University of São Paulo: System that identifies sports talents in judo is awarded by the Brazilian Olympic Committee
The iSports system – Judo Modality, developed with the support of the Center for Mathematical Sciences Applied to Industry (CeMEAI), and the participation of the Institute of Mathematics and Computer Sciences (ICMC) at USP, in São Carlos, and which helps to identify sports talents, received the Sport Innovation Award at the II Brazilian Olympic Congress . The event was held on March 20 by the Brazilian Olympic Committee (COB) in a contest for solutions to the challenges faced by sport in Brazil.
The project uses mathematics and statistics to collect data in tests made for athletes and was validated in tests by the Brazilian Judo Confederation (CBJ). “The iSports Project’s main objective is to make sport more inclusive, giving us the opportunity to meet sporting talents that could never be recognized. It works as a virtual scout, helping to evaluate athletes at a distance”, comments Professor Francisco Louzada, technology transfer coordinator at CeMEAI and one of the award winners.
One of those responsible for the project, Caroline Godoy, explains that the CBJ’s idea initially was to automate the data collection that is already done in competitions, adding some kind of statistical analysis that differentiates the talents in the modality. “iSports Judo can help by automating and streamlining the collection of information, offering a complete description of the athlete that will be able to verify their performance and compare them with other competitors. The program will also be able to open doors for non-professional athletes to follow their performance through the app where they can enter their information, have answers and compare them”, she commented.
In addition to Louzada and Caroline, Anderson Ara (UFPR), Leandro Carlos Mazzei (Unicamp), Marcus Agostinho (COJ) and José Olívio Júnior (COJ) are part of the team. The work was awarded with R$ 15 thousand and one of the authors will also have the opportunity to live the experience of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
“This award is recognition of the importance of developing academic products aimed at the community and also gives us great encouragement to continue our struggle to provide intelligence to national entities that regulate sport and that strive for a quality sport that can be measured accurately”, celebrates Louzada.
In addition to receiving support from CeMEAI, the project is also part of ICMCIn , which aims to provide space and support for pre-incubation or entrepreneurial training for innovation projects.
CeMEAI is one of the Research, Innovation and Dissemination Centers (CEPIDs) funded by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (Fapesp) structured to promote the use of mathematical sciences as an industrial resource in three basic areas: Data Science , Computational Fluid Mechanics and Operations Optimization and Research. In addition to the ICMC, another USP institution associated with Cepid is the Institute of Mathematics and Statistics (IME).
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