MIT rates No. 1 in 12 subjects in 2018 QS World University Rankings

MIT has been honored with 12 No. 1 subject rankings in the QS World University Rankings for 2018.

MIT received a No. 1 ranking in the following QS subject areas: Architecture/Built Environment; Linguistics; Chemical Engineering; Civil and Structural Engineering; Computer Science and Information Systems; Electrical and Electronic Engineering; Mechanical, Aeronautical and Manufacturing Engineering; Chemistry; Materials Science; Mathematics; Physics and Astronomy; and Statistics and Operational Research.   

Additional high-ranking MIT subjects include: Art and Design (No. 4), Biological Sciences (No. 2), Earth and Marine Sciences (No. 3), Environmental Sciences (No. 3), Accounting and Finance (No. 2), Business and Management Studies (No. 4), and Economics and Econometrics (No. 2).

Quacquarelli Symonds Limited subject rankings, published annually, are designed to help prospective students find the leading schools in their field of interest. Rankings cover 48 disciplines and are based on an institute’s research quality and accomplishments, academic reputation, and graduate employment.

MIT has been ranked as the No. 1 university in the world by QS World University Rankings for six straight years.

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MIT and SenseTime announce effort to advance artificial intelligence research

MIT and SenseTime today announced that SenseTime, a leading artificial intelligence (AI) company, is joining MIT's efforts to define the next frontier of human and machine intelligence.

SenseTime was founded by MIT alumnus Xiao’ou Tang PhD ’96 and specializes in computer vision and deep learning technologies. The MIT-SenseTime Alliance on Artificial Intelligence aims to open up new avenues of discovery across MIT in areas such as computer vision, human-intelligence-inspired algorithms, medical imaging, and robotics; drive technological breakthroughs in AI that have the potential to confront some of the world’s greatest challenges; and empower MIT faculty and students to pursue interdisciplinary projects at the vanguard of intelligence research. 

SenseTime is the first company to join a new Institute-wide initiative, the MIT Intelligence Quest, since its launch earlier this month. The MIT Intelligence Quest seeks to leverage the Institute’s strengths in brain and cognitive science and computer science to advance research into human and machine intelligence in service to all humanity. It will apply the fruits of its discoveries to diverse fields — from materials design to finance to early disease diagnosis — while considering deeply the economic, cultural, and ethical implications of AI. 

An essential element of the new initiative is forging connections with innovative companies and individuals who share MIT’s passion for work in intelligence. 

"As an MIT alumnus, I’m grateful to have this opportunity to collaborate with my alma mater, especially on something that is dear to my heart — to advance research on artificial intelligence,” says Tang, who is also a professor of information engineering at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “SenseTime is committed to innovating in the fields of computer vision and deep learning. With the creation of the MIT-SenseTime Alliance on Artificial Intelligence, I’m confident that we will bring together the world’s best and brightest talent to further advance the state of the art for AI to the benefit of society.”

Li Xu, CEO and co-founder of SenseTime, adds, “MIT has long been at the forefront of research into artificial intelligence. As the largest provider of AI algorithms in China, SenseTime has worked with more than 400 leading customers and partners to solve hard, real-world problems. We are very excited to join hands with MIT to lead global AI research into the next frontier.”

The alliance emerges from a longstanding connection between MIT and Tang, who conducted his PhD research in underwater robotics and computer vision at the Institute more than 25 years ago, applying computer vision to the study and classification of underwater imagery. One of his advisors was W. Eric L. Grimson PhD ’80, now the chancellor for academic advancement at MIT and the Bernard M. Gordon Professor of Medical Engineering.

“Xiao’ou has used the same practical approach to computation and artificial intelligence that he displayed at MIT to build a highly successful academic and applied research career and a tremendously successful, technologically impressive startup company in SenseTime,” Grimson says. “He has become well known throughout China and the world as a leader in the field of AI, and especially computer vision and deep learning. Xiao’ou has always kept MIT front of mind, both as a professor and an entrepreneur. He has shared intellectual ideas and is ever on the lookout for impressive young talent whom he encourages to apply to the Institute. I personally am proud of Xiao’ou’s success and the impact he is making on the world, and look forward to a deepened, mutually beneficial relationship between MIT and SenseTime.”

