Previous Student Research | Sports and Society Initiative

SSI Student Research Fairs

2024 OSU Sports and Society Initiative Undergraduate Research Fair and Sports Analytics Conference participants

Baris, Daniel. (Syracuse University) “MLB Pitchers and the Hot Hand”
Berard, Jake. (The Ohio State University) “Auction Ticket Pricing: Enriching Strategies to Combat High Volume Ticket Scalping for Sporting Events”
Berkey, Brogan. (Robert Morris University) “An Analysis of Team Construction in the National Hockey League”
Bruch, Brennen. (University of Minnesota) “Hockey pinch”
Cliff, CJ. (University of Massachusetts Boston) “Examining the effect of ideologies on the United States and European youth soccer structures”
Fackler, Jessica, Bodenburg, Jameson, Fontana, Adam. (Syracuse University) “Analytics and Injury Prevention of Major League Baseball Position Players”
Fahimi, Ethan, SriDaran, Dilan. (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) “OPTI-GOAL: Using Optimization to Beat 99.995% of Fantasy Premier League Managers Worldwide”
Franke, Kai. (University of Minnesota) “Reevaluating Catcher Blocking Models”
Hart, Charles. (University of Minnesota) “Analyzing Wide Receiver Corps in the NFL”
Hrusovsky, David. (Bowling Green State University) “Every High School Baseball Field in Ohio”
Jain, Arnav. (Edgewood Jr/Sr High School) “Quantifying the Efficacy of a Novel Ocular Injury Apparatus”
Joyce, Echo. (The Ohio State University) “Queer Experiences in Sport over the Life Course Patterns and realized costs and benefits”
Kang, Andrew. (Rice University) “Closing Down Spaces: From Soccer Pitches to NFL Gridirons”
Kramer, Andrew. (The Ohio State University) “Examining MLB Draft Pick Values: Competitive Balance, Compensation, and the Lottery”
Kumar, Rohini. (The Ohio State University) “Sport-Related Injuries over the Life Course: Risk Factors and Trends”
Meisenbach, Makenna. (Siena Heights University) “The Effect of Different Music Genres on Running Performance During The Astrand Treadmill Test”
Mylen, Grant. (The Ohio State University) “Masters Prediction Tool”
Richardson, Emma. (Bowling Green State University) “The Black Box of College Athletics: The intentional communication gaps in decision making”
Rogers, Jack. (University of Minnesota) “Optimizing NFL Survivor Pool Strategies: A Simulation and Machine Learning Approach”
Ronald Lee, Jethro. (Northeastern University) “Success Probabilities in Field Hockey with Machine Learning”
Shah, Jaden. (The Ohio State University) “MMA Meta-Analysis: Evolution, Comparisons, and Tactical Insights from UFC Fight Data”
Sorg, William. (The Ohio State University) “Comparing the Accuracy of High School Football Recruiting Rankings”
Strassburg, Luke. (University of Minnesota) “Predicting MLB Team Performance From Free Agent Patterns”
Strauss, Carter, Flood, Aidan, Lippie, Caden. (Syracuse University) “Efficiency and Strategy in Basketball Betting Markets”
Strzalka, John. (The Ohio State University) “Childhood sport involvement and its implications for occupational success in adulthood”
Taxer, Dylan. (California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo) “Invisible Walls: Elucidating the Role of Institutional Discrimination In Maintaining Unequal Opportunity in Sport”
Tummala, Rohan. (The Nueva School) “Using Monte Carlo Simulations to Predict NBA Player Props”
Venkatesh, Atul. (Dartmouth College) “PAVing the way for the future: A metric for determining player value and evaluating trades in the National Football League”
Vignesh, Amrit. (Seminole High School) “Quantifying Aggressiveness in NFL QBs Using Air Yards Over Expected (AYOE) With Trust Factors”
Wain, Jack. (University of Minnesota) “Connecting Team Hitting and Pitching Output: Which Factors Are Most Important?”
Willing, Alexis. (California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo) “Cultural Normalization of Risk?: Exploring Brain Injury in the National Football League using Sociocultural Analysis”
Zapata-Hall, Julian. (The Ohio State University) “College Basketball: An In-Depth Study of the Foul Up 3 Dilemma”

