AI takes the field at Pitt
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Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios
Pitt is turning to AI to reshape sports science and athlete performance at a new innovation center.
Why it matters: The city, with its rising tech sector and fierce passion for sports, is a fitting home for the first innovation center of its kind dedicated to sports.
- Officials hope it helps University of Pittsburgh teams bring home more championships.
Driving the news: Pitt and Amazon Web Services (AWS) on Wednesday opened the Health Sciences and Sports Analytics Cloud Innovation Center.
- It's the first of its kind in higher-ed in the region, one of only four in North America, per Pitt.
Zoom in: The center, designed to accelerate artificial intelligence and tech progress, will offer paid internships and hands-on AI and cloud training to prepare students for careers in sports science and analytics.
Between the lines: AI, machine learning and other data-driven tools can help student athletes avoid injuries and improve gameplay with real-time insights and predictive health monitoring, Pitt and AWS speakers said.
What they're saying: Ryan Varley, senior associate athletic director of finance and strategy at Pitt, says the center will give the university the ability to synthesize player stats into more meaningful insights.
- "(The center) will arm our coaches and student athletes with the tools they need to make data-informed decisions related to talent acquisition and game strategy," he says.
Zoom out: AI can process athletes' performance data like speed, strength, fatigue and movement patterns to build personalized plans.
- It can spot early signs of overuse to prevent injuries.
- It can also track sleep quality, stress levels and more to give coaches a full picture of a player's health.
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The big picture: Schools and health systems are increasingly embracing AI and advanced technologies to tackle disease prevention, patient care, staffing shortages and health equity.
Case in point: A $10 million partnership announced last week between Pitt and Leidos aims to use AI to detect cancer and heart disease earlier.
- Pitt and the UC Davis Health Cloud Innovation Center recently collaborated on an AI-powered toolkit to help public health officials combat medical misinformation.
The bottom line: "When you're in an environment as competitive as ours, the margin between winning and losing is razor thin," says Varley. "Our ability to leverage the power of data in this way will give us the edge we need to continue punching above our weight class."