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Beverly Hills November Meeting
Tuesday, November 15, 2022, 12:00 PM - 1:30 PM PDT
Category: Beverly Hills

TITLE: Data Science, Soccer Analytics, & the World Cup 

ABSTRACT: We give a brief history of soccer analytics. We discuss three data analytic soccer topics that are relevant to the upcoming FIFA World Cup Finals in Qatar: ranking methods, penalty kick shoot-outs, and the expected goals metric (xG). 

SPEAKER: Prof. Mark Kozek, Whittier College Department of Mathematics & Computer Science 

SPEAKER BIO:

Mark Kozek is a Professor of Mathematics at Whittier College. Mark was born in the United States but was raised in South America and the Caribbean, due to his father’s career in tropical medicine. He completed his bachelor’s degree and master’s degree at Harvard University, and then moved to Miami to teach K-12 math and coach soccer.

He pursued his graduate studies in math at Wake Forest University and the University of South Carolina, where he earned his PhD in number theory in 2007 prior to joining the faculty at Whittier College. He was Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science from 2015 to 2018, and has held visiting positions at Dartmouth College, Cornell University, and the University of Georgia. Mark spent his most recent sabbatical at UCLA.

Mark’s mathematical research is in number theory related to problems of Paul Erdős and number theory problems that can be applied to cryptography. His interdisciplinary interests include mathematics in literature, cinema and popular culture, history of cryptography, and data science methods in sports analytics (soccer and football). He co-edited the book Mathematical Themes in a First-Year Seminar that was published in 2021, and he is currently writing a book on mathematics and storytelling. His soccer analytics ranking project “FIFA Foe Fun” about the 2014 FIFA World Cup was profiled by The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal (among others), and in the mathematics textbook When Life is Linear: From Computer Graphics to Bracketology. He covered the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa for SBNation.com.

Cost: Free

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