The ANWB helps to free Piet A. Choras at the Escape Room Hackathon 2018!

3 May 2018

Article written by Jeanine Schoonemann, Principal Consultant

The annual hackathon held by The Analytics Lab and Cmotions has been won by the ANWB. The Atoomclub in Utrecht was transformed into a real Escape Room for this third incarnation of the event. The aim of the Escape Room hackathon was to free Piet A. Choras who had been imprisoned for overfitting at ‘De Atoomclub – Penitentiary Institution’ (yes, PI).

The participating teams were presented with a selection of analytical problems in which step by step they gradually progressed in proving the innocence of the world-famous mathematician. They had to ascertain the location of a lost parcel, find a corrupt prison guard and use multiple visualisation techniques to calculate the length of time Piet A. Choras had been locked up.

They carefully listened to and noted down comments by guards and the interrogation with the Prison Governor, knowing that every detail can hold another hidden clue. The players also looked around for leads in the prison décor: from the portraits of mathematicians from history to the Atoomclub bookcase, every attribute was studied with surgical precision.

The hints, some subtle and some less subtle, gradually led the players onto the right tracks, with all the team sinking their teeth into a classification model to free Piet A. Choras in the final round. In an impressive second place, with a considerable lead over the other players, came Vivat. But, in a repeat of their victory last year, the ANWB once again left the competition trailing. They have held onto their title and won the coveted jar of sweets and a visit to a “real” Escape Room.

Congratulations to the ANWB!

This articles previously appeared on www.TheAnalyticsLab.nl.