Voting is underway for the 2026 Big Ten Academic Alliance Data Visualization Championship, and the University of Michigan aims to reclaim its champion status.

All U-M faculty, staff and students are invited to vote for their favorite data visualizations, which are divided into faculty/staff and student categories. Voting is open until noon Feb. 13.

Representing the university are:

• JoLynn Montgomery, public health, epidemiology & infection prevention senior manager in the School of Public Health.
• Matthew Pickus, business intelligence lead in Information and Technology Services.
• Avril Yu, an undergraduate student in LSA.

They are competing against participants from other Big Ten universities. The championship is a centerpiece of Love Data Week, a global celebration of data stewardship and creative visualization.

Competitors were challenged to design compelling visual stories related to college fight songs or public research that includes their involvement or uses the Big Ten theme.