An Analytics Challenge for High School Students

Data challenge: smartly removing plastic from oceans

Analytics challenge for pre-university and senior general secondary education students

Are you in 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th grade of high school and a math whiz? Curious how you can use large amounts of data to tackle societal challenges and make the world a better place? Then join the data challenge of the Bachelor’s program in Business Analytics at the University of Amsterdam (UvA)! Solve the challenge and you’ll have a chance to win great prizes.

Imagine: you’re piloting a sophisticated cleanup ship sailing through the ocean to remove as much plastic as possible. The ocean is divided into a grid of squares. A certain amount of plastic floats between each pair of adjacent squares.

The Ocean CleanUp’s System 002 Deployed for Testing in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Your assignment

Figure out the smartest route to collect as much plastic as possible in five days, while staying within the rules, of course. You choose how you participate: alone or in a team, at home or at school.

Example Route

How to prepare for the challenge

Read the instructions: Download the instructions and the dataset here and get started with the assignment.

Test your solution: Before submitting, you can test it with the online validator. This checks whether your route complies with all regulations and how much plastic is collected.
Note: This validator is for your use only and does not serve as a submission.

Submit your solution by December 15th: Satisfied with your result? Then submit your solution using the form below. Enter your name (or team name), paste your route into the form, and upload a short description of your method (maximum 800 words).

Deadline

The deadline for submitting solutions is December 15, 2025, at 11:59 PM. The winners will be announced in January 2026.

Prizes

Are you excited and ready to participate? Then you can win great prizes! There are prizes to be won in two categories:

Class 3 and 4: 1st prize €2,500 | 2nd prize €1,000
Class 5 and 6: 1st prize €2,500 | 2nd prize €1,000

Social problem: plastic in the oceans

Plastic pollution is a major environmental problem. Every minute, a truckload of plastic enters our oceans. This plastic drifts around, forming vast plastic wastelands. One of the largest is in the Pacific Ocean, nearly three times the size of France.

The Ocean Cleanup

The Ocean Cleanup is an organization that aims to solve this plastic problem with innovative technology. They build systems that can capture large amounts of plastic from the water without disturbing fish or other marine life. The founder, Boyan Slat, started this project when he was only 18.

Bachelor Business Analytics and Data Challenges

By participating in this data challenge, you’ll learn how to use data, mathematics, and statistics to understand problems better and devise innovative solutions. This applies to both business problems and societal challenges, such as plastic in the ocean. This is precisely what you’ll learn in the Bachelor’s program in Business Analytics . As a business analyst, you’ll help companies improve their performance with data-driven analyses, insights, and recommendations.