David Falk (far left) speaks with students from the sport analytics program during their capstone poster presentations.

“I think the Rolls-Royce of Falk College, undoubtedly, is the analytics program,” said David Falk, benefactor of the , to a room of senior sport analytics students and their families during their capstone poster presentations. “We’ve won virtually every analytics competition for the last few years.”

That was certainly true during the Spring 2025 semester, when sport analytics students were victorious at multiple analytics and research competitions and presented findings at several highly regarded conferences around the country. Below is a recap of the semester’s highlights.

SABR Analytics Conference

Nathan Backman (left) won best student presentation at the SABR Analytics Conference.

Sport analytics students Owen St. Onge ’26, Payton Smith ’26, Andrew Diamond ’27, Jonah Soos ’25 and Jacob Kalamvokis ’27 won their room in the Diamond Dollars Case Competition, during which teams compete by preparing an analysis and presentation of a baseball operations decision similar to what a team’s general manager and staff would do in Major League Baseball.

Two students, Nathan Backman ’25 and Brett Cerenzio ’25, took part in the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) Analytics Conference research competition, with Backman winning best student presentation for his research titled .

�鶹Ƶ��University Football Blitz

Sport analytics students won every room of the , including one room of entirely first-year students, while also being named winners of the overall competition.

The Football Analytics Blitz tasks students with a current football analytics prompt. They are given a week to put together a presentation for football analytics professionals. The competition brought together students from 25 different universities and judges from eight NFL teams.

The winning Falk College students were:

• Room 1: Charlie Maddux ’26, Jonah Soos ’25, Nathan Backman ’25, Austin Ambler ’26 and Zach Seidel ’26
• Room 2: Nick Wolfe ’27, Jameson Bodenburg ’27, Jacob Kalamvokis ’27 and Jessica Fackler ’27
• Room 3: Noah Bair ’28, Jimmy Roberto ’27, Carter Pointon ’28, Alex Percey ’28 and Braden Hines ’28

MIT Sloan Research Paper Competition

Research conducted by major Alivia “Ava” Uribe ’25, a member of the University’s women’s soccer team, with sport analytics professors and about the location of penalty kicks at the prestigious MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. Their paper won over thousands of entrants and six other finalists, and Uribe became the first female lead author in the conference’s 19-year history to capture the competition.

Connecticut Sports Analytics Symposium

From left, students Dan Griffiths, Danielle Napierski, Brett Cerenzio and Alivia Uribe at the Connecticut Sports Analytics Symposium

Sport analytics students Danielle Napierski ’26, Dan Griffiths ’26 and Brett Cerenzio ’25 were named runners-up in the Major League Baseball Data Challenge at the Connecticut Sports Analytics Symposium (CSAS).

Alivia Uribe ’25 and Shane Sanders also presented their penalty kick research at CSAS.

American Soccer Insights Summit

Sport analytics students ’27 and Theo Schmidt ’26 presented their work, .

NFLPA Analytics Case Competition

Sport analytics students Christopher Marfisi ’25, Evan Vassilovski ’25, Walker Oettl ’25 and Ryan Severe ’25 were named finalists for their work on the given prompt and traveled to Washington, D.C., to present their findings.

National Collegiate Sports Analytics Championships

Jonah Soos holds his trophy for winning the individual/undergraduate division at the National Collegiate Sports Analytics Championships.

Falk College student Jonah Soos ’25 individual championship, while the undergraduate team of Soos, Hunter Geise ’25, Piper Evans ’25 and Maddy Forster ’25 finished second in the team competition. Two graduate students, Andrew Odnoralov G’25 and Owen Brown G’25 , also competed—a first for representatives from the Falk College’s graduate programs.

At this event, students gave five-minute presentations based on analysis of provided data related to brands, teams and athletes. Judges chose a winner based on statistical analysis, data visualization, actionable insights, communication and integrity.

Cincinnati Reds Hackathon

Teams were tasked with modeling a projection system that predicted total plate appearances and batters faced for Major League Baseball players in the 2024 season based on their past data. Sport analytics students Dan Griffiths ’26, Ben Resnic ’26, Hunter Cordes ’26, Jared Weber ’27 and Josh Davis’27 won the Hackathon, with two other teams from the Falk College being named finalists.