Anantha P. Chandrakasan, dean of the MIT School of Engineering and the Vannevar Bush Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, who recently helped to lead the development of the MIT Intelligence Quest, says, “I am thrilled that SenseTime has chosen to join us as we embark on our quest to achieve a deeper understanding of the science and engineering of intelligence and to harness that understanding to create a better world. Dr. Tang is no stranger to innovative research, and the MIT-SenseTime Alliance on Artificial Intelligence will facilitate boundary-pushing research in intelligence across the Institute and give faculty and students opportunities to unlock new thinking through intense collaboration. This is an exciting moment for both MIT and SenseTime.”

MIT has been on the frontier of intelligence research since the 1950s, when pioneers Marvin Minsky and John McCarthy helped establish the field of artificial intelligence. MIT pushed several major advances in the subsequent decades — from neural networks to data encryption to quantum computing to crowdsourcing — and the Institute now has more than 200 principal investigators whose research bears directly on intelligence. Currently, the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, MIT Media Lab, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, Center for Brains, Minds and Machines, and MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society serve as connected hubs for AI and related research at MIT.

Considered China’s leading AI “unicorn” valued at more than $3 billion, SenseTime has developed a sophisticated proprietary deep learning platform and built applications for multiple industries. The company has applied its core computer vision technologies, including face recognition, video analysis, text recognition, and autonomous driving, across industries such as automobile, finance, mobile Internet, robotics, security, and smartphones.

SenseTime is currently working on developing autonomous driving, intelligent medical treatment, and deep learning hardware optimization. It is also strengthening its technology platform and attracting leading talent from around the world to open up greater applications scenarios and a SenseTime-driven AI commercial ecosystem. The company has offices in Beijing, Chengdu, Hangzhou, Hong Kong, Kyoto, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Singapore, and Tokyo.

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Q&A: Jay Scheib on theater, daring, and love

Jay Scheib, professor of theater at MIT, directs “Bat Out of Hell,” a rock ’n’ roll musical based on Jim Steinman’s eponymous albums made famous by Meat Loaf. In December 2017, “Bat” received the London Evening Standard BBC Radio 2 Audience Award for Best Musical.

First written over 40 years ago, Steinman’s dystopian, futuristic adaptation of the Peter Pan and Wendy epic cuts in a bit of “West Side Story” and “Romeo and Juliet.” The musical follows Strat, the forever young leader of The Lost and his adventures in a post-apocalyptic Manhattan, now named Obsidian. When Raven, the daughter of Obsidian’s tyrannical ruler, Falco, falls in love with Strat the world comes unglued.

The musical premiered in Manchester, U.K. in February 2017, before opening in London in June. The production then moved to Toronto in October, where it ran through Jan. 7, 2018. It is now slated to return to London’s Dominion Theatre for an open-ended run beginning in April 2018. Scheib says a North American tour is also currently in discussion — with a Broadway run on the horizon.

Q: “Bat Out of Hell” has garnered a lot of positive press — much of it for the staging. The Manchester Evening News gave the show a five-star review, calling it “a truly staggering piece of musical theatre, which breaks new boundaries in its staging, choreography, and concept on an epic scale.” Paul Downham of North West End said, “this show has literally changed the way musicals are staged forever.” What boundaries were broken? What are some of the complexities to staging this show?
 
A: Those are thrilling claims. I would never make such claims about my own work, being from the Midwest, but I definitely was thrilled they did. We set out to work ahead of the rules — in the best circumstances, innovation results; that’s the challenge I always try to set for myself, staying in front of the rules, in an honest and committed way, and it usually pays off. I think the critics responded to the visceral quality of the work. We intend to leap off the stage, literally. The live cinema performance aspect is nothing new in my work and “Bat” goes the furthest in synthesizing many years of experimentation. It also opens new vistas. The use of camera allows us to see differently and to establish a level of intimacy usually reserved exclusively for the screen. Taken together, everything intensifies, everything is partially screened, and partially seen.

Q: What has the process been like, developing “Bat Out of Hell” with Jim Steinman?

A: I worked with Jim to develop the story and text — line by line, word by word, comma by comma. We would talk and then he would send me away to restructure scenes or rework dialogue and we’d discuss and we’d edit further and spend the nights typing and erasing. Jim’s insatiable but he’s also a night owl so I lost a lot of sleep that year.

The most thrilling task was in transforming these super iconic songs — most of which made famous by the singer Meat Loaf. Jim and I worked very hard to ensure that each song carried the action forward — much as though it were an opera. We spent a lot of time together, on the phone, in person when possible, via Skype. Jim still watches every single performance and sends me his notes and comments and suggestions for making improvements. It’s an ongoing process. It’s live.
 
