Undergraduate student Mason Estrada was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2025 MLB Draft, reports Jesse Borek for MLB News. “Pro baseball was never really on Estrada’s radar until his freshman year at MIT when he reared back, fired and got a radar gun reading of 95 mph,” writes Borek. “There aren’t many humans walking the earth capable of that, let alone ones that willingly enlist in a thermodynamics course.”
Elliot Schwartz ’89 PhD ’94 joins NPR’s Planet Money host Jeff Guo to discuss his work using data to help coaches and athletes make sense of the complicated judging systems used in many Olympic sports . “Seeing what happened to artistic swimming kind of makes you realize that the goal of these judging systems is not just about being objective. It's about motivating athletes to push the limits,” Guo says.
Prof. Catherine Wolfram speaks with Heatmap reporter Matthew Zeitlin about her new study examining the effectiveness of climate policies in reducing emissions. Wolfram and her colleague found that instituting a carbon fee and a clean electricity standard would reduce emissions the most. Wolfram added that if the U.S. were to institute a carbon fee, it would be a major step towards a worldwide carbon price. “The more countries that get in this game,” Wolfram said, “the more powerful that policy can be.”
Boston Globe reporter Michael Silverman spotlights the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, which is highlighting the resiliency of the sports industry.
Forbes contributor Patrick Rishe spotlights the 2022 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, which addressed equity analytics, the Rooney rule, sports marketing in the metaverse, and the future of AI in sports. “Advancements in technology and tracking granular layers of fan behavior at (and away from) sports venues are giving brands deeper insights on connecting a particular partnership with real consumer purchase intentions,” writes Rishe.
Mashable spotlights how MIT’s baseball pitching coach is using motion capture technology to help analyze and teach pitching techniques. Using the technology, Coach Todd Carroll can “suggest real-time adjustments as a player is pitching so that just one session using the technology improves their game.”
Ben Strauss of the Washington Post reports that during this year’s Sloan Sports Analytics Conference there was growing interest in applying more statistical analysis into curling strategies. There are panels here this weekend about chess and poker,” says Nate Silver, creator of the website FiveThirtyEight. “So, it’s broadening the definition of analytics and sports — and also the overall geekiness of the conference.”
Associated Press reporter Jimmy Golen writes about this year’s Sloan Sports Analytics Conference, highlighting the growing use of analytics in sports. “Over two days, college math majors rubbed elbows with team and tech executives looking for fresh ideas and talented minds to implement them,” writes Golen.
Houston Rockets general manager and Sloan Sports Analytics Conference cofounder, Daryl Morey, spoke about this year’s conference, which “brings together industry professionals, team executives, students, and others to discuss the increasing role of analytics in sports,” writes Nicole Yang for The Boston Globe. “The big fun is the really, really detailed geeky stuff,” said Morey.
The Sloan Sports Analytics Conference has expanded to show interest in virtual reality, machine learning, and artificial learning, reports Alex Speier of The Boston Globe. The work highlighted at the conference “is in some ways breathtaking, with sports understood in ways that seemed unimaginable at the start of the century,” writes Speier.
This year’s MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference will feature former U.S. President Barack Obama, report Eric Chemi and Jessica Golden for CNBC. A conference co-founder tells Chemi and Golden: “We’re so honored [Obama] wants to be part of this conference, which 12 years ago was just a few people in MIT classrooms.”
Patrick Rishe of Forbes writes about the 2017 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. Rishe notes that the conference’s “combination of knowledge, presentations, and networking opportunities is off-the-charts, and a must for programs who wish to be taken seriously in the Sports Business space.”
Patrick Rishe writes for Forbes about the first day of the 2015 MIT Sloan Sports Analytics conference, highlighting six of the panel sessions he attended. “My fourth foray at the event, the biggest challenge continues to be finding enough time to attend all the sessions,” Rishe writes.
Charlotte Wilder writes for Boston.com about the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. “Spread over two days in February 2015, the conference features 25 different panel discussions, 8 research paper presentations, 14 talks by invited speakers, a startup competition, a trade show, and a data visualization room.”
Tom Fox-Brewster writes for The Guardian about how researchers are using big data to revolutionize sports. Fox-Brewster writes that MIT Professor Cynthia Rudin believes “Big Data analytics can help in various ways, from tweaking training plans to determining patterns about competitors.”