Ocean of Data Challenge
What is the Ocean of Data Challenge?
The Ocean of Data Challenge is an event where participants work use one or more types of ocean data to create a diagram, a technology solution, an analysis of data, or something else, as long as it is a solution to the Challenge. To help narrow down the scope of the challenge, it is broken down into three Challenge Streams: Under the Water, On the Water, and Around the Water.
DeepSense and the Centre of Ocean Ventures and Entrepreneurship (COVE) decided to join forces to create an event that not only shows the importance of ocean data, but also to encourage interdisciplinary thinking! The ocean sector isn’t just for marine biologists and fishers, there are numerous opportunities for those working in oceans.
Any part-time or full-time students ar post-secondary institutions in Atlantic Canada are welcome to join either on their own or on a team of up to 5 people. We want to encourage interdisciplinary teams, so anyone one studying Computer Science, Engineering, Biology, Sustainability, Business, or any other programs is invited to join!
Keep an eye on our social media for when we announce the next Challenge. Once announced, you will be asked to sign up for the introduction webinar where you will learn more about the Challenge theme. Afterwards, signed up participants will be emailed a registration form and the challenge is kicked off.
To ensure any student across Atlantic Canada can participate, the challenge is all virtual.
Ocean of Data Challenge
Ocean of Data Challenge
Coastal Clarity
November 4 - 18, 2024
Join the Ocean of Data Challenge, hosted by DeepSense, COVE, and ShiftKey Labs, for an exciting opportunity to collaborate and develop innovative ideas! This free event kicks off on November 4th, at 6 pm with an introduction to the challenge, expert presentations, and a Q&A session to help fuel your creativity. Participants must submit video entries by midnight on November 18th. Judges will review the submissions over the following week, and the winners will be announced on November 26th.
The Ocean of Data Challenge invites participants to dive into data at their own pace, showcasing their skills while competing for cash prizes! The challenge is divided into three streams: On the Water, In the Water, and Around the Water. Participants will select one stream and develop interdisciplinary ideas to enhance coastal resilience. Each stream offers a unique lens for exploring various types of data, encouraging innovative approaches to address coastal challenges.
Challenge Stream #1 Theme: On the Water
This theme explores the effects of climate change on fisheries, shipping, and recreation. Changing ocean conditions can disrupt fish populations, reduce catches, and threaten commercially important species. Meanwhile, shifting ocean currents and stronger storms often create dangerous and unpredictable conditions that disrupt shipping routes, port operations, and recreational activities.
Challenge Stream #2 Theme: In the Water
This theme examines the effects of climate change on coastal marine ecosystems. Warmer and more acidic ocean waters often result in habitat alteration, food chain disruption, reduced biodiversity, and impacts on the growth/reproduction of species. Additionally, as storms increase in both frequency and intensity, there is an increased risk of habitat destruction, nutrient pollution, and the introduction of invasive species.
Challenge Stream #3 Theme: Around the Water
This theme explores the environmental and socioeconomic impacts of climate change on coastal communities. Climate change has increased coastal vulnerability through rising sea levels, increased coastal erosion, and stronger storms. These impacts can result in damage to infrastructure, flooding of low-level areas, community displacement, loss of livelihood, and destruction of natural habitats.
Who should participate ?
Great ideas often emerge from diverse perspectives, so we encourage students from all disciplines to participate – whether that be computer science, engineering, biology, sustainability, business, or any other program! Participants must be current students (full-time or part-time) or recent graduates (within the past 12 months) of a post-secondary institution in Atlantic Canada. You can choose to work solo or collaborate with a team of up to five members. Please make sure to review the Official Rules below.
The Rules
- Competitors must either own the rights to all software used in their project or have written permission from the owner.
- Submissions can be as simple as an insightful bar chart or as complex as a machine learning model for predictions. Surprise us! Projects will be judged on their potential impact, originality, and creativity.
- Competitors can participate individually or in teams of up to 5 members.
- Submissions must not include any confidential information.
- Each project must use at least one source of public data, with the source clearly cited in the presentation, infographic, visual, or slides.
- Competitors must currently live in Canada and have an active Canadian bank account.
- Competitors must be a current part-time or full-time student at a post-secondary institution in Atlantic Canada (New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador) OR have graduated from one of these institutions within the past 12 months.
Past Ocean of Data Challenges
The Bedford Ferry
November 2 – 9, 2021
Post-secondary students from institutions across Atlantic Canada are invited to use ocean data to explore the opportunities with the proposed Bedford Ferry and help transform the daily commute of thousands living in the Halifax Regional Municipality.
