Are You Ready to #ReinventTheWheel?

3 min readFeb 22, 2019

American Tire Distributors is calling all students, young professionals and established data experts to participate in our first-ever data science hackathon.

Reinvent The Wheel is the inaugural American Tire Distributors (ATD) data-science competition and more than just a 24-hour hackathon. It’s a chance to help ATD as we revolutionize an entire industry. For 80 years, ATD has led the tire distribution industry and we are continually looking for applied machine-learning that can help disrupt business as usual.

As part of our 21st century transformation to be the most connected, insightful automotive solutions provider, we’re proud to sponsor:

In Charlotte, North Carolina on March 29–30, 20 teams of the sharpest minds in data analytics will converge on CenterStage@NoDa where teams will compete for 24-hours on solving a real business problem that the entire tire industry is facing. Along the way, teams will face mini-challenges throughout the hackathon in order to gain “power-ups” to help outsmart the competition. Participants will connect and network with experts in the data field, win great prizes and have a blast.

ATD’s hackathon will begin on Friday, March 29 at 5:00. We will have an opening ceremony and problem revelation and then hackers will have the next 24-hours to create a solution.

We don’t want participants to tire out, which is why we’re supplying coffee, energy drinks, food and even more coffee. Did we mention we’re also going to be offering 30-minute sessions with a massage therapist?

At the end of the coding period, the top five teams will present their solutions to the panel of judges and compete for prizes. The judges will include ATD President and CEO, Stuart Schuette; ATD Chief Analytics Officer, Tim Eisenmann; McKinsey Expert Partner, Alex Cosmas; and Lyft Research Science Manager, Jared Bauman. Solutions will be scored according to:

Technical complexity and accuracy of algorithm
Collaboration as a team
Visualization of solution
Clarity of presentation

There will be additional awards for most cutting-edge tech, best visualization, most creative approach and most collaborative. Prizes will include cash, tires, bragging rights and more. After the award ceremony, be sure to freshen up and get ready for a bar crawl and after party. We’re excited to see everyone come together and bring their designs to life.

If you think you have what it takes, sign up here — and share this link with your friends, kids, family or anyone else you think would be a strong competitor in this revolutionary event!

#ReinventTheWheel is proudly sponsored by ATD, with participating partners: