Last weekend, Visualizing.org held the Visualizing Marathon 2011: New York, a 24-hour student data visualization competition, at Eyebeam Art + Technology Center with support from UN Global Pulse and made possible by GE. The event was created to give design students an opportunity to collaborate and use design to help tackle real-world issues and is one of five competitions that Visualizing.org is hosting around the world this year as part of its 2011 Marathon Program.

Visualizing.org challenged 17 teams of students from 9 local universities, including RISD, Columbia, NYU, and Pratt, to develop a data visualization that will help policymakers and the public rethink the connection between the economy, the environment, and social equity. The students visualized a data set assembled from the UN Secretary-General’s Global Pulse initiative and the High-Level Panel on Global Sustainability.

On Friday evening, students were also invited to a kick-off event for the Marathon with presentations by Carlo Ratti, director of MIT’s SENSEable City Lab, Eddie Opara of Pentagram and Robert Kirkpatrick, Director of UN Global Pulse.

On Saturday, Sergio Pecanha from The New York Times, and Eyebeam Artist and Fellow Nova Jiang, each presented an afternoon workshop to educate and inspire the students.

View all of the entries here.