Q: Is this also how you work with video?

A: Often technology and other aspects of the design don’t enter the room until the final stages of the process. That means that a lot of video design can feel decorative and not actually in dialogue with the work. Integrating these elements from the beginning is key. With “Bat Out of Hell” we had cameras, monitors, and sound equipment in the rehearsal room day one. Paulina Jurzec, who operated camera, was there from the beginning, developing camera moves in step with the staging of each scene.
 
Q: The show received the London Evening Standard Audience Award for Best Musical. What did you hope the audience experience would be like?

A: The aspect of the performance that I’m personally drawn to, and to which the whole mise-en-scène is really devoted, is rock ’n’ roll. And in this case it’s a rock ’n’ roll romance. I’m into the love story. I’m into doing “anything for love,” to quote one of the songs in “Bat.” People get hurt and in one tragic accident, die. Youth confront tyranny and run from the cops. Despots try and fail miserably to control their daughters. They fall in love. They fall more in love and gnash their teeth. They get on motorcycles and ride too fast and crash too hard. It’s mad-to-live madness in the spirit of punk. And if there is anything that I hope folks take away it is that it’s absolutely worthwhile to do anything for love — anything less is just less than rock ‘n’ roll.

The times feel uncertain. It would be naive to suggest that if you just fall in love and go for it, everything will be resolved. But on the other hand, the willingness to dare, to risk judgment and roll the dice on something you know and believe is true, emotionally, is valuable. It’s worth it.

The daring that goes into the Black Lives Matter movement and the #MeToo movement is a massive inspiration. That radical daring needs to go into the political situations that continually enrage us. Rock ’n’ roll is good at that, and that’s why it’s not just a good time. It’s also a way to unleash that celebratory energy that’s able to overcome all that threatens. It’s a rehearsal of the revolution.

Q: You’ve premiered a number of productions last fall — an opera at one of the German State Theaters in Wuppertal in September (Wagner’s “Götterdämmerung,” combined with Heiner Goebbels’ orchestral cycle “Surrogate Cities”), “Bat Out of Hell” in Toronto in October, then “Persona” in Los Angeles in November. Occasionally, MIT students have opportunities to work on certain aspects of faculty’s shows — designing new technologies or working with visiting artists. Has your recent work influenced your classes?

A: All three of those projects have shown up in the studio in recent years. Students worked on Peter Pan themes in 21M.645 (Motion Theater); strategies for live camera were explored in 21M.842 (Live Cinema Performance). Others participated in the development of the opera, “Persona,” which was composed by Professor Keeril Makan.

It’s valuable for our students to experience the transition from theory to practice in performance — it’s a real “mens-et-manus” approach to performance making. Unique situations and conditions arise that don’t otherwise exist in the studio. Many of the courses in Theater Arts are practice-based. The classroom is an extension of the studio, and for all of us, sharing the extension of our research from the lab to the field is unique at MIT.

Next semester, I’m developing an opera for the Royal Opera House in London, “Mamzer Bastard” by the Israeli composer Na’ama Zisser. We’ll be working on themes related to that production in the Live Cinema Performance class this spring, and I hope some students can join in that project in June in London. Several of the students came to see “Bat” in London last summer, and it was great to talk to them post-performance, to discuss their reactions, and introduce them to some of the producers, performers, and designers. It’s a great exchange, especially for the ones who want to push out into the field. It’s what I wish I had as an undergraduate! It feels vibrant, and it is.

Story prepared by SHASS Communications
Editorial team: Sharon Lacey and Emily Hiestand
 

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MIT physicists observe electroweak production of same-sign W boson pairs

In research conducted by a group led by MIT Laboratory for Nuclear Science researcher and associate professor of physics Markus Klute, electroweak productions of same-sign W boson pairs were observed, the first such observation of its kind and a milestone toward precision testing of vector boson scattering (W and Z bosons) at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

The LHC at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland, was proposed in the 1980s as a machine to either find the Higgs boson or discover yet unknown particles or interactions. This idea, that the LHC would be able to make a discovery, whatever that might be, is called by theorists No-lose Theorem, and is connected to probing the scattering of W boson pairs at energies above 1 teraelectronvolt (TeV). In 2012, only two years after the first high-energy collision at the LHC, this proposal paid huge dividends when the Higgs boson was discovered by the ATLAS and Compact Muon Solenid (CMS) collaborations.

