Summer Sports Analytics Conference a Success
Great Lakes Analytics in Sports Conference, held in the DUC on July 13. Photo provided by Kevin Bargender

Summer Sports Analytics Conference a Success

The University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point hosted the inaugural Great Lakes Analytics in Sports Conference this past summer and the event yielded positive results.

Attendance of the conference was estimated to be around 200 people. Around 60 speakers, panelists and research poster presenters were on hand to educate and spread their message to the audience about the advancements that sports analytics can make on athletics.

“We could not have been happier with the first edition of the Great Lakes Analytics in Sports Conference,” said conference director Scott Tappa, who works in the College of Letters and Science dean’s office.

“Attendees came from more than 30 states and provinces and were active participants in a diverse program featuring speakers representing a wide variety of professional backgrounds and sports. We were happy to welcome back to campus alumni like Dan Hauser and Mark Ludorf, and feature current Pointers like math professor Andy Felt and student Elise Celarier on the program.”

The event was held in the Alumni Room and other locations around the Dreyfus University Center, but Tappa believes the event will reach more than those in attendance.

“Interest in the event extended far beyond the DUC,” said Tappa. “Our conference hashtag, #GLASC, was trending most of the day on Twitter and Mark Cuban replied to a Tweet sent from a presentation in the Alumni Room.”

Great Lakes Analytics in Sports Conferencespeakers covered a wide range of applications for sports analytics, from recruiting athletes to injury prevention, game strategy to roster construction and customer relations to team ranking methods.

Hauser, a long-time executive with the NBA’s Detroit Pistons and Philadelphia 76ers, shared his experiences working with the league to schedule games. Similarly, Celarier and Felt discussed how UW-Stevens Point’s Center for Athletic Scheduling uses advanced math to create schedules for the Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

The success of the Great Lake Analytics in Sports Conference has prompted UWSP to bring the event back next summer. The date for the next sports analytics conference on campus will be released later this fall.

“The success of the first GLASC is representative of the explosive growth of data analytics in the sports industry and we are looking forward to holding the event again next summer,” Tappa said. “There were several high-quality speakers who expressed interest in attending but could not because of scheduling conflicts. We are hoping they can join us next year.”

Students or faculty interested in participating in or planning the next conference may contact Tappa at stappa@uwsp.edu. To view videos of GLASC presentations, visit the COLS YouTube channel (search for UWStevensPointCOLS). Follow the conference on Twitter (@AnalyticsConf) and Facebook (@analyticsconference).

 

Kevin Bargender

Sports Editor

kbarg079@uwsp.edu

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