5 Years of Curiosity
This year's edition of Curiosity Cup was a special one: we ran it for the 5th time! And I can say: it was REALLY a special one!
Not only because of the record-breaking number of teams (again). We received 138 papers which means 25% more than the year before. And for the record: in the first year we had 39 teams. Amazing!
I think we also did a good job by introducing new categories which are more industry-related than before. Majority of student teams dealt with Health & Life Science topics, followed by Business & Economy related papers.
All projects are a proof that Analytics is relevant everywhere. Urban Biodiversity, Customer Churn in Telecommunication, Fatigue Level of Nurses in Hospitals to name just a few of the best ranked candidates in 2026. But also Regfrigerator Price Prediction or a paper named: "Life is Too Short for Bad Movies: A Data-Driven Survival Guide for the Picky Viewer" which is one of my all-time favourite titles (beside "Wine-tasting", Speed-Dating" and "League of Legends Winning Strategies" from past editions.) 😀
We can also be proud of having a good number of external supporters: we can count on real data scientist from around the globe to do the scoring and give students valuable feedback on their work.
From my point of view Curiosity Cup is successful because of people. Many people! Globally! Everyone promoting it, by directly talking with professors and students, or by posting and sharing on Social Media. Educators acting as Faculty Advisors for their teams. Students coming up with their own ideas to submit a paper. Jury Members to score the papers and sharing their feedback. And, last but not least, the fantastic Curiosity Cup Project team which is brain and motor of the whole thing. Thanks to everybody who is contributing!
Now let's have look at the winners:
👏🏼 Congratulations to..
- Team UCCU from New York University in the US for their work about: Evaluating a Residual‑Based Hybrid Volatility Framework: Cross‑Market | Evidence from U.S. VIX Data (Category: Business & Economy)
- Team STATYX from the FEU Institute of Technology, Philippines for their outstanding project: Threshold of Urban Biodiversity Collapse: Forecasting | Ecological Tipping Points Under Artificial Light at Night and Other Environmental Covariates Using Avian Indicators (Category: Health, Science & Engineering)
- Team Statistix & Chill from Bratislava University of Economics and Business for their submission on: The Effect of Social Media on Mental Health and Academic Performance of Students (Category: Culture, Lifestyle and Entertainment)
Stay tuned for the next edition, starting Dec 1st, 2026 - all information here: www.sas.com/curiositycup
