Challenge Overview
Welcome to the "Actian Vector Data Visualization - Tutorial Creation Challenge".
Challenge Background
Data Visualization is known to bring data to life, helping to tell powerful stories and make it easier for mere mortals to spot trends and anomalies. If you choose to accept this challenge, your objective will be to successfully link, analyze, and visualize data from Actian Vector using the data visualization tool of your choice, and to create a tutorial that other developers can easily follow.
Winners announced by March 30th, 2018
Scorecard
NOTE: This challenge will be reviewed by client, in its sole discretion, and there will be no appeals or appeals response phases.
We'll use the scorecard (1-10) for grading submissions. Weighted distribution is as follows:
By participating in this Competition, You acknowledge and agree that:
Please let me know if you have any questions on the challenge forum: https://apps.topcoder.com/forums/?module=Category&categoryID=41520
Remember, there are also free technical resources for Actian Vector available in the Vector Community forums, knowledge base and official documentation.
Challenge Background
Data Visualization is known to bring data to life, helping to tell powerful stories and make it easier for mere mortals to spot trends and anomalies. If you choose to accept this challenge, your objective will be to successfully link, analyze, and visualize data from Actian Vector using the data visualization tool of your choice, and to create a tutorial that other developers can easily follow.
About Actian Vector
Actian Vector In-Memory Hybrid Data Analytics Database is built for “out-the-box” speed without the need for tuning (even on entry-level commodity hardware), and achieved incredible results in the independent TPC BenchmarkTMH (TPC-H) against all other Enterprise analytics databases as it scales to handle large datasets:
- Top 5 results for SF100 (100GB, 2011 – 2013, all historical results)
- Top 4 results for SF300 (300GB, 2011 – 2013, all historical results)
- Top result for SF3000 (Scale Factor 3000 GBs, or 3TB database size, 2016)
- Top 4 results for SF300 (300GB, 2011 – 2013, all historical results)
- Top result for SF3000 (Scale Factor 3000 GBs, or 3TB database size, 2016)
Recent independent Cloud Database Performance benchmark studies also shows the superior performance of Actian Vector compared to Amazon Redshift and Microsoft SQL Server.
In this challenge, you will use the Actian Vector Community Edition, which is totally free and supports up to 250GB of uncompressed data. You can install it on your laptop or simply launch it via the AWS Marketplace or Azure Marketplace. Free help is available in the Vector Community forums, knowledge base and official documentation.
About the dataset for this challenge
The dataset you must use for this challenge is from the United States Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics. This dataset table contains data for the period October 1987 through January 2017 from the United States Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics on-time arrival data for non-stop domestic flights by major air carriers, and provides such additional items as departure and arrival delays, origin and destination airports, flight numbers, scheduled and actual departure and arrival times, cancelled or diverted flights, taxi-out and taxi-in times, air time, and non-stop distance. The zipped file size is approximately 6GB, and uncompressed, will require approximately 130GB storage. Original data source can be found here. This dataset comes preloaded in the Actian Vector AWS and Azure Community Editions, but you will need to load it yourself if installing locally on a Windows or Linux machine.
Sample queries from Actian Vector for this dataset can be found at the following link (http://docs.actian.com/ vector/AWS/index.html#page/GetStart%2FMoreSampleQueries.htm%23), but you are welcome to get creative and create your own queries to draw out some interesting insights for your dashboards.
Sample queries from Actian Vector for this dataset can be found at the following link (http://docs.actian.com/ vector/AWS/index.html#page/GetStart%2FMoreSampleQueries.htm%23), but you are welcome to get creative and create your own queries to draw out some interesting insights for your dashboards.
Deliverables for this challenge
1) Setup Actian Vector with the United States Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics dataset. Please see the prizes section. Choose the appropriate version of Actian Vector for this challenge to compete for the related prize(s).
a) Windows and Linux: https://www.actian.com/lp/vector-community-edition/
i) Getting started guide: Local edition
i) Getting started guide: AWS
c) Azure: https://azuremarketplace.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/apps/actian-corp.vector-community
i) Getting started guide: Azure
2) Build a data visualization dashboard using your data visualization tool of choice. This will be the focus of the tutorial you create in the next step. Your dashboard should be highly visual and showcase one or more insights from the dataset that you feel would be interesting for a real world use case. Examples of data visualization tools that you could use for this challenge include Open Source products like Apache Superset and Redash. There are also commercial BI products that have free trial or community edition products, such as Qlik Sense Cloud. However, feel free to use any other product of your choice.
3) Write a tutorial in the style of a blog post that steps through how to use Actian Vector with the data visualization tool you selected to analyze and visualize the provided real-world data from the U.S. Bureau of Transportation. Include screenshots, code samples, and clear instructions that will enable another developer to successfully complete your tutorial project.
4) Create a screencast that shows your solution in action (voiceover is optional).
5) Follow @ActianCorp on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and/or LinkedIn. Share a screenshot or animated GIF from your completed data visualization project to showcase your beautiful creation to the world. Include the following text with your post “Hybrid data analytics powered by @ActianCorp Vector #DataViz”.
4) Create a screencast that shows your solution in action (voiceover is optional).
5) Follow @ActianCorp on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and/or LinkedIn. Share a screenshot or animated GIF from your completed data visualization project to showcase your beautiful creation to the world. Include the following text with your post “Hybrid data analytics powered by @ActianCorp Vector #DataViz”.
