Transformational innovations aren’t always born in corporate boardrooms; many of them are conceived in university labs, as executive director of Johns Hopkins Technology Ventures Christy Wyskiel wrote in Fast Company. Universities, alongside private industry and the federal government, are a core pillar of American innovation.
Breakthroughs produced through this innovation ecosystem were at the heart of the inaugural World Changing Ideas Summit hosted by the Johns Hopkins University and Fast Company at the Hopkins Bloomberg Center. The summit convened leaders from business, government, and academia to spotlight world-changing ideas that have defined our present and how they create opportunities for cross-sector collaboration to shape our future.
As featured at the summit, the Johns Hopkins Sports Analytics Research Group is leading real-world sports applications of AI, from developing computer vision systems that precisely measure baseball bats for the Baltimore Orioles to predictive models that identify hidden player value and optimize game strategy. By combing through troves of data and extracting insights, AI is starting to affect how sports are played and coached while also providing data that could help teams support better player safety.
“We’re going from data to information to knowledge to actionable wisdom, thanks to AI,” says group founder Anton Dahbura, an associate research professor in the Department of Computer Science, the executive director of the Johns Hopkins University Information Security Institute, and a co-director of the Johns Hopkins Institute for Assured Autonomy.
AI is also starting to change the sports experience for fans through real-time game information. In the future, Dahbura sees opportunities to use AI to discover new strategies to optimize player performance and measure effectiveness.
“We’re starting to see the impact of AI and other forms of analytics in baseball, but I’m really excited about future opportunities in other sports [with] more continuous flow like basketball, soccer, hockey, and more,” Dahbura says.