To learn more about the college’s academic programs, experiential learning and career opportunities in sport analytics and sport management, visit the Falk College .

student and lead author Alivia Uribe ’25, Sport Analytics Professor  and Sport Analytics Associate Professor teamed with University of Reading (U.K.) Professor James Reade and University of Stirling (Scotland) senior lecturer Carl Singleton to write “Do Behavioral Considerations Cloud Penalty-Kick Location Optimization in Professional Soccer: Game Theory and Empirical Testing using Polynomial Regression and ML Gradient Boosting.”

Their research was named best in field at the prestigious , held March 7-8 at the Hynes Convention Center in Boston, Massachusetts.

The Sloan Sports Analytics Conference showcases cutting-edge research that’s featured in top media outlets throughout the world and has changed the way sports are analyzed. This year’s competition featured six sports tracks: basketball, baseball, soccer, football, business of sports and other sports. Abstracts were selected based on the novelty, academic rigor and impact of the research.

The team that won the Research Paper Competition at the prestigious MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference included, from left to right, Shane Sanders, James Reade, Alivia Uribe, and Justin Ehrlich.

Ehrlich explained that the group submitted an abstract in the fall. Out of thousands of submissions, the most promising were invited to submit full papers. These manuscripts were then evaluated, and the authors of the top seven papers were invited to present orally at the conference in Boston earlier this month. A panel of industry experts judged these presentations, and the winner was announced during an awards ceremony at the conclusion of the conference.

“I am incredibly proud of our team’s work as it resulted in a fantastic project that resonates deeply with others,” Ehrlich says. “Although aiming for riskier, higher areas of the goal can yield greater expected conversion rates, players typically avoid these zones due to the increased risk of missing entirely, which carries negative perceptions. Our findings generated enthusiasm among many attendees and received considerable attention at the conference.”

Uribe, a forward on the , is the first female lead author to be on the Research Paper Competition-winning team in MIT Sloan’s 19-year history, according to the event organizers.

“This is something I’m extremely proud of,” says Uribe, a sport analytics minor. “I could not be more grateful for the professors who have helped me create this opportunity. The knowledge and expertise I bring into it as a student-athlete is something very unique.”

Sanders and Ehrlich built on their previous analytics research to assist Uribe with her research, while Reade and Singleton provided invaluable soccer data. This was the second consecutive year that Sanders and Ehrlich had a research paper selected among the top seven at MIT Sloan. Last year, they presented their study on the NBA that shows the average expected value of 3-point shots has become less than 2-pointers since the 2017-18 season.

“Falk College is an ideal place to work and teach, the best college I’ve ever been affiliated with by far,” Sanders says. “The administrators, faculty, and students really pull together here like nowhere else I’ve been. Moreover, our leadership team has positioned sport analytics to shine as a program.”

Read the team’s full research paper on the MIT Sloan .

Natasha Brao (left) and David Panasci (Photo by Amelia Beamish)

From delicious new food items to cloud management solutions and an innovative digital platform to connect local food producers and consumers, this year’s Panasci Business Plan Competition showcased outstanding ideas from the most innovative, business-minded students across �鶹Ƶ��University. A campus-wide business plan event hosted annually by the at the , this year’s competition was held on April 5 and made possible by David Panasci ’80, president of DHP Consulting, and sponsor of the first, second and third place awards; Scott Friedberg ’14, founder and CEO of Gilded Social, sponsor of the Gilded Social Rising Entrepreneur Award; and Nick Monzi ’11, CEO and co-founder of Learn Fresh, sponsor of the Learn Fresh Award for Social Entrepreneurship—new this year.

“The annual Panasci competition is always an exciting day on campus, and this year’s event was no exception, as twice as many students competed this year than in 2023. Students from across the University came together to showcase their innovations and compete for prize money that will help them move their business plans forward,” says Cristiano Bellavitis, assistant professor of entrepreneurship, who managed this year’s event. ”Everyone who competed took away valuable feedback from our diverse group of judges, and this year’s winners are certainly on the fast track to making their entrepreneurial goals a reality.”

The 2024 Panasci competition awarded a total of $40,000 in prize money to the winning teams who demonstrated the best potential for growth and attracting outside financing. All competitors submitted written business plans in the semi-final round, and the top teams were brought together to compete in the finals. Whether or not they were selected as winners, every finalist was given specific and valuable feedback from industry professionals involved in the event.

First place and the Gilded Rising Social Entrepreneur Award went to Natasha Brao ’22, G’23, G’24, founder of Shooka. She received $20,000 for the first-place win and an additional $5,000 for the Gilded Rising Social Entrepreneur Award. Brao’s Shooka is a spiced tomato sauce based on the traditional Mediterranean dish shakshuka, which she first tasted on a trip overseas in 2019. Always one to love the “mixing and melding of cultures to promote creative cooking,” she developed Shooka, formalized her business in 2023 and started selling her product in March 2024.

