At the occasion of the public PhD defense of Joris Kinable on ‘Decomposition
Approaches for Optimization Problems’, CODeS – Dept. of Computer Science at
KU Leuven invites you to a Meet the Jury seminar on December 5th, 10.00am.

Prof. Michael Trick will give a talk about ‘Sports Scheduling Meets Business
Analytics’.

Abstract: Faster computers and algorithms have transformed how sports
schedules have been created in practice in a wide range of sports. 
Techniques such as Combinatorial Benders Decomposition , Large Scale
Neighborhood Search, and Brand-and-Price have greatly increased the range of
sports leagues that can use operations research methods to create their
schedules.  With this increase in computational and algorithmic power comes
the opportunity to create not just playable schedules but more profitable
schedules.  Using data mining and other predictive analytics techniques, it
is possible to model attendance and other revenue effects of the schedule. 
Combining these models with advanced schedule creation approaches leads to
schedules that can generate more revenue for teams and leagues. These
concepts are illustrated with experiences in professional and college sports
leagues.
 

Venue: Arenbergkasteel – Kasteelpark Arenberg 1, 3001 Heverlee, Belgium
Auditorium 01.07
 
The seminar is open to anyone who is interested and is supported by the Belgian
Science Policy Office (BELSPO) in the Interuniversity Attraction Pole COMEX.