The UTSC SDG Data Challenge brought together 16 interdisciplinary teams, comprising 57 students from across the University of Toronto's three campuses: St. George, Mississauga, and Scarborough. Each team was intentionally composed of students from different academic years and disciplines. While half of the participants were enrolled in Statistics and Data Science, the other half represented a wide range of fields, including Computer Science, Life Sciences, and Political Science.

Throughout the challenge, students analyzed data related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The initiative aimed to enhance their data analytics skills while empowering them to craft informed, evidence-based arguments addressing global challenges. Participants explored SDG progress since 2015, identified gaps in achieving the 2030 targets, and told compelling stories through data analysis and visualization.

The organizers emphasized that the diversity of participants was instrumental in fostering comprehensive and innovative approaches to analyzing SDG progress—a central goal of the competition. The event highlighted the importance of sustainability and a just future, as students from diverse academic backgrounds collaborated to address global challenges. Participants had the flexibility to define their own research questions, focusing on any of the 17 SDGs or their combinations at global or national levels, and were encouraged to incorporate external data to provide a more nuanced context for their analyses.