“The Panasci Business Plan Competition at Whitman is one of the competitions that holds the most weight for me. I was looking forward to it the entire year, and it was amazing to compete alongside dear friends and talented entrepreneurs,” says Brao. “The prize money will help assist me with production, transportation and inventory holding costs, as well as allow me to focus on growing our sales in the next few months. My participation and success in this competition have also led to some valuable new connections in the industry. This gives me further validation for my product and myself as a founder, and I couldn’t be more excited to move forward!”

Second place went to Waqar Hussain G’25, Fulbright Scholar, founder of Iconnic.cloud, who was awarded $7,500.  is a powerful cloud management solution designed for small and mid-sized enterprises (SME) aiming to scale and grow. This platform simplifies the transition of business and web solutions to the cloud, allowing for the effortless deployment and scaling of digital products with the cloud provider of choice. Iconnic.cloud eliminates the need for costly system administrators and IT managers, making cloud technology accessible and cost-effective. This solution not only reduces operational costs but also enhances efficiency, providing SMEs with the tools to innovate and thrive in a digital-first economy.  is a product of , a web wizarding team of designers and developers that “brews magic to power online businesses.”

Third place and $2,500, along with the Learn Fresh Award for Social Entrepreneurship of $5,000, went to Brielle Young ’27, co-founder and CEO of Aggregate, a digital platform that aims to bridge the gap between producers and consumers in local communities. Through its application, Aggregate empowers producers to share their goods, whether they are artisanal crafts or farm-fresh produce, as well as tell the stories behind their products. In addition, consumers can discover affordable and accessible local goods, all with just a few clicks. Its mission is to foster vibrant communities through local commerce while equipping local businesses with tools for growth and sustainability. Ezra James, an environmental engineering student at Cornell University, is a co-founder and chief operating officer of Aggregate. The Learn Fresh Award for Social Entrepreneurship is awarded to the innovation that demonstrates the greatest commitment to achieving social impact by addressing a persistent inequity or large-scale societal challenge. Learn Fresh is a nonprofit organization providing STEM learning to empower educators and inspire students.

Judges for this year’s Panasci Business Plan Competition included: Jack Adler ’23, Out2Win Sports; Eric Alderman L’75, adjunct professor, Whitman School; Nassim José Alemany ’09, Xolver; Haotian Bai, Patriot Conceptions; Logan Bonney G’17, West Gen LLC, and Stout Beard Brewing; Bill Brod, All Times Publishing; Blake Brossman ’98, PetCareRX; Salvatore (Tory) D’Amelio ’08, president, Selflock Screw Products; Alexander Deyhim, director Invent@SU, and iSchool faculty member; Cody Disch ’10, founder, Arias Advisors; Dustin Doucette, director of operations, Upstate Venture Connect; David Eilers ’80, �鶹Ƶ��University College of Law Innovation Law Center; Jessica Falcone, Jessica Elizabeth Skincare Inc.; James Farrell G’19, East of Nowhere; Ben Ford ’23, Fundwurx; Meghan Florkowski, WISE Women’s Business Center; Scott Friedberg ’14, founder and CEO of Gilded Social; Linda Dickerson Hartsock, founder of �鶹Ƶ��Blackstone LaunchPad; Lekia Hill, Lekia Tech LLC; Sam Hollander ’21, co-founder and CEO, Share Club; Peter King ’08, Cayuga Economic Development Agency; David S. Klein ’92, owner and president, Greenwood Industries; Jeff Linowes ’77, chief branding officer, HALO Branded Solutions; Kelo Makelele, founder, RedTrace Technologies, Inc.; F. Jasper Massey, commercial loan officer, Empower Federal Credit Union; George Mazevski ’99, G’00, president and CEO, Govsphere Inc.; Nick Monzi ’11, founder and CEO, Learn Fresh; Emad Rahim, Surge entrepreneurship manager, �鶹Ƶ��Surge Accelerator/CenterState CEO; Joe Noll Jr. ’05, president, National Electronic Transit; Micah Shippee G’16, Samsung Electronics America; Don R. Stanton ’03, Tanglewood Gardens; and Vivek Sureddi ’15, owner president, VivCon LLC.

Visit Whitman’s website for more information on the .