For Love Data Week 2026, faculty and staff from Big Ten Academic Alliance member institutions submitted data visualizations that showcase research, projects, and institutional insights from their campuses.
LOVE DATA WEEKFaculty and Staff Data Viz Showcase
Congratulations to our 2026 Data Viz Faculty & Staff Champions
Laura Guertin and Annie Jansen from Penn State University
who won in both categories, the LoveIt Award! AND the Chart Topper - Judges' Award for Excellence with their submission: Challenged Stitches: a quilt with banned book data (Data Viz #8)
#1
University of Illinois
Illinois App Users & Popular Pathways
Submitted by Cameron Schwing
This dashboard summarizes who uses the Illinois app, how they engage with its features, and how they navigate between core services.
#2
Indiana University
Peer Comparisons: How Does IU Compare to Peers Across Metrics?
Submitted by Joe Geglio
These visualizations provide an overview of admissions, enrollment, financial aid, and student success outcomes including retention, 4-year graduation rates, and 6-year graduation rates at IU campuses and their peer institutions.
#3
University of Maryland
First-Destination Employment Outcomes
Submitted by Omonegho Ugheoke
Short description: This data visualization examines undergraduate post-graduation employment outcomes across 10 Big Ten institutions using publicly reported first-destination data, alongside national benchmarks from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). The charts allow viewers to explore patterns in employment rates, salary outcomes, and reporting coverage, and to compare the University of Maryland’s undergraduate outcomes to national trends.
#4
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor Campus and Community Public Health Dashboard
Submitted by JoLynn Montgomery and Matthew Pickus
This dashboard provides the UM Ann Arbor campus community with up-to-date disease incidence on campus for respiratory and gastrointestinal illnesses. Faculty, staff and students can use the information to make informed decisions about precautions they need to take to support their own health.
#5
University of Minnesota
Avian Influenza Dashfluboard
Submitted by Andres M. Perez
DashFLUboard is an open-source dashboard that offers near real-time tracking and analysis of avian influenza outbreaks. Highly pathogenic Avian influenza, also known as HPAI, H5N1, bird flu, and a myriad of other names, is an ongoing concern for both birds and humans. HPAI entered the public consciousness in 2005, when signs of an imminent global pandemic were clear. In an effort to avoid the spread between birds and decrease the risk of the virus transmitting to humans, millions of birds were slaughtered. In the present day, this threat has reemerged and once again threatens bird populations worldwide. As a collaboration between researchers at the University of Minnesota and CISA (Spain), this tool enables proactive surveillance and design of preventative measures in the susceptible animal population. Using a combination of real-time disease data, historical wild bird movements, environmental variables, and locations of susceptible populations DashFLUboard facilitates a comprehensive and accessible visualization of avian influenza data and risk. DashFLUboard is unique in that it enables both retrospective and prospective analyses of avian influenza dynamics, allowing users to assess the risk to their bird populations. The provided URL, publicly available, is a prototype. A contract is being negotiated with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) to scale up this prototype into a publicly available alert system that will be operated by Latin American countries to inform their decisions on avian influenza surveillance in animals.
#6
University of Nebraska
Colors of the Big Ten
Submitted by Rachel Redwyn
School colors are an incredibly important part of the brand, representing identity, history, and school spirit, bringing together generations of students and alumni based solely on a specific combination of colors. There even exists National College Colors Day, held on the Friday before Labor Day each year to promote the traditions and spirit that make the college experience great. These are the colors of the Big 10; eighteen schools in the conference, each with its own unique brand. Select each individual school in the gray dropdown box in the lower right corner for a deeper dive.
#7
Northwestern University
NIH Project Collaborations Among Big 10 Universities in 2024
Submitted by Augusta Zukauskas
This project analyzes project collaborations funded by the NIH among Big Ten universities. The goal was to provide a clear, compelling overview of collaboration patterns and strengths. Working on a NIH funded project has shown me the value of collaboration and dedication. This visualization highlights the effort and strong partnerships that drive our research forward.
#8
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Pennsylvania State University
Challenged Stitches: a quilt with banned book data
Submitted by Laura Guertin and Annie Jansen
This quilt is a first-time quilt and data viz collaboration between a librarian and earth scientist, both at Penn State Brandywine. The idea for this data visualization came from a series of reports from the American Library Association (ALA) that documented the attempts to censor library books and other materials. This led to having the quilt focus on 11 years of annual data on book challenges in the United States. The books are represented on a bookshelf with the height of each book left-to-right represents a year (2014-2024) and the number of books challenged per year. While constructing the quilt, Annie and Laura became concerned with the overall size, especially when scaling the numbers for each year – the 2023 data would have added much more height to the quilt. So Annie came up with the idea of having this bar/book break through the top of the quilt to call attention to this large value. This quilting duo hopes that viewers of this quilt question and reflect upon what caused the substantial rise in 2021 and moving forward. Another special part of the story behind this quilt is that it was entirely sewn in the Brandywine Library. The quilt was completed November 25, 2025, and measures 39 inches across and 46 inches in height, with the red bar extending an additional 10 inches above the quilt.
#9
Purdue University
Winter Session 2024: Undergrad Online Course Report
Submitted by John Race, Taylor Stayback, and Jimena Avalos-Hernandez
The Winter Session 2024 infographic presents an overview of Purdue’s three‑week online winter term, including enrollment totals, student demographics, completion rates, total credits earned, and more. It also includes summaries of instructor feedback, student survey responses, and reasons students enrolled. The visualization combines charts, percentages, and callout sections to give a clear snapshot of how the Winter Session operated and who participated.
#10
Rutgers University
IPEDS B1G Degrees Awarded
Submitted by Trey Hendrix
This Tableau dashboard is an exploratory data analysis tool for degrees awarded at Big Ten Conference institutions.
#11
University of Wisconsin-Madison
A Crochet Land Cover Map of Wisconsin
Submitted by Andrew Hahn
If you were a giant with hands the size of Wisconsin, what would our home state feel like to touch? Could you feel the bumpy tree canopies of the northwoods and the soft, stringy grasses in the driftless? Would you be able to follow our straight rows of corn and soy, and graze the cool, flat lakes and wetlands carved into the earth by glaciers thousands of years ago? This map is an experiment in texture and generalization, and it uses a unique mix of physical and digital techniques to transform a highly detailed landcover dataset into a physical surface intended to be read as much with your hands as your eyes.