HFactory gives you multiple controls to create a great data challenge or hackathon. You can have the students working by themselves or in groups, all on the same topic or on parallel ones. You can even assign them compute resources at a pooled group level so that they take this aspect into account in the organisation of their work.
HFactory lets you set up an interim leaderboard to help students determine how well they are doing with the predictive task at hand... and if they are moving in the right direction by comparing their results with those of other participants. Build some positive emulation across groups, but only one team will get the sought-after "Best of the planet" badge ;)
With a four-stage event structure (preparation, publication, run and archival), HFactory embarks all the logic and commands for you to cruise through the many small tasks involved in a data challenge. And in parallel, filtered searches and reports allow you to easily spot patterns and identify problematic situations.