- Sue Molloy, President of Glas Ocean Electric
- Shannon Miedema, Environment and Climate Change Program Manager, Halifax Regional Municipality
- Callahan Murphy, Project Manager – New Initiatives, Centre for Ocean Ventures and Entrepreneurship
- Erin Burbidge, Director of Programs and Regulatory Affairs, Clean Foundation
- Patrick Farrar, Director Innovation District, Halifax Partnership
- David Greenfield, IT and Tolling Manager, Halifax Harbour Bridges
- 79 students registered
- 23 teams registered
- 10 teams participated in the final presentations, check out their ideas here
- Students participated from the following universities: Dalhousie University, University of New Brunswick, Saint Mary’s University, Mount Saint Vincent University, Acadia University, Nova Scotia Community College
- Students were in the following programs: Computer Science, Masters of Digital Information, Bachelor of Commerce Co-op, Master of Planning, PhD in Electrical and Computer Engineering, BSc Biology, Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering Technology
- First Place: Sea-nic route (Shannon, Matt and Liam from Dalhousie University)
- Second Place: The Efficient Charger (Kumar from Dalhousie University)
- Best Design: ODS (Yuqing, Arjun, Chu, and Fan from Dalhousie University)
- Chu was kind enough to write a blog about his work for the challenge
- Best Technical: Ocean Mapping Group (Vishwa, Madumitha, and Madeline from University of New Brunswick)
Coastal Communities and Climate Change
February 8 – 15, 2022
The Ocean Frontier Institute joins COVE and DeepSense to help host the second Ocean of Data Challenge. Teams explored interdisciplinary ideas and concepts that would help coastal communities adapt to impacts cause by climate change.
- Barry Stevens, President, 3D Wave Design
- Anya Waite, Scientific Director and CEO, Ocean Frontier Institute
- Rex Holwell, Manager of Nunatsiavut Operations, Smart Ice
- Catherine Blewett, CSO, Ocean Frontier Institute
- Aline Kaji, Coastal Specialist, CBCL
- Rodrigo Menafra, Managing Director, MEOPAR
- Eva Parada, Director Of Infrastructure, Develop NS
- 21 students registered
- 13 teams registered
- 5 teams participated in the final presentations
- Students participated from the following universities: Dalhousie University, University of New Brunswick, Saint Mary’s University, University of Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton University, and Memorial University
- Students were in the following programs: Computer Science, Masters of Digital Information, Geomatics Engineering, Master of Applied Ocean Technology, BSc Biology, Corporate Residency MBA
- First Place: Crowdsourced BioPulse (Shannon and Matt from Dalhousie University)
- Second Place: ATLANTIC FORCE (Vishwa and Madumitha from University of New Brunswick and Fadal from Dalhousie University)
- Third Place: Virtual Whale (Hardik, Huryash, Arjun and Mihir from Dalhousie University)
- Judges Choice: No Noise (Artash, a highschool student from Ontario)
One Port City
May 2 – 20, 2022
Join the Halifax Port Authority, PSA Halifax, COVE and DeepSense for the next Ocean of Data Challenge!
PSA Halifax now owns the Fairview and the Atlantic Hub container terminals in Halifax, making our port unified like few others. The Port of Halifax now has one terminal operator, one railroad operator, and one port authority. This change helps Halifax become a One Port City and will create new opportunities for our community.
- Melanie Nadeau, CEO of COVE
- Captain Allan Gray, President & CEO of Port of Halifax
- Kelvin Tan, Deputy CEO of PSA Halifax
- Sheila Patterson, COO of COVE
- Rahul Mehra, Director of Sr. Practice Lead at Intelligent SystemsIBI
- Patrick Bohan, Director, Government Relations & Stakeholder Engagement at the Port of Halifax
- 70 students registered
- 7 teams competed
- 19 academic programs represented
- 7 Atlantic Canada institutions participated
- First Place:
- Pradeep Raj and Kirk from the Marine Terminal Truck Logistics (MTTL) Team
- Second Place:
- Tanmoy from the Truck Delay Visualizer Team
- Third Place:
- Theresa from Team McPhee
- Best Creative Design:
- Vanessa, Cary, Jin, and Van Cuong from H2O (Halifax to Ocean)
Creating a Digital Harbour from Sea to Space
November 7 – 21, 2022
Centre for Ocean Ventures and Entrepreneurship (COVE), DeepSense, and ShiftKey Labs hosted the fourth Ocean Data Challenge supporting creative collaboration and idea generation. Students were invited to use ocean data to examine what should our future digital harbour look like.
