The course uses sport as the vehicle to learn how data and AI can be used to “measure the immeasurable”, via new insights and technology that could not be measured before.
Additionally, students also learn how to visualise granular data, as well as create interactive animations and dashboards to highlight various behaviours in sports. No prior knowledge of AI and machine learning is required to enrol.
The course’s various lecturers, which include Stats Perform Chief Scientist Patrick Lucey and other members of Stats Perform’s AI team, use examples from our basketball and football (soccer) datasets and interactive tutorials with working code, with students also benefitting from access to these resources if they want to get their hands dirty.
The goal of the course is to give students a basic understanding on the value of data and how AI maximizes the use of the data, and how it powers everything in the data ecosystem by utilising machine learning (ML), computer vision (CV) and large language modelling (LLMs) – using sport at the vehicle to learn.
At the completion of this course, students should have an understanding of the basic concepts of AI and what it can and cannot do – i.e., the “why”. An additional goal of this course is to make students both data and AI literate, whilst emphasising the need to know the basic skills of utilising spreadsheets (Excel) as well as Python.
The course, which runs from August through to mid-December, is broken into four parts with students required to deliver homework assignments and a final project, which all contribute to the final course grade. Students also sit a final exam prior to Christmas, which will account for 20% of their final grade.
