Carnegie Mellon University Data Science and Athletics Team Set to Tackle 2024 NFL Big Data Bowl
Ryan Larsen(opens in new window) has coached hundreds of players during his football career — and four data scientists.
When a team of students in the Master of Science in Applied Data Science Program(opens in new window) (MADS) at Carnegie Mellon University started a months-long project to parse the massive dataset released by the NFL for its premier, annual sports analytics competition, they called in the coach. The team’s submission, a metric used to evaluate “setting the edge(opens in new window),” was one of two from Carnegie Mellon named a finalist in the 2024 NFL Big Data Bowl(opens in new window).
Formed by MADS student Shane Hauck(opens in new window) and under the guidance of alumnus and Assistant Teaching Professor Ron Yurko(opens in new window) of the Department of Statistics & Data Science(opens in new window) in the Dietrich College of Humanities and Social Sciences(opens in new window), the group of four entered the competition’s coaching-centric track, which encourages teams to pair with actual coaches to develop insightful uses of NFL data.
As finalists, the team was awarded $12,500 and an invitation to the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis at the end of February to present their work.
Expert insight meets next-gen data
The students huddled up with Coach Larsen and his Defensive Coordinator Ben Gibboney to learn as much as they could about setting the edge, where a perimeter defender tries to contain the play by setting an edge that directs the ball carrier toward the center of the field.
Larsen’s simple doodle, sketching the various paths a running back could take and how the edge-setter can influence the runner’s direction, made it all the way to Indianapolis as a slide in the final presentation.