- Kennedy Sittler, Marine Technical Specialist of COVE
- Mae Seto, Associate Professor, Irving Chair in Marine Engineering and Autonomous Systems at Dalhousie University
- Anthony Isenor, Acting Section Head for our Maritime Systems Experimentation and Analytics (M-SEA) section, DRDC
- Jane Matthews, Senior Project and Program Manager at CarteNav
- Daniel Arantes, Senior Software Engineer at GSTS
- Bruce MacDougall, Senior Project Manager at COVE
- First Place:
- Emeka and Chukwuka from the Team Oceanya
- Best Creative:
- Marike and Kayla from the The Techie Turtles
- Best Presentation:
- Carson from Station Environment Alerting System (SEAS)
Exploring Ocean and Climate Text Data
February 13 – 27, 2023
Centre for Ocean Ventures and Entrepreneurship (COVE), DeepSense, and ShiftKey Labs hosted the fifth Ocean Data Challenge supporting creative collaboration and idea generation. We are surrounded by text data. From social media, books, magazines, journal publications, and handwritten documents, there is no shortage of text about the ocean or climate change. Participants used this challenge to explore text data and share something insightful, shocking or simply informative.
- Inda Intiar, Blue Futures Pathways Program Outreach Coordinator
- Moronke Harris, Ocean Scientist| Artist | Communicator, The Imaginative Scientist
- Dijana Kosmajac, Data Scientist | PhD ML
- Michael Goudreault, Instructor – Communications and Project Management at Dalhousie University
- Emma Ross, Communications Coordinator at The PIER
- Keshava Pallavi Gone, Interdisciplinary PhD candidate & part-time faculty in computer science and Faculty of Management at Dalhousie University
- First Place:
- Eruige (Brigitta) Zhao from the Team BZ
- Best Creative:
- Emeka and Chukwuka from Team CC
- Best Presentation:
- Stephan, Jenna, Mitchell, Patrick, and Matthew from Team Bay of Data Fundy-mentals
- Best Creative Solution
- Tan Ha, Cary, So Man, Mary and Jin from Dynamic Team
Future Green Ports
May 24 – June 5, 2023
The sixth OOD Challenge was hosted by DeepSense, The PIER, COVE, and ShiftKey Labs.
Participants were asked to imagine new ways to bring together the City of Halifax and the Port of Halifax in a greener, more efficient and sustainable way, to answer the ultimate question: How can we create a greener port?
With 100 students registered, 5 different Atlantic Canada universities represented, and a total of 12 different academic programs, we would all this a huge success!
- Derrick Whalen,Port of Halifax Director, Information & Technology Services
- Scott Whitehurst,Virginia Port Authority Director, Environmental Policy & Compliance
- Dawne Skinner, Acuicy CIO & Co-Founder
- Cameron Duval, Datifex Business Development Analysy
- Marciel Gaier, GIT (Graphite Innovation & Technologies) CTO and Founder
- Angela Siegel, Dalhousie University Faculty of Computer Science Assistant Dean (Academic Outreach),
- Meghan Coleman, Port of Halifax Environmental Coordinator
- First Place:
- Tolga Gokturk Cohce (Mount Allison University) from the Team Lone Turk
- Second Place:
- Joseph Barss (Mount Saint Vincent University) from Team Joseph Barss
- Best Practical Application
- Jack Ryan (Saint Mary’s University) from Team Jack Attack
- Best Data Driven Innovation
- Mootez Saad, Saurabhsingh Rajput, and Indranil Palit (Dalhousie University) from Team MISix
Coast to Coast to Coast
November 1 – 20, 2023
The seventh OOD Challenge was hosted by DeepSense, COVE, ShiftKey Labs, Ocean Startup Project, CIOOS, and Fisheries and Oceans Canada.
Participants were asked to imagine how can ocean data help us understand Canada’s ocean health, ocean economy, and ocean people?
With 240 students registered, 10 different post-secondary schools across Canada represented, and a total of 14 different academic programs, we would call this a huge success!
- Clark Richards, Physical Oceanographer, Fisheries and Oceans Canada
- Jason Goldsworthy, Executive Director of Centre for Applied Sustainable Technologies (COAST)
- Kelly Zheng, Co-Founder of Coastal Carbon
- Michael Gair, Senior Director at Grantek
- Flora Salvo, Industrial Researcher and Project Manager at Merinov
- Derek Puzzuoli, CEO/Co-founder of Seahawk Robotics
- First Place:
- Nicholas Cheng, William Cheng, Manuel Ron Lleras, Gabriel Ron Lleras, and Ridhee Gupta (University of Waterloo and University of Guelph) from Team Freshwater Gate
- Second Place:
- Xiaoning Zheng and Alistair Wright (Nova Scotia Community College) from Team Ocean Guardians Legacy
- Third Place
- Abdul Baseer Mohammed Khan (Dalhousie University) from Team India
- Best Innovative Design
- Yong Wook Lee, Alexander Bradley (University of Alberta) from Team Spatio-Temporal Forecaster
D'un océan à l'autre
1 – 20 novembre 2023
Le septième défi Océan de données a été organisé par DeepSense, COVE, ShiftKey Labs, le Projet Startup Océan, le SIOOC et Pêches et Océans Canada.
