Leading Informatics for Tomorrow (LiFT) students were on deck when the IU School of Informatics and Computing at IUPUI attended the 2018 Baseball in Education Day at the Indianapolis Indians’ Victory Field. Students and school staff handed out sunglasses to elementary-, middle-, and high school-age fans who showed up to see how subjects like math, science, and history can be applied to America’s favorite pastime.
LiFT student Dallas Rian Bucker threw out the first pitch after Senior Executive Associate Dean Mathew J. Palakal welcomed everyone to the game. Faculty member Zebulun Wood was interviewed live during the game on 97.5 Fox Sports about the opportunities available at the School of Informatics and Computing.
“It’s always a great day when we get to brag about our students, their innovative projects, our awesome faculty, and the School of Informatics and Computing. It is a red letter day when we get to do it in the company of baseball fans. I played baseball from when I was five years old through three years of college, so it was a special day for me personally. I was honored by the opportunity to reminisce and represent our school,” Wood said.
The Indianapolis Indians Baseball in Education Days program is an annual event designed to show students that baseball can be educational and learning can be fun. The School of Informatics and Computing offers a variety of technology-forward degree programs that might appeal to those students interested in athletics—whether on the diamond, the court, or on a video screen—and that demonstrate that informatics really is everywhere.
A bachelor’s degree in Media Arts and Science is good preparation for creating animated or virtual and augmented reality sports games, while the master’s in Sports Analytics may lead to a career in the big leagues as a data analyst. Informatics students can also study the dynamics of batting, throwing, and pitching; create ways for athletes to track their health; or document the history of the game through digitized archival records—to name just a few of many applications.
Media Contact
Joanne Lovrinic
jebehele@iu.edu
317-278-9208