WeC05 – Decision and Control in Sports Analytics: A Tutorial

This tutorial discusses the intersection between control theory, decision-making, and sports analytics. Its purpose is to motivate researchers to engage with open problems in sports, demonstrate how foundational tools from controls and optimization can be applied to these domains, and provide practical guidance for entering the field. The session consists of four talks covering: (1) the formulation of sports decision problems as sequential decision-making problems; (2) the evolving landscape of sports analytics data and its implications for research and education; (3) modeling athlete and team decision processes through execution error and uncertainty quantification; and (4) applications of game theory to baseball strategy and managerial decision-making. Together, these talks highlight how well-known methods can be adapted to model, evaluate, and improve strategic behavior in sports. The tutorial concludes with open research challenges and a discussion of opportunities for collaboration between academia and professional sports organizations.

Schedule of Talks