The Department of Statistics at Iowa State University hosted the Conference on Predictive Inference in Sports on June 4 – 5 at the Iowa State University Alumni Center. The two-day event featured 15 invited speakers representing a wide range of academic, professional, and industry perspectives.
The conference was made possible by a gift from David Harville that established the C. R. Henderson Fund for Excellence in Predictive Inference and Its Applications. The fund was created to highlight the importance of prediction in statistics.
Presenters showcased work on predictive inference, data science, and sports analytics. Topics included Olympic medal projections, Bayesian models for athlete aging, and strategies for communicating statistical work to non-technical audiences.
Jamie Pollard, Iowa State University Director of Athletics, gave the opening remarks to begin the conference. His remarks were followed by presentations from graduate students, faculty researchers, and industry professionals.
Keynote presentations were delivered by:
- Luke Bornn, Co-Founder and Chief Scientist at Zelus Analytics, who presented “From Pixels to Points: Predicting Performance in Professional Sports”
- Sara Ziegler, Sports Content Editor at The New York Times, who presented “Stats for Normies: How to Explain Predictive Inference in Sports to an Innumerate Public (or Even Just Your Boss)”
Other speakers included:
- Jim Albert, Emeritus Professor, Bowling Green State University
- Denise Bradford, Ph.D. Candidate, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
- Mark Broadie, Carson Family Professor of Business, Columbia Business School
- Suraj Bhuva, Performance Data Scientist, United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee
- Sameer Deshpande, Assistant Professor, University of Wisconsin–Madison
- Monnie McGee, Associate Professor, Southern Methodist University
- Michael Schuckers, Professor, University of North Carolina–Charlotte
- Nathan Sandholtz, Assistant Professor, Brigham Young University
- Quang Nguyen, Ph.D. Student, Carnegie Mellon University
- Ron Yurko, Assistant Teaching Professor, Carnegie Mellon University
- Namita Nandakumar, Director of Research & Development, Seattle Kraken
- Katerina Wu, Senior Data Scientist, Pittsburgh Penguins
In addition to the talks, the conference included a poster session with projects featuring topics from coaching impact in the NBA to modeling consumption patterns of collegiate football fans. There was also a guided tour of Jack Trice Stadium and additional time for networking and informal discussion.
The Department of Statistics is proud to have hosted the first-ever Conference on Predictive Inference in Sports, bringing together speakers from universities, professional sports organizations, and the media to share ideas and approaches in predictive analytics. The department thanks David Harville for his generosity, which made the event possible.
Photos from the conference:
