PhD candidate David Radke, Professor Tim Brecht, and their colleague (and David’s brother) Daniel Radke have received the best research paper award at LINHAC 2022, the Linköping Hockey Analytics Conference held in Sweden.
In
their
paper,
“Identifying
completed
pass
types
and
improving
passing
lane
models,”
the
research
team
developed
a
mathematical
model
that
uses
puck-and-player
tracking
data
to
classify
different
types
of
completed
passes
and
to
determine
the
availability
of
potential
pass
receivers
using
data
from
198
National
Hockey
League
games.
This
new
NHL
puck-and-player
tracking
system,
an
analysis
of
the
kinds
of
passes
that
can
be
extracted
from
it,
and
the
model
built
to
determine
the
size
of
passing
lanes
for
completed
direct
and
indirect
passes
have
the
promise
to
revolutionize
hockey
analytics,
with
implications
for
scouting,
coaching,
player
development
and
fan
engagement.
L
to
R:
PhD
candidate
David
Radke
and
his
co-supervisor,
Professor
Tim
Brecht.
Daniel
Radke
was
unavailable
for
the
photo.
David
is
a
PhD
candidate
at
the
Cheriton
School
of
Computer
Science,
conducting
research
on
artificial
intelligence
and
multiagent
systems
with
a
focus
on
the
impacts
of
teams,
groups,
and
heterogeneous
population
structures
on
game
theoretic
models,
agent
preferences,
and
learning
processes.
He
is
also
the
assistant
captain
and
defenceman
on
the
University
of
Waterloo’s
varsity
men’s
hockey
team.
Tim
Brecht
is
a
Professor
at
the
Cheriton
School
of
Computer
Science
who
conducts
research
to
understand
and
improve
the
performance
of
computer
systems
and
networks.
He
has
held
positions
as
a
visiting
researcher
at
Netflix,
a
visiting
scientist
at
IBM’s
Center
for
Advanced
Studies,
a
research
scientist
with
Hewlett
Packard
Labs,
and
a
visiting
professor
at
Ecole
Polytechnique
Fédérale
de
Lausanne.
To
learn
more
about
the
research
featured
in
this
article,
please
see
David
Radke,
Tim
Brecht,
Daniel
Radke.
Identifying
Completed
Pass
Types
and
Improving
Passing
Lane
Models.
Linköping
Hockey
Analytics
Conference
(LINHAC
2022),
June
6–8,
2022,
Linköping,
Sweden.
Please
also
see
the
paper
synposis
at
https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/~dtradke/linhac22_lp.html and
David’s
conference
presentation
video
below.