成人大片

They say Rome wasn鈥檛 built in a day, but give a team of motivated students one week and extraordinary things can happen. That鈥檚 what unfolded this spring during the inaugural Migration Data Challenge, a first-of-its-kind competition that brought together student teams from across Canada to turn raw migration data into real-world insight.

Hosted by Bridging Divides, a large-scale research program led by 成人大片, the challenge invited students from four universities鈥敵扇舜笃�, Concordia University, the University of Alberta, and the University of British Columbia鈥攖o work in interdisciplinary teams and analyze underused datasets related to immigration, housing, and access to services. The students had just seven days to find complementary datasets, analyze, and interpret the data and then present their findings to a panel of high-level judges drawn from Statistics Canada, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the National Research Council, 成人大片, and Magnet. The four winning teams were awarded a total of $10,000, sponsored by the 成人大片 Master of Engineering Innovation and Entrepreneurship (MEIE) program.

Collaboration, mentorship, and lived experience

Each team received guidance from experienced mentors working in data science, policy, migration, and civic tech. Students were placed in teams across disciplines, many of whom had never worked together鈥攐r with migration data鈥攂efore. It was a deliberate choice that paid off.

鈥淥ur story is kind of funny,鈥� said Kristen Wangyang from the UBC鈥檚 McCrispy Team. 鈥淢y roommates and I found this competition on social media. Two of us don鈥檛 have a data background. At first, the dataset was super confusing, but this ended up being an incredible learning journey.鈥�

For Alizeh Zafar, a member of Team Triple Analytics from 成人大片, the experience was personal. 鈥淚鈥檓 an immigrant myself, so when I saw the numbers, I could actually see faces behind them,鈥� she said during the closing session. 鈥淚t meant a lot to me. I鈥檓 excited to keep working with data like this.鈥�

Her team used regression models, walkability indices, and spatial analysis to show how access to healthcare and education is uneven across immigration streams. 鈥淣ot all immigrants experience the same Canada,鈥� added teammate Nidhi Biswas. 鈥淲e need better sidewalks, safer crossings, and affordable housing near services.鈥�

Projects tackled a wide range of questions: How does access to transit affect employment for newcomers? How does the year of immigration impact long-term outcomes? How do spatial and social inequalities overlap across urban centres? Each answer came backed by evidence, visualization tools, and real-life connection.

鈥淭he quality of the work was truly outstanding,鈥� said Feng Hou, Principal Researcher at Statistics Canada, who selected the datasets and helped design the challenge. 鈥淭hese students brought fresh eyes to problems that we, as researchers, think about every day. Their insights were creative, thoughtful, and in many cases, highly policy-relevant.鈥�

鈥淭he best visualizations weren鈥檛 just beautiful. They were useful, clear, and rooted in storytelling,鈥� added Isar Nejadgholi, a Senior Research Scientist at the National Research Council.

Award-winning projects with real-world impact

The top prize for Best Overall Submission went to Team JPK from the University of Alberta. Their project used publicly available datasets to explore how newcomer youth navigate education systems and services. Drawing on their own lived experience, they told a story that moved beyond statistics and into policy impact.

鈥淲e鈥檙e still in our third year, and we weren鈥檛 sure we had enough experience,鈥� said team member Precious Ajilore. 鈥淏ut our mentors helped us turn our ideas into a story. And we realized our story mattered.鈥�

Their mentorship team鈥攊ncluding Craig Damian Smith from Pairity AI, Andrew Parkin from the Environics Institute, and Aida Radoncic from the Ontario Public Service鈥攈elped them sharpen their narrative. 鈥淲hat struck me most was how they connected their lived experience with the data,鈥� Parkin said. 鈥淭hat kind of back and forth between personal insight and empirical evidence is so valuable.鈥�

One of the most impressive tools for policy application came from 成人大片鈥檚 Nexus Navigators, who won Best Visualization. Their project explored how well local infrastructure meets the needs of immigrants by developing an interactive mapping tool that overlays immigration data with the proximity of essential services like schools, healthcare, and transit. By identifying spatial mismatches between where newcomers live and where services are located, their tool offers practical insights to improve urban planning and newcomer integration at the local level.

Other winning teams included Roots & Routes, a 成人大片 team that took home Best Use of External Data, and TEAA, a University of Alberta team that earned the Audience Choice Award for using census data to map disparities in housing access. 鈥淚t was a learning curve,鈥� said Eniola Olomolatan from TEAA. 鈥淏ut it helped us realize how much data can reveal and how it can also surprise you.鈥�

Overall, students described the experience as transformative, validating, and even healing. Andrea Santoso-Pardi from 成人大片鈥檚 Roots & Routes spoke about the personal impact of working with data that mirrored her own migration journey. 鈥淲hen my family came to Canada from Indonesia, it was hard to find housing鈥攚e were often denied because we didn鈥檛 have the right documents. This project felt healing in a way,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t showed how data could really have an impact and help ensure future planning is more equity-based.鈥�

All participants, judges, and mentors agreed that more challenges like this, ones that encourage interdisciplinary thinking, are desperately needed. 鈥淭his wasn鈥檛 just another hackathon,鈥� said Labiba Raisa from Team Error 404: Data Not Found. 鈥淒ata is people, and trying to use numbers to bust myths felt very powerful. It was a reminder that things aren鈥檛 always what they seem, and that media narratives can be misleading.鈥�

What will you uncover?

The Migration Data Challenge will return next year, ready to reach new students and take their insights even further. 鈥淲hat you鈥檝e done in just one week is astounding,鈥� said Maggie Perzyna, lead organizer and Research Operations Manager at Bridging Divides. 鈥淚f this is what you can do in seven days, I can鈥檛 wait to see what you do next.鈥�

A full recording of the Migration Data Challenge Final Showcase is

Want to get involved in the next challenge or collaborate on student-led research? Visit torontomu.ca/bridging-divides/ to learn more.