2023 OSU Sports and Society Initiative Undergraduate Research Fair and Sports Analytics Conference participants

Pálamson Morthens, Águst, Levander, Sebastian, and Tim Keller. (KTH Royal Institute of Technology, University of Gothenburg, University of Basel) “Who keeps track of their marking assignments? Evaluating the performance of defenders in soccer by measuring their mistakes.”
Napolitano, Mia. (California Polytechnic University, San Luis Obispo) “Evaluating Minor League Pay Based on Modern Philosophies: A Follow-Up Analysis”
Galsky, Kyle. (University of Minnesota) “Is there a Winning Formula in the NHL?”
Brill, Ryan. (University of Pennsylvania) “Entropy and March Madness”
Seth, Tej. (University of Michigan) “Hack-a-Sack: Putting Defenders in Positions to Get to the Quarterback”
Warmbier, Greta. (The Ohio State University) “Country Club Pricing from an Economic Lens”
Smith, Alex. (Brock University) “Women in Leadership and its Effects on Women Athletes”
Strzalka, John. (The Ohio State University) “Sports Participation and Adults' Alcohol Use”
Bao, Zeke. (The Ohio State University) “The use of performance enhancing drugs in the NBA”
Hartzell, Gavin. (The Ohio State University) “Sports on Wall Street: A Statistical Analysis”
Elliott, Naveen, and Matt Kendig. (The Ohio State University) “Evaluating '23 NFL Pass Rush Prospects Based on Physical Metrics”
Franke, Kai. (University of Minnesota) “Using Predicted Run Value to Evaluate Team and Division Strength”
Fang, Yixuan. (A student in the Ohio State University (Columbus)) “Gender equality in the Olympic Games”
Rogers, Jack. (University of Minnesota) “Re-evaluating the Way We Measure Baserunning with Bases Taken Over Expected (BTOE)”
Blumhoefer, Isaac. (University of Minnesota) “MLB Pitch Comparison Tool”
Balch, Jackson. (University of Minnesota: Twin Cities) “Success of Steal Probability Calculator”
Hedgecock, Laryssa. (The Ohio State University) “Big Data Bowl Experience”
Platt, John and Matt Kretchmar. (Denison University) “Statistical Equity in Ohio Cross Country Competition”
Kodi, Shreya. (The Ohio State University) “The Evolution of the Baseball on the Game Performance”

2022 OSU Sports and Society Initiative Undergraduate Research Fair participants

Arens, Adelyn. (The Ohio State University) “Sports participation and parent-child feelings of closeness"
Zakariya, Raghdah and Lyndsay M.C. Hayhurst. (York University) “Trauma-and-Violence-Informed-Sport forDevelopment (TVISFD) approach within the work of practitioners and scholars in the sport-fordevelopment (SFD) field.”
Iyer, Shivani and Dr. Kathleen Bachyncki. (Muhlenberg College ) “The Use of Helmets in Women's Lacrosse”
Wang, Cody and Peter Donnelly. (University of Toronto ) “Access to playing fields in rugby and Cricket”
Laube, Hannah. (Bowling Green State University ) “Title IX from the Prospective of Former Female Athletes”
Saleh, Dylan. (Linnaeus University ) “How Former Elite Swimmers Experience the process of Dropout During Sports High School”
Amico, Mary. (Miami University) “Miami University's Coaching History and student-athlete leadership in the Football Program.

2021 OSU Sports and Society Initiative Undergraduate Research Fair participants

Rutan, Jacob. (The Ohio State University) “Let's Make Change”
Bobby, Justin. (The Ohio State University) “The Effect of the Rooney Rule on NFL Coaches”
Markey, Carleen and Nayan Patel. (Purdue University and The Ohio State University) “Identifying Archetypes in Women’s Hockey”
Ratcliff, Kaitlin, Petersen, Cheyenne, Epstein, Dustin, Illecki, Julia, Dong, Rusi, Periack, Kaitlin,and Dr. Caitlin Clark. (University of Illinois) “Access and Barriers to Mental Health Resource Information in the NCAA Power 5 Conference School”
Warmbier, Greta. (The Ohio State University) “Batting Effectiveness”
Skor, Jacob. (The Ohio State University) “The Impact of College for MLB Draftees”
Nothnagle, Emily. (The Ohio State University) “Sport Participation and the Development of Grit”
Phanawn Bailey, Maurice Beavers, Scottie Ethington, Will Simpson (Otterbein University) “DEI in DIII Athletics”
Lang, Mallie. (The Ohio State University) “How much are 4 and 5 Star Football Recruits Worth?”
Hackes, Jack. (The Ohio State University) “Diversity of Golf with a Focus on African American Communities”
Costanzo, Vinnie. (The Ohio State University) “Player Value by Position in MLB”
Arens, Adelyn. (The Ohio State University) “Do You Have to be Rich to be an Athlete?”
Jenkins, Riley. (The Ohio State University) “Exploring MLB Attendance Based on Salary of the Highest Paid Player on each Team”

