City of Chicago Analytics Competition
Northwestern University
Master of Engineering Management
Master of Science in Analytics
Spring 2014
BACKGROUND
Over the past three years, the City of Chicago has reduced its 2014 budget deficit by 57%. The
city has achieved this by reducing the cost of city services and making government work more
efficiently. Central to that effort is the city’s reliance on analytics in order to make operational
decisions based on current data rather than historical precedent.
With the rise of digitization and big data analytics, city governments have amassed terabytes of
information about the day to day operations and costs associated with city services. In order to
maximize the value of this information, the City of Chicago has created the city’s Open Data
Portal.
The Chicago Open Data Portal is a knowledge repository containing approximately 600 data
sets related to the ongoing services the city provides to its residents. By providing an open
interface for residents and developers, the city has provided the opportunity for groups outside
of the official city government to recognize and take advantage of inefficiencies in current
operations, either by recommending improvements or developing companies based on using
that data. Examples of the success of this program include:



An estimated $18 million in efficiency savings from rerouting garbage truck services to
a grid system from the old system based on ward boundaries
The Chicago Police Department utilizes historical crime data and community input
through the CLEARpath website to anticipate where crime is most likely to occur and
strategically dispatches resources to those areas
The award winning parking spot rental app SpotHero utilized Open Data Portal
information to build their application
Even with this success, the city still faces a budget shortfall of $339 million for 2014 and is
looking for additional savings and revenue opportunities. In support of this, the city is in the
process of rolling out several new data sets for exploration by analytics minded residents:


Detailed, block by block energy usage data for the city
The full data set of 311 call information for all complaint types
Both data sets have yet to be deeply researched, and either or both together could be used to
better allocate city resources based on actual demand data or for development of new business
applications for use by local residents.
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Wi-Fi Analytics Competition
Spring 2014
OVERVIEW
Accenture and its partners are sponsoring a City of Chicago Analytics Competition for eligible
graduate students in Northwestern University’s Master of Engineering Management and
Masters of Science in Analytics Programs. The competition is aimed at developing innovative
use-cases and identifying budget savings opportunities with information from the City of
Chicago’s Open Data Portal.
The competition will focus on two recently released data sets: the expanded 311 information
data set and detailed energy consumption data.
The competition is designed to allow students to think like consultants and present final
recommendations to key stakeholders. The competition will involve analyzing data sets,
identifying trends and hypothesizing new uses for the data. Finalists will present their findings
to a panel of executives from Accenture and its partners. The winning team and runner up
team will be awarded prizes.
COMPETITION FORMAT
Eligibility
This competition is open only to students currently enrolled in Northwestern University’s
McCormick’s Master of Engineering Management (MEM) program, Masters of Science in
Analytics (MSiA) program, or IEMS Course #490 – Managerial Analytics, who otherwise meet
the eligibility requirements in the Official Rules.
Team Structure
Teams will be comprised of up to three (3) students, with a minimum of two (2) per team.
Competition Timeline
The competition is set to start in April and run for 6 weeks.
Date
Time
4/4/2014
5:00-6:30PM CDT
4/9/2014
11:59pm CDT
4/11/2014
12:00pm CDT
4/18/2014
2:00pm CDT
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Confidential and Proprietary
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Event
Competition Kick off/Information
Session @ Northwestern
Registration Closes
Case
Materials
Distributed
(Competition Begins)
Competition Q&A Call #1
Wi-Fi Analytics Competition
Spring 2014
4/28/2014
5/2/2014
5/9/2014
5/14/2014
5/16/2014
5/23/2014
11:59pm CDT
2:00pm CDT
11:59pm CDT
12:00pm CDT
10:00am CDT
Approx 12:00PM CDT
Problem Statement Due
Competition Q&A Call #2
Final Case Deliverables Due
Finalists Announced
Finalists Present to Panel
All Participants notified of Winners
How to Register
Eligible students can register by signing, dating, and completing the Registration Form which
includes a copy of the Official Rules which must be agreed to. Registration forms can be
submitted by email to the addresses listed below or in person at the Information Session.
Email Submission: sara.m.taylor@accenture.com and Christopher.devitt@accenture.com
Team Deliverables
Deliverables shall be submitted no later than 11:59pm Friday May 9th.
The Deliverable is a PowerPoint presentation and will be focused on the questions raised by the
case. A maximum of 12 PowerPoint slides (including cover and appendix slides) shall be
submitted.
Supporting Excel files, charts, or data analysis may be submitted in addition to the PowerPoint,
but any key findings and analysis should be incorporated in the PowerPoint. Supporting files
will not be used in the grading evaluation.
Questions will be addressed during the biweekly calls on 4/18/2014 and 5/2/2014.
Finalists present their proposed recommendations to a panel of City of Chicago, Accenture, and
Accenture’s partners’ executives during a 30-minute final presentation session to be held at the
Accenture Chicago Offices (161 N Clark St) on May 16, 2014. Time slots will be assigned when
finalists are announced on May 14, 2014.
Teams should introduce themselves to the judges during a 5 minute setup period preceding the
30 minute presentation.
The judges will have a copy of the submitted presentation, no changes will be allowed to the
materials submitted on Friday, May 9th.
Teams will need a copy of their submitted materials to project during the presentation. If
possible, please bring two flash drives, one for the presentation and one as backup.
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Confidential and Proprietary
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Wi-Fi Analytics Competition
Spring 2014
Judging
Finalists and the Winner and Runner up will be selected using the following grading criteria:
Grading criteria (total 100 points)
Criteria
Overall quality of report
Identify and address key issues
Response to introductory analysis
Analysis of data
Proposed Use-Cases or Business Opportunities
Depth and logic of recommendations
Supporting argument
Implementation (practicality)
Total
Points
10
10
10
20
50 (break down below)
20
15
15
100
Winners
The winning team’s findings and names will be included in a joint press release from Accenture,
its participating partners, and Northwestern University.
Each student on the Winner team will receive:

An equal share of the $1,000 US Dollar Winner Team prize
© 2014 Accenture. All Rights Reserved
Confidential and Proprietary
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Wi-Fi Analytics Competition
Spring 2014