Les participant(e)s ont été invité(e)s à imaginer comment les données océaniques peuvent nous aider à comprendre la santé des océans, l’économie des océans et les populations océaniques du Canada.
Avec 240 étudiants inscrits, 10 écoles postsecondaires différentes à travers le Canada représentées, et un total de 14 programmes académiques différents, nous pourrions qualifier cet événement d’énorme succès !
- Clark Richards, Océanographe physique, Pêches et Océans Canada
- Jason Goldsworthy, Directeur exécutif de Centre for Applied Sustainable Technologies (COAST)
- Kelly Zheng, Cofondatrice de Coastal Carbon
- Michael Gair, Directeur principal à Grantek
- Flora Salvo, Chercheuse industrielle et chef de projet à Merinov
- Derek Puzzuoli, PDG et cofondateur de Seahawk Robotics
- Première place:
- Nicholas Cheng, William Cheng, Manuel Ron Lleras, Gabriel Ron Lleras, and Ridhee Gupta (Université de Waterloo et Université de Guelph) de l’équipe Freshwater Gate
- Deuxième place:
- Xiaoning Zheng et Alistair Wright (Collège communautaire de Nouvelle-Écosse) de l’équipe Ocean Guardians Legacy
- Troisièmement Place
- Abdul Baseer Mohammed Khan (Université Dalhousie) de l’équipe India
- Meilleure conception innovante
- Yong Wook Lee et Alexander Bradley (Université d’Alberta) de l’équipe Spatio-Temporal Forecaster
Seafood and You
5 – 20 February 2024
Postsecondary students were invited to consider the role of the seafood industry in Canada. Answer the ultimate question: How does the seafood industry impact Canadians? Participants used fisheries, aquaculture, and trade data to examine how we can illuminate the significant role of the seafood industry in our day to day lives.
- Emily De Sousa, Sustainable Seafood Communicator
- Kate Collins, Director of Projects, Aquaculture Association of Nova Scotia
- Matt Zimola, CEO of ReelData
- Dan Fleck, Project Manager at Brazil Rock Lobster Association
- Flora Salvo, Industrial Researcher and Project Manager at Merinov
- Nicole Torrie, Coastal Monitoring Program Coordinator at the Centre for Marine Applied Research
- Cyr Couturier, Aquaculture Scientist and Chair MSc Aquaculture Program at Memorial University
- Luke Schrader, Fisheries Officer at Fisheries and Oceans Canada
- First Place:
- Joy Liu, Ethan O’Connell, Joseph Barss, Marin Marsala, and Claire Haar (Dalhousie University) from Team Crabby Statties
- Second Place:
- Neeyati Mehta, Sameer Patel, Princeton Dcunha, and Zaid Shaikh (Saint Mary’s University) from Team AquaTech
- Most Unique Solution:
- Shihui Gao, and Noof Al Shehhi (Dalhousie University) from Team Future Wave
- Top Technical Solution:
- Vrushank Changawala (Dalhousie University) from Team Crab Cake
Halting the Harbour
10 – 23 June 2024
This Data Challenge invited participants to consider how the Halifax Harbour may respond to an unexpected event. Answer the ultimate question: What are the impacts of a rare event on the Halifax Harbour? We invited students at post-secondary institutions and recent graduates across Atlantic Canada to use vessel, ecosystem, and community data to examine how we can illuminate the significant role of the Halifax Harbour in many of our day to day lives through this Challenge.
- Samira Khodadoost, CEO & Founder at Safe Harbour Research & Technologies
- Clark Richards, Physical Oceanographer at Bedford Institute of Oceanography
- Corey Gleason, Deputy Harbour Master at Halifax Port Authority
- Natalie McMullin, Associate Director, MindFrame Connect at Dalhousie University
- Amous Qiu, Data and AI Algorithms Lead, DeepSense
- Hannah Harrison, Assistant Professor, Marine Affairs, Dalhousie University
- Adam Parsons, Director of Marine Operations and Harbour Master, Halifax Port Authority
- First Place:
- Joy Liu, Sahil Chawla, Shreya Sharma, and Abhishek Devpura (Dalhousie University) from Team AquaBuddies
- Second Place:
- Shihui Gao and Noof Al Shehhi (Dalhousie University) from Team HarbourLink Heroes
- Most Creative Design:
- Tolga Cohce (Mount Allison University) from Team LoneTurk
- Judges’ Choice:
- Zainuddin Saiyed (Dalhousie University) from Team Sigma-Harbour AI
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