According to CERN, the CMS detector at the LHC utilizes a massive solenoid magnet to study everything from the Higgs boson to dark matter to the Standard Model. CMS is capable of generating a magnetic field that is approximately 100,000 times that of Earth. It resides in an underground cavern near Cessy, France, which is northwest of Geneva.

The main goal of a recent measurement by CMS was to identify W boson pairs with the same sign (W+W+ or W-W-) produced purely via the electroweak interaction and probing the scattering of W bosons. The result does not unveil physics beyond the Standard Model, but this first observation of this process marks a starting point for a field of study to independently test whether the discovered Higgs boson is or is not the particle predicted by Robert Brout, François Englert, and Peter Higgs. It is anticipated that the rapidly growing data sets available at the LHC will further knowledge along these lines. Studies show that the high luminosity LHC will likely allow the direct study of longitudinal W boson scattering.

“The measurement of vector-boson scattering processes, like the one studied in this paper, is an important test bench of the nature of the Higgs boson, as small deviations from the Standard Model expectation can have a large impact on event rates,” Klute says. “While challenging new physics models, these processes also allow a unique model-independent measurement of Higgs boson couplings to the W and Z boson at the LHC.”

“The observation of this vector-boson scattering process is an important milestone toward future precision measurements,” Klute says. “These measurements are very challenging experimentally and require theoretical predictions with high precision. Both areas are pushed forward by the published results.”

The work, while within CMS, was performed by MIT and included Klute, his students Andrew Levin and Xinmei Nui, and research scientist Guillelmo Gomez-Ceballos, along with University of Antwerp colleague Xavier Janssen and his student Jasper Lauwers.

The work has been published in Physical Review Letters.

This research was funded with support from U.S. Department of Energy.

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Is democracy dying?

Is democracy dying, in the U.S. and around the world? Why or why not? And if so, what can anyone do about it?

Those vexing questions were at the heart of a public forum on the MIT campus Monday night, as scholars and journalists examined the current pressures on democratic systems of rule and suggested some measures to protect them. Held in the Stata Center, the event drew a standing-room only crowd of more than 300.

“Is democracy dying? Well, I don’t know, but it’s certainly having a rough ride,” said Daron Acemoglu, the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics at MIT and co-author, with James Robinson, of the 2012 book, “Why Nations Fail.”

“We’re seeing attacks on the very norms and rules that we need for liberal democracy to be stable,” said Yascha Mounk, a lecturer on political theory at Harvard University and author of the new book, “The People Versus Democracy: Why Our Freedom Is in Danger and How to Save It.”

And as the panelists noted, the erosion of democracy is international trend, given a recent withering of rights and norms in Hungary, Kenya, Poland, Russia, Turkey, and Venezuela, among other countries — as well as contentious debate about governmental norms and the balance of powers in the U.S.

Journalist Maria Ramirez, who covers U.S. politics for the Univision network, noted that there is now considerable public information about “a lot of details about the Russian operation to discredit democracy in the U.S.,” underscoring that people need to understand the vulnerabilities such incursions exploit.

Acemoglu emphasized, in a central theme of his remarks, that democracy cannot be protected through anything other than ongoing citizen mobilization. Even the checks and balances of the U.S. Constitution, he asserted, are not especially powerful.

“They are not strong, and they weren’t designed to protect democracy,” Acemoglu said. “The only thing that can save democracy is society itself.”  

Causes: Inequality, and much more

The Starr Forum is a long-running Institute event series sponsored by MIT’s Center for International Studies, which provides public discussions about international politics and global security issues.

Melissa Nobles, the Kenan Sahin Dean of MIT’s School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences and a professor of political science, provided introductory remarks, noting that the status of democracy was “a question that is now probably occupying many of our fellow citizens in this country, and indeed around the world.”

Acemoglu suggested multiple factors have created stress on democracy, including a long-term shift toward income inequality, the exploitation of the media by authoritarian leaders around the globe, and a decline of manufacturing and trade unions — not strictly because of the ideological orientation of unions, but also because the capacity for civic engagement they once created is now dwindling.

So while economic inequality and the ensuing resentment against the political status quo is a factor, “It would also be a mistake to think it’s just about economic hardship,” said Acemoglu, who has written extensively on the relationship between political institutions and economic growth.

