Wooster Science Café opens fall season with “The Science of Sports Analytics”

The 10th season of Wooster Science Café starts Wednesday, Sept. 7, 2022, at 7 p.m. with a talk presented by Drew Pasteur, professor of mathematics, who was recently featured by a variety of news outlets for his predictions for the coming high school football season in Ohio. The talk, “The Science of Sports Analytics,” is the first in a series of events to take place this fall on the first Wednesday of each month from 7 to 8 p.m. in the Excelsior Room at Spoon Market and Deli at 144 W. Liberty St. in downtown Wooster. Sponsored by The College of Wooster and The Ohio State University, the monthly series is open to the public and draws together those interested in science in the community to talk about and experience science.

In the first event, Pasteur will discuss how something as simple as predicting the winners of football games can be an entry point to learn about a variety of topics in math and statistics. The skills involved in sports analytics are often the same ones used in analyzing medical data or a corporation’s sales performance. The talk will cover Pasteur’s journey from being a high school coach with an interest in ranking football teams to a college professor with a related website widely followed across Ohio. Currently co-chair of Mathematical & Computational Sciences, he teaches various applied math courses for STEM majors, along with a popular non-major’s class focusing on personal finance and the math of voting and politics. While his Ph.D. research was in mathematical biology, much of his research at Wooster has been in sports analytics, an interest that goes back to his years as a high school teacher and coach.

Other topics and speakers for this season are included below and more information will be available soon.

• Oct. 5 — “The Science of Lactation” with Mauricio Xavier de Silva Oliveira, graduate research associate in the Department of Animal Sciences at OSU and Kristin Fortune, Kirstin Fortune, a board-certified family nurse practitioner and an international board-certified lactation consultant that works in collaboration with Wooster Community Hospital Health System
• Nov. 2 — “The Science of Invasive Pests” with Ashley Leach, assistant professor in specialty crop entomology in the Department of Entomology at OSU, and Olivia Lang, a graduate student in the Department of Entomology at OSU
• Dec. 7 — “The Science of Stream Health” with Vaughn Anderson, director of environmental health at the Wayne County Health Department, and Robert Kastner, water management engineer with the Wayne Soil and Water Conservation District

All are welcome to attend the monthly events. Spoon provides light appetizers, and a limited menu of drinks and food are available for purchase. Masks are optional and will be provided at the door. More information is available on the website, www.woostersciencecafe.org or by following @WooScienceCafe on Twitter or the Facebook page.

Posted in News on September 1, 2022.