SFU KICKS OFF SPORTS ANALYTICS CONFERENCE

October 05, 2020
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SFU is pleased to invite sports fans, industry professionals and statisticians to the 2018 Cascadia Symposium on Statistics in Sports conference on August 3.

The biennial one-day conference features invited speakers and a panel discussion with professionals from the numerous sports including basketball, soccer, riding, disc golf and lacrosse. Topics illustrate how each of these sports applies statistical modeling and analysis of sports data.

Co-organizer Luke Bornn, an assistant professor in SFU’s department of Statistics and Vice-President of Strategy and Analytics for the Sacramento Kings says that this year’s conference will be “a showcase of the cutting edge of sports analytics research, as well as a window into how teams use analytics to gain competitive advantage”.

Keynote speeches will be given by Ted Knutson, former soccer gambler and now CEO of StatsBomb and Daniel Stenz, Technical Director for Shandong Luneng Taishan Football Club.

Other sessions include “The Passing Skill Curve in the NFL” with Konstantinos Pelechrinis, an analysis of Olympic dressage with Holly Roof and a panel on “Getting your work noticed in sports analytics”.

Work from SFU faculty and students entitled, "Cooking the Books: Assessing Inconsistencies in NCAA Basketball Box Scores", "Racing Profiles in World Championship 2000m Rowing Explored Through K-Means Clustering" and an analysis entitled “Fouling Out” featuring common NBA coaching policies regarding benching players with multiple fouls will be on display.

Co-organizer Tim Swartz, a professor in SFU’s department of Statistics is delighted by the growing interest in sports analytics. “With the increasing fascination of sport in society and the increasing availability of sport related data, the field of sports analytics is flourishing”. He notes, “Many professional teams now employ full time quantitative staff to seek an edge in their operations”.

The conference takes place at SFU’s Harbour Centre campus on Friday, August 3rd from 800 – 1900. Registration is $40. Click here for more information.