Mounk pointed out that in concert with such trends, there has also been an alarming generational shift in tolerance for authoritarian rule and military rule; in surveys, about two-thirds of people born in the 1930s and 1940s said democracy was absolutely important, but less than one-third of those born in the 1980s and later agreed.

Mounk also noted that even recently political scientists regarded places like Hungary and Poland as democratic success stories, and thought the income levels and multiple transitions of power indicated such places had reached a state of stability. Instead, key rights have been eroded in those countries in recent years.

And while the U.S. has “an astounding record of political stability,” Mounk said, he expressed concerns about transitions of power at the state level, citing actions by the Republican-led state legislature in North Carolina, which moved to strip certain powers from the governor’s office after Democratic Party candidate Roy Cooper won it in November 2016.

For that matter, Mounk said, as much as democracy has built up a strong track record, we “don’t yet know what the dynamics of multiethnic democracy and the reaction against it are” in the long run, given the relatively short time periods in which such democracies have existed.

Maintaining democratic standards

In response to audience questions, the speakers suggested a few measures that could help the health of democracies around the globe.

“Support journalists is my message,” Ramirez said, calling good reporting “a public service that now is maybe more clear than ever.”

In response to one question, Acemoglu expressed some skepticism that technical tweaks to voting methods (such as preferential or instant-runoff voting) might ensure political stability, although he did assert that a reduction in gerrymandering, limits to the amount of money in U.S. politics, and a smaller political influence in the U.S. civil service would be valuable changes.

Still, Acemoglu reiterated, “I think this is really about social mobilization.”

Mounk, who quipped that the panel consisted of “one semioptimist and two pessimists,” underlined that there are no certainties when it comes to the status of democracy, meaning that citizens who care about it should think about how best to engage with their governments.

“It makes you reflect a little bit about what you can actually do,” Mounk said. For U.S. citizens, he told the audience, “You maintain agency” to take action where rights have already been stripped away from people in many other countries.

“So let’s use it,” Mounk concluded.

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MIT launches Task Force on the Work of the Future

Today MIT launched its Task Force on the Work of the Future, an Institute-wide effort to understand and shape the evolution of jobs during an age of innovation.

The task force’s mission was announced in a letter to the MIT community by Provost Martin A. Schmidt.

“The MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future takes as a guiding premise that addressing the social and human implications of technology should not be an afterthought, but instead should be a first concern that pervades how we design, innovate, and take our ideas to market, as well as what we teach our students, the technologists of tomorrow,” Schmidt writes.

The task force’s project is a vital part of examining the strength of our civic fabric, MIT President L. Rafael Reif says. 

“In profound and pervasive ways, the technologies humans invent in the present will set the terms of our shared future,” Reif says. “The global race to advance those technologies will help determine the nature of society itself. Through the work of the task force, we hope to help the nation and the world reflect on what kind of society we aspire to — and come together to make it real.” 

Since at least the industrial revolution, new technologies have both created and replaced jobs at large scales, while altering many other forms of work. Today, new developments in artificial intelligence, automation, information technology, 3-D printing, and other areas of innovation are again reshaping traditional jobs and have the potential to further change the workplace.

Faced with this uncertain landscape, as well as growing concerns about the issue across the political spectrum, the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future will conduct an empirical, interdisciplinary, and global study of the subject, to understand work today and its possible trajectories in the future. The task force aims to shed new light on the linked evolution of technology and human work, and will issue findings guiding the development and implementation of policy, to suggest how society can continue to offer broad opportunity and prosperity.

Many MIT scholars have already produced research revealing recent changes in the nature of work. The new initiative will bring that expertise to the fore and tap into the Institute’s unique range of scholarship.

The MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future consists of a faculty and student research team of more than 20 members, as well as an external advisory board. Additional researchers are expected to participate in working groups to supplement the efforts of the core task force members.

Those task force members represent fields from engineering and cognitive science to economics, management, political science, anthropology, education innovation, and the history of technology. The group will integrate deep knowledge of technology, expertise in the social and human sciences, and an understanding that public policy significantly shapes the workplace as well.

All told, the task force is expected to continue for two years. The group will issue research findings periodically, as well as final reports and a published book intended for a general audience. Task force activities will include conferences and a speaker series, in addition to educational and outreach efforts.

