Lunch with Eric Eager
On Tuesday, October 11, 12:30-2:00 pm, undergraduates are invited to meet with Eric in the Lounge, Avery Hall 348. Since this overlaps with lunch time, feel free to bring your lunch. If any of you would like to have a meeting with Eric, or join a group of people for lunch or dinner with Eric, please contact Professor Richard Rebarber (rebarber@unl.edu) with the times you are available during October 10-14. Students with a strong in interest in Data Science are also encouraged to contact Professor Rebarber about a meeting with Eric even if you can attend the lunch meeting.
Eric Eager: From Football to Math and Back
Tuesday, October 11 at 4:30 pm
Nebraska Union Auditorium
Eric Eager, VP of Research & Development at SumerSports, will present "From Football to Math and Back." American Football is undergoing a significant shift to the quantitative. Once a game where only the biggest and strongest could contribute, teams are increasingly leaning into modern statistical tools to give themselves an edge. This coincided with an increase in popularity for the game, which in turn has led to an increase in gaming offering for fans - enhanced by mathematical approaches to understanding the game. In this talk, I will survey the accomplishments of football analytics and preview what is to come for America's favorite sport.
Eric Eager, SumerSports: Using Machine Learning to Better Evaluate American Football Players
Friday, October 14 at 4:00 pm
115 Avery Hall
The game of football is undergoing a significant shift towards the quantitative. Much of the progress made in the analytics space can be attributed to play-by-play data and charting data. However, recent years have given rise to tracking data, which has opened the door for innovation that was not possible before. In this talk, I will describe how to gain an edge in player evaluation by building off of traditional charting data with state-of-the-art player tracking data, and foreshadow how such methods will revolutionize the sport of football in the future.
More about Eric
Eric Eager is the vice president of research and development at SumerSports, a startup aimed at helping football teams optimize their decision making processes. He was previously at Pro Football Focus (PFF), where he built an industry-leading analytics group. Prior to joining PFF, he earned a Ph.D. in mathematical biology at the University of Nebraska - Lincoln and went on to publish 25 papers in math, biology, and the scholarship of teaching and learning while a professor at the University of Wisconsin - La Crosse.
Sponsors
Brought to you by the NSF STEM CONNECT and the Simons Foundation.