Sakshi Aravind’s Fight Song Project Snags Big Ten Prize
March 9, 2026
RU Rah Rah means victory on the field and also for one Rutgers Business School sophomore’s project in a Big Ten competition.
Sakshi Sowmya Aravind analyzed the iconic Rutgers fight song as part of the Big Ten Academic Alliance’s Student Data Viz Championship, claiming the Judges’ Award for Excellence.
Data visualization requires taking raw numbers or other data and creating charts, graphs, or other representations to make the data easier to understand. The competition, part of Love Data week, challenged students to analyze a common dataset of Power Five conference fight songs and to design a graphic representing their findings. Competition winners received $500 scholarships from the Big Ten Academic Alliance.
To enter the Big Ten competition, Aravind first had to win the Rutgers Data Viz Championship, which was spearheaded by Rutgers University Libraries in partnership with the Office of Information Technology. Aravind and the winners of similar competitions from other Big Ten universities then advanced to the Big Ten Data Viz Championship Showcase to compete for the top prize: a $500 scholarship from the Big Ten Academic Alliance.
“Honestly, in the moment, I couldn’t believe it for myself,” Aravind said. “I entered the competition so I could showcase my creativity and apply my knowledge from business research methods. When I actually won, I was like, wow – I did it!”
“It was one of the highlights of my year, I would say,” she added.
A supply chain and finance double-major who takes classes on the Newark campus, Aravind dove into the challenge. After some preliminary research to prepare for the competition and a consultation with her professor, Nilofar Varzgani, Aravind formed her research question: What makes a college fight song engaging for the crowd?
Reposted from Rutgers Today