The task force leadership team consists of David Autor, the Ford Professor of Economics and associate head of the MIT Department of Economics; David Mindell, the Frances and David Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing, and a professor of aeronautics and astronautics; and Elisabeth Reynolds, executive director of the MIT Industrial Performance Center (IPC) and a lecturer in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning.

“History makes clear that individuals and institutions shape how innovation, automation, and rising productivity translate into opportunity, meritocracy, and dynamism on the one hand, or into economic stasis, dynasticism, and plutocracy on the other,” says Autor, a labor economist who has studied many aspects of the workplace.

Autor adds: “MIT's choice of the title Work of the Future conveys two facets of the challenge and opportunity we face. One is to understand and anticipate the role that human work will play in a future in which machines accomplish many of our traditional cognitive and physical tasks. A second is to seize the opportunity to shape that future. Our task force aims to contribute to both goals — anticipating the future and enabling individuals, institutions, private-sector actors, and governments to make this future a better one.”

Mindell, an engineer, historian, and entrepreneur who has written multiple books about human-machine interactions, says he is “honored” to be co-chairing the task force. “I believe it is the most important thing MIT can be doing right now, as the world is clamoring for sober, informed assessments on how we can shape the future of technology and work. MIT’s resources on both the technical and social dimensions of these changes are unsurpassed, and I’m thrilled that the task force will bring together expertise from so many perspectives.”

Reynolds oversees the IPC, an interdisciplinary center supporting research about firms, industries, and technological change in the global economy. The new task force will engage with several issues that have been of longstanding interest to the IPC, such as the adoption of new technologies by firms, the role institutions play in shaping regional growth and labor markets, and the impact of increasing globalization on industry.

“We see significant variation in how different regions and countries more broadly are responding to concerns about the impact of new technologies on work in the future,” Reynolds says. “These differences are important to understand, within the U.S., as well as in other countries. We expect our research will try to capture this variation and learn from it.”

The launch of the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future is occurring as the Institute is starting the MIT Intelligence Quest (MIT IQ), an interdisciplinary project to study and develop human and machine intelligence. The task force’s ability to draw upon the latest developments from MIT IQ will help it stay informed about the leading edge of intelligence research and its possible workplace applications. At the same time, research from the Work of the Future task force can inform the approach of MIT IQ and other Institute initiatives relevant to the workplace. 

The MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future has a similar aim and structure as some high-profile MIT research initiatives that preceded it. MIT’s Production in the Innovation Economy (PIE) initiative, which concluded in 2013, examined the relationship between advanced manufacturing and innovation. Along with MIT’s participation in the U.S. federal government’s Advanced Manufacturing Partnership, the PIE initiative has helped inform U.S. economic policy on industrial innovation.

Earlier, MIT’s Commission on Industrial Productivity examined U.S. industrial competitiveness and published the notable 1989 book, “Made in America.”

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Talking points: MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference explores data and how to share it

At the Super Bowl this February, the Philadelphia Eagles pulled off the game’s signature play: a touchdown pass off a reverse, with tight end Trey Burton throwing to quarterback Nick Foles. That play, which helped upset the New England Patriots, is called the “Philly Special.” And from a sports-analytics viewpoint, the play was special, all right — because it came on a fourth-down situation.

For years, data-driven football analysts have been saying that on fourth downs, teams should go for first downs (or touchdowns) more frequently than they typically do, rather than punting or kicking field goals. This season, the Eagles tried to convert fourth downs more than any team since the 2008 Patriots — and it paid off. Indeed, Eagles coach Doug Pedersen had an extra assistant coach talking into his headset during games all year, just to inform those kinds of decisions.

The Eagles’ real-time sideline discussions fit nicely with the content of 12th annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference (SSAC), held Feb. 23-24; the conference’s theme, “Talk Data to Me,” and many of its panels, underscored the importance of communication in sports analytics. 

After all, since pioneering analyst Bill James’ popular annual “Baseball Abstract” books began mainstream publication in 1982, some fans have known that a lot of conventional wisdom in sports does not add up. But communicating that to executives, coaches, and players has never been easy. Still, this year SSAC was brimming with speakers, many with championship resumes, attesting to the progress in the field.

“We try to be data-driven and model-driven, but when we get that data, we try to talk about it as a group,” said Brandon Taubman, the senior director of baseball operations and analytics at the 2017 World Series-winning Houston Astros, speaking at a panel on baseball data.

