Northwestern Mutual holds first "hackathon" for local college students

MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) – “Hack it ‘til you crack it” was what dozens of college students were doing at Northwestern Mutual on Friday.

The insurance company held a Hackathon for students from UW-Milwaukee, UW Madison, and Marquette. Students were given a real-life data problem and used their creativity to come up with a solution.

Northwestern Mutual has studied this problem for decades, but that’s the beauty of inviting fresh eyes and minds who don’t have preconceived notions of what the data tells them and see what they come up with,” said Dave Phal with Northwestern Mutual.

Friday’s hackathon was also designed to give students a chance to learn about data science jobs at Northwestern Mutual.