“Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.”

For those experienced in the digital space, it’s a well-known quote from a respected data scientist. It’s also the theme encapsulated in the logo promoting the Department’s recent Data Hack High event held at its Parramatta office.

Students from schools across NSW took part in the challenge, with 50 teams (approximately 200 students) applying data science and visualisation skills to solve complex, real-world problems using open datasets. Ten teams were recognised overall, with winners and runners-up awarded across five sponsored challenges.

Department of Education Technology Curriculum Adviser, Peter Davis, who organised the event, said Data Hack High, like the Department’s award-winning Game Changer Challenge, posed wicked problems that asked students to come up with possible solutions.

But, unlike the Game Changer Challenge, Data Hack High students used “open datasets” to resolve the problems.

“We would describe this as Game Changer (Challenge) but with evidence,” Mr Davis said.

“In Game Changer, students are given a wicked problem, and they find an abstract solution not necessarily using data to back it up.

“Using the evidence base of datasets and then doing that analysis to work out what is a good solution and then be able to validate or verify it. So, they are really important skills that they can take anywhere in their careers.”

2025 Data Hack High competition winners

This year’s challenges were developed in partnership with industry and government sponsors, with students demonstrating strong analytical thinking, creativity and technical skill. The 2025 Data Hack High winners and runners-up were:

• Lenovo – Measuring the Green Commute: Quantifying the Environmental Impact of Remote Work
  Winner: Hurlstone Agricultural High School
  Runner-up: Beverly Hills Girls High School

• Cancer Council – What happens to sun safety in schools after primary school?
  Winner: Hurlstone Agricultural High School
  Runner-up: Beverly Hills Girls High School

• Net Zero/DCCEEW – Electric Vehicle (EV) Road Trip
  Winners (tied): Parramatta High School and Gymea Technology High School

• Hot Schools – Who has the hottest school?
  Winner: Beverly Hills Girls High School
  Runner-up: Gymea Technology High School

• OzHarvest – Smarter systems for fighting hunger
  Winner: Hurlstone Agricultural High School
  Runner-up: Oran Park High School

But the event also had other data-related objectives.

“The intention of the whole day is to equip students with an understanding of data science and data visualisation,” Mr Davis said.

Those subjects, and others like, Enterprise Computing and Software Engineering are part of a new computing syllabuses which replaced ones that were around 20 years old.

“Data science is a big part of science in the new syllabus but also in the maths syllabus,” Mr Davis said.

“So, the experiences they get here about solving wicked real-world problems using big open datasets and the analysis of those sets puts them in good stead for, not just schooling, but post-schooling pathways into the future.

“The demand for IT experts is still going through the roof.”