MIS Student Named Winner of Iron Viz: Student Edition

The Eller community continues to rock the world of data visualization, with Parth Agarwal ’22 BSBA (MIS) named one of the winners of the Iron Viz: Student Edition competition, just a few months after Eller alum Christian Felix ’04 BSBA (Finance) took home the first-place prize at the 2020 Iron Viz Championship. 

Iron Viz: Student Edition is the world’s largest student-only data visualization competition, hosted by Tableau. Participating students were given data sets related to the environment and then challenged with the task of telling a story through data visualization using Tableau software.  

“I was first introduced to Tableau in my Analytical Methods for Business class, which made me eager to learn more,” says Agarwal. After expressing his interest to Economics Lecturer Gray Hunter and Academic Coordinator John McClintock, they introduced Agarwal to Iron Viz: Student Edition and connected him with Felix, who mentored him throughout the visualization process. 

Agarwal built his visualization on the relationship between gasoline prices and human behavior. “If all the data had to come together to point to one thing, it would point to the fact that high populations and low gasoline prices are the worst combination to have,” he says in his visualization. The judges praised Agarwal’s visualization for being the only one that focused on the impact of gasoline prices on pollution. 

“Given that it was the world championship and that I was competing with students, including master’s students, from all over the world, I never expected to win,” says Agarwal. “Receiving the email saying that I had won was an amazing moment.” 

The three winners of the competition each received Tableau merchandise, a Tableau certification package for their resume and the opportunity to showcase their visualizations alongside the winners of the 2020 Iron Viz Championship.