“You have to listen,” said Nick Caserio, director of player personnel for the Patriots, at a football panel. “It’s not about where [an] idea comes from or how it gets to you. If it’s a good idea, it’s good.”

“Our culture is one of information,” offered John Chayka, general manager of the Arizona Coyotes of the National Hockey League, at a panel on hockey analytics.

President in the house

First held in 2007, the SSAC was founded by Daryl Morey SM ’05, general manager of the Houston Rockets (who currently have the best record in the NBA), and Jessica Gelman, CEO of the Kraft Analytics Group

This year’s edition, held at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, was the biggest ever, with 3,500 attendees from 35 countries and 46 U.S. states, representing over 200 universities and roughly 600 companies. The event also featured 37 conference panels, 33 “competitive advantage” talks on research or new products, a research paper competition — and one former U.S. president.

That would be Barack Obama, who spoke on Friday afternoon, in an hour-long on-stage conversation with Morey and Gelman. Obama’s remarks, made before a capacity audience, were off the record. 

Obama is well-known as a sports fan, and in keeping with the idea of deploying data whenever possible, Morey and Gelman showed a slide during their Friday morning welcoming remarks underlining his basketball acumen: Obama’s NCAA tournament picks, which he publicly unveiled every year during his presidency, have been more accurate than those of Morey and Gelman.

Why players want data: “It justifies the hard work”  

The classic sports communication problem about data has involved scouts, on the one hand, who evaluate players in person, and analysts, on the other, who look at large data sets to avoid observational biases. But a lot of team executives say that linking the two groups is a common practice now. 

“It’s incredibly different,” said Jerry DiPoto, general manager of baseball’s Seattle Mariners, speaking of the evolving relationship between old baseball hands and front-office number crunchers. “Ten years ago they would just sit across the table and throw fruit at each other. … Now it is a bigger and more inclusive group.” 

Or, as Taubman put it: “We value good scouts, and we value good analytics.”

In some ways, sharing data with players can be trickier, since it involves condensing statistics down to a few useful data points, and not forcing players to rethink their well-honed instincts. But sometimes the best players want the most data — like hockey superstar Sidney Crosby of the two-time defending NHL champion Pittsburgh Penguins.

“Sid right now is at another level in terms of the information he wants to get,” said former Penguins coach Dan Bylsma, who steered the team to the 2009 Stanley Cup trophy. Crosby, added Bylsma, would even look at video in between periods of games to analyze how his possessions unfolded.

“But not every player is like that,” Bylsma added.

Chris Bosh, a former NBA all-star who appeared on multiple SSAC panels, won two titles with the analytically minded Miami Heat. Even so, Bosh said, he would have preferred being given more defensive data by his coaches. 

“It justifies the hard work,” Bosh said.

Percentage basketball, grown organically

One reason the use of analytics in sports may be getting easier is the growing realization that new statistics reinforce traditional values. In basketball, many old-school coaches emphasized winning through defense, rebounding, avoiding turnovers, and having good shot-selection on offense.

Modern basketball analytics puts a premium on those concepts as well, since they all help a team take more high-percentage shots than its opponent, and thus tilt the odds of victory in its favor.

What has changed is the contemporary conception of what a good shot is, and how to obtain it. Teams in the NBA take far more three-point shots than ever now, and space players on the floor more intentionally in an effort to create more space for shooters.

As the star point guard of highly influential Phoenix Suns for several years starting in the 2004-2005 season, Steve Nash helped create this change as much as anyone. Nash won two MVP awards as the Suns increased the tempo, stretched the court, and created a new template for offense. But did this style develop with numbers in mind? Not exactly, said Nash on Saturday, in his first SSAC appearance.

“A lot of what happened in Phoenix was pretty organic,” Nash said, adding that the team’s style started to crystallize during pickup games the players held in the fall of 2004. “It wasn’t necessarily predetermined.”

But it was, organically, a high-percentage style, something Nash’s coach at the time, Mike D’Antoni — now coach of Morey’s Rockets — quickly realized.

“I think a lot of coaches would have found a way to stop that [style] and find validation in organizing something that didn’t need to be organized,” Nash added.

So for all the talk at SSAC about getting players and old-school coaches on board with new thinking, Nash’s example provides a valuable additional lesson: Everyone needs to be open-minded about the unpredictable evolution of sports. That may be something to talk about at next year’s SSAC.

de MIT News http://ift.tt/2Fz1V9g