtually.

Nearly 1,000 undergraduate and graduate college students from the U.S., U.K. and France competed in 11 regional competitions during the 2019-2020 academic year, a Citadel news release said.

Eighteen teams made it to the finals and had one week to analyze how the growth of e-commerce has changed consumer spending habits, using datasets that included daily retail pricing, transaction-level data and retail reviews.

The teams gave virtual presentations April 6 to a panel of judges from Citadel and Citadel Securities.

A combined team of students from Imperial College London and HEC Paris won the $100,000 first-place prize, while teams from Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Cornell University took home prizes of $20,000 and $10,000, respectively.

Participating data scientists also were invited to interview for jobs at Citadel and Citadel Securities, including in quantitative research, software engineering, trading and investment.

"The Data Open series demonstrates our commitment to supporting the future of data science by engaging with talented individuals who share our passion for this critical discipline," said Navneet Arora, Citadel's head of global quantitative strategies, in the news release.

"Being able to offer this event in a virtual format this year allowed us to continue this tradition even under these challenging circumstances, which was incredibly exciting for everyone involved," Mr. Arora added.

Citadel manages $30 billion in multistrategy hedge funds.