Welcome to the website of the Data Science Students Team Salzburg
Last updated: 15.02.2025
What we are
We are a student initiative at the University of Salzburg, organized as an ÖH club. Our team meets weekly to collaborate on data science challenges, fostering skill development, teamwork, and practical problem-solving. Learn more about these challenges below!
What you get
💡Learn from others and grow your skills.
🧩Tackle real-world problems together.
🎯Build a professional profile.
What are data science challenges?
Data science challenges are competitions where individuals or teams tackle real-world problems using data analysis, machine learning, and statistical techniques. Participants receive datasets and a specific goal—such as predicting outcomes, identifying patterns, or deriving insights—and work within time constraints to develop effective solutions. These challenges not only test skills in data preprocessing, model building, and evaluation but also often offer prize money as a reward. They provide a unique opportunity to apply theoretical knowledge, gain experience with real-world data, and grow in the field of data science and machine learning.
Why should I join a team?
While it’s true that you can tackle data science challenges alone from the comfort of your home, joining a team can significantly increase the chances of success. With multiple people, each bringing unique skills and perspectives, problem-solving becomes more robust and creative. We have the chance to learn from each other, gaining insights that we might not reach on our own. Plus, working as a team makes the process more enjoyable, keeps motivation high, and adds a social element that turns challenges into a shared experience.
Who can join?
Anybody can join, but we recommend that you know how to code in Python and know the basics of machine learning (e.g. supervised learning: neural networks, tree based methods, etc.). Otherwise, participating in challenges can be overwhelming.
Not sure if you’re ready yet? Consider testing the waters with the Titanic Data Science Challenge on Kaggle. It’s a beginner-friendly challenge that runs indefinitely and can be completed in a few hours.
If you feel you are not quite ready yet, we recommend doing the Coursera course: Machine Learning Specialization , taught by Andrew Ng.
Where and when do we meet?
We meet every Wednesday from 18:00 to 19:00 at Hellbrunner Straße 34, 5020 Salzburg , on the third floor, left half of the building (when viewed from the front, where the fountain is).
Before coming, please check our WhatsApp group (see below) to confirm if we are actively working on challenges. There may be longer breaks, especially in the summer.
This video shows how to walk from outside the university to the meeting room (C-3.010 A):
You might want to bring your laptop and/or something to take notes.
Links
Join our WhatsApp group by using this link or scan the QR code below:
We use WhatsApp for general communication and organizational updates.
Discord
For challenge-specific discussions, join our Discord server.
GitHub
We store all our code on our
GitHub organization.
For each
challenge, a repository is created. Branches inside the repo provide the
personal code storage for each participant. To get added, write an email to
Thomas Rauter: thomas.rauter@plus.ac.at
Cloud storage
The ÖH offers us storage in their cloud. There, we can for example store the datasets for each challenge, and other larger files. Access the cloud with this link –> coming soon.
Cloud computing
The ÖH also offers us 300€ per year which we plan to use for cloud computing, using Google Vertex AI. –> coming soon.
We also have a LinkedIn page, where we share our successes. Feel free to repost any posts about the completion of a challenge you participated in.
Any Questions?
Write an email to Thomas Rauter: thomas.rauter@plus.ac.at