2021 OSU Sports and Society Initiative Undergraduate Research Fair and Sports Analytics Conference participants

Horton, Ethan. (The Ohio State University) “Ranking the Best No Hitters since 2015”
Sato, Shawn. (The Ohio State University) “Predicting Signability: Modeling Athlete Behavior with the MLB Draft”
Caruso, Max. (The Ohio State University) “Hard Hit or Where You Hit”
Dinan, Luke, Klein, Benjamin. (The Ohio State University) “Predicting MLB Home Runs by Ballpark Dimensions”
Borgemenke, Samuel. (The Ohio State University) “The Symbiotic Relationship of Individual and Team Success”
Zhou, Chenxuan. (The Ohio State University) “How does the payroll for each position influence seasonal points for England premier league”
Ho, Nicholas, (Arizona State University), Vijay, Adhvaith, (University of California Los Angeles), Tao, Sifan, (University of Virginia), Pelechrinis, Konstantinos. (University of Pittsburgh) “Modeling Stochastic Soccer Game Dynamics using Potential Functions”
Bartemes, Cole. (The Ohio State University) “Effects of Fan Attendance and Gambling on the NFL”
Gadkari, Viren. (The Ohio State University) “Feature Extraction for NBA MVPs: What makes a player the most valuable?”
Guo, Yingzhe, Romer, Jack. (The Ohio State University) “The correlation between NCAA Division I FBS teams season winning percentages and their number of In-state recruits”
Tiernan, Patrick. (The Ohio State University) “The Value of a Touchback in the NFL”
Wagner, Cole. (The Ohio State University) “When the Numbers Lie: Why the Pac-12 Flourished and the Big Ten Flopped in the 2021 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament”
Zhou, Junzhe (Joe). (The Ohio State University) “The effect of fan presence on the home court advantage and the variance in team performance in NBA games”
Ma, Yichao, Mack, Jeremy, Lou, Zeyu, Liu, Tianyun, Lu, Yongbo. (The Ohio State University) “Factors the affect winning percentage in the NBA”

2020 OSU Sports and Society Initiative Undergraduate Research Fair participants

DeCort, Callie. "How Cost of Attendance Stipends are Creating New Precedents in NCAA Athletics."
Feldman, Zach. "NFL Expected Completion Probability: Modeling passes in the NFL with publicly available data and reproducible research."
Patel, Nayan. “A Model for Predicting D1 NCAA Hockey Games.”
Sichel, Adam. "The Economic and Social Effects of Legalized Sports Gambling."
Taylor, Corey. "Regression Discontinuities in the NFL Draft."
Toorchen, Jasmine. "Study of Track Surface Type on Injury and Death in New York Horse Racing."
Williams, Brooke. “Predicting Free Throws in the NBA.”
Williams, Alexander, Clarke, Ben, and Seth Brugler. "MAYFIELD: Machine Learning Algorithm for Yearly Forecasting Indicators and Estimation of Long-run Player Development."