Prizes
$5,000 Total prizes:
There will be 4x main prize-winners:
- Best tutorial using Actian Vector Community Edition on a local machine - $1,000
- Best tutorial using Actian Vector Community Edition via AWS Marketplace - $1,000
- Best tutorial using Actian Vector Community Edition via Azure Marketplace - $1,000
- Best interactive dashboard powered by Actian Vector Community Edition (local machine, AWS, or Azure) and using your data visualization tool of choice - $500
8x Consolation prizes:
- 2nd Place runner-up tutorial using Actian Vector Community Edition on a local machine - $250
- 2nd Place runner-up tutorial using Actian Vector Community Edition via AWS Marketplace - $250
- 2nd Place runner-up tutorial using Actian Vector Community Edition via Azure Marketplace - $250
- 2nd Place runner-up interactive dashboard powered by Actian Vector Community Edition (local machine, AWS, or Azure) and using your data visualization tool of choice - $250
- 3rd Place runner-up tutorial using Actian Vector Community Edition on a local machine - $125
- 3rd Place runner-up tutorial using Actian Vector Community Edition via AWS Marketplace - $125
- 3rd Place runner-up tutorial using Actian Vector Community Edition via Azure Marketplace - $125
- 3rd Place runner-up interactive dashboard powered by Actian Vector Community Edition (local machine, AWS, or Azure) and using your data visualization tool of choice - $125
There will be 4x main prize-winners:
- Best tutorial using Actian Vector Community Edition on a local machine - $1,000
- Best tutorial using Actian Vector Community Edition via AWS Marketplace - $1,000
- Best tutorial using Actian Vector Community Edition via Azure Marketplace - $1,000
- Best interactive dashboard powered by Actian Vector Community Edition (local machine, AWS, or Azure) and using your data visualization tool of choice - $500
8x Consolation prizes:
- 2nd Place runner-up tutorial using Actian Vector Community Edition on a local machine - $250
- 2nd Place runner-up tutorial using Actian Vector Community Edition via AWS Marketplace - $250
- 2nd Place runner-up tutorial using Actian Vector Community Edition via Azure Marketplace - $250
- 2nd Place runner-up interactive dashboard powered by Actian Vector Community Edition (local machine, AWS, or Azure) and using your data visualization tool of choice - $250
- 3rd Place runner-up tutorial using Actian Vector Community Edition on a local machine - $125
- 3rd Place runner-up tutorial using Actian Vector Community Edition via AWS Marketplace - $125
- 3rd Place runner-up tutorial using Actian Vector Community Edition via Azure Marketplace - $125
- 3rd Place runner-up interactive dashboard powered by Actian Vector Community Edition (local machine, AWS, or Azure) and using your data visualization tool of choice - $125
Rules
You can compete for 1 or more of the available main and bonus prizes, it’s up to you.
Contest window runs March 7th – 23th, 2018Winners announced by March 30th, 2018
Scorecard
NOTE: This challenge will be reviewed by client, in its sole discretion, and there will be no appeals or appeals response phases.
We'll use the scorecard (1-10) for grading submissions. Weighted distribution is as follows:
- 25% Actian Vector and BI tool setup (incl. dataset loading and queries)
- 25% Data visualization dashboard (incl. insightful, intuitive, and visually pleasing)
- 50% Tutorial and screencast of solution
The blog post must be comprehensive, covering setup fully, in clear, unambiguous terms. Your instructions must:
- Be easy to read, and
- include some tests that will help make it easy for developers to validate and troubleshoot
Additional terms and conditions for all participants
By participating in this Competition, You acknowledge and agree that:
- An AWS and/or Azure account may be required if you use their service. Cloud usage charges are the responsibility of the Topcoder member.
- Commercial BI tools may also require an account if you use their service, and usage charges are the responsibility of the Topcoder member.
- You must comply with all Open Source licenses.
- You must comply with all applicable laws in submitting a Competition Submission, and you represent that you are authorized to submit the Competition Submission.
- Actian Corporation (“Actian”) is free to use, disclose, distribute or otherwise exploit Residual Knowledge. Residual Knowledge means information that is retained in the unaided memories of Actian’s employees and contractors who have had access to any Competition Submissions submitted by You. An employee’s or contractor’s memory will be considered unaided if the employee or contractor has not intentionally memorized the information for the purpose of retaining and subsequently using or disclosing it; and
- If You provide comments, criticism, suggested improvements, test results, answers to questions, and other feedback regarding the function, features, and other characteristics of the Actian products in written or oral form (“Feedback”), You agrees that all Feedback is the property of Actian and may be used, reproduced, adapted, modified, distributed, and otherwise exploited by Actian in any manner and for any purpose.
- You are not entitled to any compensation from Actian or any of the benefits which Actian may make available to its employees, and You are not authorized to make any representation, contract or commitment on behalf of Actian.
- Employees and direct and indirect subcontractors of Actian Corporation and its subsidiaries and other affiliates, and employees and direct and indirect subcontractors of Actian’s partners (including TopCoder and its affiliates) are not eligible to participate in the challenge.
- You may only use data that is open and that can be shared with anyone in the world and which is freely available and to which you have rights to use the data in submitting such data.
- You may only use software that you are licensed and permitted by law to use.
- All data visualization dashboards must be original work of the Topcoder member.
Please let me know if you have any questions on the challenge forum: https://apps.topcoder.com/forums/?module=Category&categoryID=41520
Remember, there are also free technical resources for Actian Vector available in the Vector Community forums, knowledge base and official documentation.
Final Submission Guidelines
Please read the section "Deliverables for this challenge".IMPORTANT: Include a file called "Submission details" with your entry. Include the following information:
- Links to any websites, source code repositories, videos, and blog posts related to this challenge that you have online
- Links to any and all data sources used in your submission
- If you are one of the winners and you would like Actian to contact you about opportunities to have your entry featured on the Actian blog, please confirm your interest and provide your full name and email address
- If you would like someone from Actian to contact you, please provide your full name, email address and a brief description of what you would like to discuss so that we can connect you with the appropriate person from Actian