🏆 Announcing the winner of the Fabric Data Days Notebooks Contest

[slindsay]

After reviewing over 40 submissions, we’re excited to announce the winner of the Fabric Data Days Notebooks Contest! Participants were challenged to explore data, apply analytical techniques, and tell a compelling story - all within a notebook environment - and the entries did not disappoint.

Our judging panel, Bhanu, Kevin, and Samson - evaluated entries based on analytical rigor, creativity, presentation, and meaningful insights. Each judge shared their top picks, and after thoughtful discussion, the team selected one standout notebook as the overall winner, while also recognizing a few others for their unique strengths.

We also want to recognize the incredible time and energy each participant invested in their submissions. Every entry reflects hard work, creativity, and problem-solving, and we hope everyone learned something new in the process.

🏆 Contest Winner

Lahiru Wimalarantha - The Green Mirage: Uncovering the Blueprint of a Resilient City

Lahiru’s notebook really stood out for delivering the most meaningful and technically solid analysis of the contest. The judges were impressed by the critical thinking on display - Lahiru spotted that the dataset likely contained synthetic elements and explained why a perfect R² score was a red flag. Multiple modeling approaches were applied, assumptions were carefully validated, and the storytelling tied the technical work directly to actionable insights. This combination of analytical rigor, skepticism, and clear communication made Lahiru’s entry a standout, earning it the well-deserved top spot for both insightfulness and technical excellence.

Be sure to check out Lahiru's notebook over on GitHub. You can also find and follow Lahiru on LinkedIn!

⭐ Judges’ Favorites

While Lahiru took the top prize, several other submissions stood out for their creativity, technical skill, and presentation:

• @Jai-Rathinavel (LinkedIn) – Jai's submission displayed outstanding creativity and presentation, featuring a visually distinct application interface that made exploring the data intuitive and engaging. Jai is a standout contributor and Fabric officianado, and we're so happy to have him as a part of our Super User community!

  • Check out Jai's entry

• @benitovbreugel(LinkedIn) – Benito submitted a strong analysis with inventive feature engineering and a Monte Carlo simulation, demonstrating technical skill and analytical creativity! Benito is a Fabric influencer and a team lead at a Microsoft featured partner!

  • Check out Benito's entry

• @axlrn  (LinkedIn) – Renan's submission featured bilingual submissions and enriched datasets, reflecting thoroughness and thoughtful design. Fun fact, Renan is a contest winner for multiple Fabric Data Days contests!
  

  • Check out Renan's entry

💬 Thanks to our Fabric Super Users

The Fabric Community team would like to extend a huge thank you to our contest hosts and super users, Bhanu and Samson. They designed and judged the contest, providing guidance, feedback, and support throughout the process. We could not have run this contest without their expertise and dedication!

Congratulations to our winner and judges’ favorites! Every submission demonstrated skill, creativity, and dedication - and we can’t wait to see what our community creates next.

p.s. - check out our contest hosts and the winners and faves here on the platform!