2020 OSU Sports and Society Initiative Undergraduate Research Fair and Sports Analytics Conference participants

Howell, Ben. (University of Texas) “Projecting from the KBO to MLB”
Stankivicz, Sam. (The Ohio State University) “Inefficiencies in Veteran MLB Contracts”
Thurm, Noah. (Georgetown University) “Controlling Launch angle to Limit Damage”
Lehman, Matthew. (University of Chicago) “Saving Free Agency: Analyzing the Modern Major League Baseball Labor Market”
Caruso, Max. (The Ohio State University) “Was the 2020 Cincinnati Reds Offense Unlucky”
Stowell, Brett. (Xavier University) “WAR Ball: MLB War Optimization with Budgetary Constraints”
Li, Red. (The Ohio State University) “Applicable Methods in Measuring the Baseball Ability of a Left-Handed Catcher”
Patel, Nayan. (The Ohio State University) “Using Shot Tracking and Transitional Play Data to Quantify the Systemic Differences Between Men's and Women's Hockey “
Eckert, Jacob. (The Ohio State University) “Salary Cap Allocation By Position: A Function of Year and Success”
Behan, Brad. (Michigan State University) “Machine Learning Approach to Predict NHL Scoring”
Nguyen, Quang. (Loyola University Chicago) “Poisson Modeling and Predicting English Premier League Goal Scoring”
Spear, Isaac. (University of Pennsylvania) “The Quarterback and the Situation”
Williams, Alex, Clarke, Ben, Brugler, Seth. (The Ohio State University) “MAYFIELD: Machine Learning Algorithm for Yearly Forecasting Indicators and Estimation of Long-run Player Development”
Green, Hunter. (The Ohio State University) “Value of an Interception in the NFL”
Smith, Patrick. (The Ohio State University) “The Impact of Temperature on the NFL”
Skolnick, Becca, Dzolic, Tamara, Habtegebriel, Redeit. (Denison University) “Finding the Next Defensive Player”
Corey, Aidan. (The Ohio State University) “Fantasy Football Consistency Analysis”
Shen, Hong_Jui, Shi, WenYi. (Denison University) “Linear Regression for Basketball Team Scores Analysis”
Wagner, Cole. (The Ohio State University) “The Impact of Conference Tournament Momentum on NCAA Tournament Success”
Zhou, Chenchen. Ma, Yingyan. Li, Yuliang. (The Ohio State University) “The Effect of the “Hot Hand” in NBA Games”
Yeung, Cecily, Hou, Meilin. (The Ohio State University) “The Impact of Foreign Born Players in China Basketball Association”
Behera, Swarup Ranjan. (Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, India) “Performance Analysis of Batsman against Spin Bowling and Fast Bowling in Cricket”

2019 OSU Sports and Society Initiative Undergraduate Research Fair participants

Decort, Callie. “How Cost of Attendance Stipends are Creating New Precedents in Collegiate Athletics”
Osterfeld, Shannon R. “Gender in the Olympics”
Murphy, Dylan. “The Extinction of Kickoffs”
Williams, Alexander. “A Jamesean Second-Order Points Created Conditional Probability Model for Performance Analytics in American Football”
Chen, Willy. “Can we use AP rankings to predict the probability of winning?”
Meyer, Julie. “Correlation between knee excursion during single leg hop loading phase and sagittal plane knee angle at peak vertical ground reaction force and initial contact”

SSI Funded Student Research

Davis, Evan, and Chris Knoester. 2019. "Analyzing the Great Sport Myth: Evidence from the NSASS." Presented at the 2019 North American Society for the Sociology of Sports meetings in Virginia Beach, VA.
Rockhill, Carter, Knoester, Chris, and Brian Turner. 2019. "Sports and Non-sports based Racial-Ethnic Prejudice."
Presented at the 2019 North American Society for the Sociology of Sports meetings in Virginia Beach, VA.
Tompsett, James, and Chris Knoester. 2019. "The Making of a College Athlete: High school experiences, socioeconomic advantages, and the likelihood of playing college sports." Presented at the 2019 North American Society for the Sociology of Sports meetings in Virginia Beach, VA.
Tompsett, James, and Chris Knoester. "Family Socioeconomic Status and College Attendance: A consideration of individual-level and school-level effects" (under review)
Ungureanu, Tiberiu. 2019. “Complementarity and Competency-Destroying Events: A comparative study of the American League and National League, before and after the introduction of the designated hitter.” Abstract submitted for the 2020 MIT Sloan Sports Analytic Conference Research Paper Competition.
Williams, Alexander, Brugler, Seth, and Benjamin Clarke. 2019. "A Fast Approximate K-Nearest Neighbor Machine Learning Algorithm for NFL Career-Arc Regression.” Abstract submitted for the 2020 MIT Sloan Sports Analytic Conference Research Paper Competition. SSAC 2021 3rd Place Presentation
Williams, Alexander. 2019. “Rationality and Efficiency in NFL Gambling Markets.” (under review)