I Contest*:
Democratizing Ultimate
Frisbee Data
I Contest*:
Democratizing Ultimate
Frisbee Data
*When a foul is called in ultimate, the player
who committed the foul can choose to contest
or not contest the foul call.
Today’s presentation
1) My journey to understand the structure of
the college ultimate frisbee season
2) My contribution: sharing the data that I’ve
gathered
3) Part of something bigger
Me!
Seattle High School
Girls’ Club Team,
National Champs 2009
With UW, 2010
UW at College
Nationals,
2012
UW at
Northwest
Regionals
2014
Seattle
women’s elite
tryout, 2014
College Ultimate Season Structure
About 100 regular season tournaments per year
2-3 conferences per region
10 regions
20 spots at nationals
2009 Season Structure Change
2
2
2 2
2
2
2
2
?
? ?
?
?
?
2
2
?
?
?
?
Bids distributed evenly  bids distributed by algorithm
Excerpts from the Official Rules of Ultimate: 11th Edition
From the Preface: The integrity of Ultimate depends on each player's
responsibility to uphold the Spirit of the Game, and this responsibility
should remain paramount.
From Section 1. Introduction, item B. Spirit of the Game. Ultimate relies
upon a spirit of sportsmanship that places the responsibility for fair play
on the player. Highly competitive play is encouraged, but never
at the expense of mutual respect among competitors,
adherence to the agreed upon rules, or the basic joy of play.
Protection of these vital elements serves to eliminate unsportsmanlike
conduct from the Ultimate field. Such actions as taunting opposing
players, dangerous aggression, belligerent intimidation, intentional
infractions, or other 'win-at-all-costs' behavior are contrary to the
Spirit of the Game and must be avoided by all players.
Excerpts from the Official Rules of Ultimate: 11th Edition
From the Preface: The integrity of Ultimate depends on each player's
responsibility to uphold the Spirit of the Game, and this responsibility
should remain paramount.
From Section 1. Introduction, item B. Spirit of the Game. Ultimate relies
upon a spirit of sportsmanship that places the responsibility for fair play
on the player. Highly competitive play is encouraged, but never
at the expense of mutual respect among competitors,
adherence to the agreed upon rules, or the basic joy of play.
Protection of these vital elements serves to eliminate unsportsmanlike
conduct from the Ultimate field. Such actions as taunting opposing
players, dangerous aggression, belligerent intimidation, intentional
infractions, or other 'win-at-all-costs' behavior are contrary to the
Spirit of the Game and must be avoided by all players.
How can communities use math
and algorithms to make decisions
in ways that are sensitive to the
values of the community?
How can communities use math and algorithms to make decisions in
ways that are sensitive to the values of the community?
How can communities use math and algorithms to make decisions in
ways that are sensitive to the values of the community?
How can the ultimate community use math and algorithms to aid in running the college ultimate
season in ways that are sensitive to the values of the community?
How can communities use math and algorithms to make decisions in
ways that are sensitive to the values of the community?
How can the ultimate community use math and algorithms to aid in running the college ultimate
season in ways that are sensitive to the values of the community?
Learn about situation in
ultimate community
Learn about math for
decision-making
By winter of my senior year, I had:
Courses: computer programming, mathematical
modeling, health informatics, data visualization
Internships: networks research at Montana State
University and data visualization consulting company
in Seattle
Extra work with project mentor.
How can communities use math and algorithms to make decisions in
ways that are sensitive to the values of the community?
How can the ultimate community use math and algorithms to aid in running the college ultimate
season in ways that are sensitive to the values of the community?
✔
Learn about situation in
ultimate community
✔
Learn about math for
decision-making
How can communities use math and algorithms to make decisions in
ways that are sensitive to the values of the community?
How can the ultimate community use math and algorithms to aid in running the college ultimate
season in ways that are sensitive to the values of the community?
Hypothesis: the ultimate community can use math and
algorithms to aid in running the college ultimate season
if all community members can actually understand the
system that is being used.
Network
Theory
Data
Visualization
College Ultimate
Season Structure
College Ultimate Season Structure
No set schedule for teams during regular season.
Network Theory
Network Theory
Network Analysis: Who is the Best Tennis
Player Ever?
Network Theory
Abby
Chris
Caitlin
Luke
Rafaella
Jan
Network Theory
Abby
Chris
Caitlin
Luke
Rafaella
Jan
Network Theory
Network Analysis: Who is the Best Tennis
Player Ever?
Data Visualization
Our brains are built for pictures, not numbers.
Data Visualization
Our brains are built for pictures, not numbers.
New insights into large data sets.
Fun!
How can communities use math and algorithms to make decisions in
ways that are sensitive to the values of the community?
How can the ultimate community use math and algorithms to aid in running the college ultimate
season in ways that are sensitive to the values of the community?
Hypothesis: the ultimate community can use math and
algorithms to aid in running the college ultimate season,
if all community members actually understand the
system that is being used.
Network Theory
Data Visualization
How can communities use math and algorithms to make decisions in
ways that are sensitive to the values of the community?
How can the ultimate community use math and algorithms to aid in running the college ultimate
season in ways that are sensitive to the values of the community?
Hypothesis: the ultimate community can use math and
algorithms to aid in running the college ultimate season,
if all community members actually understand the
system that is being used.
Network Theory
Data Visualization
Both of these require data!
How can communities use math and algorithms to make decisions in
ways that are sensitive to the values of the community?
How can the ultimate community use math and algorithms to aid in running the college ultimate
season in ways that are sensitive to the values of the community?
Hypothesis: the ultimate community can use math and
algorithms to aid in running the college ultimate season,
if all community members actually understand the
system that is being used.
Network Theory
Data Visualization
My Project: Gather + Share Data
Getting Data
USA Ultimate website: tournament result pages,
but no full-season data for download
Breakthrough: Ultiarchive.com launched Feb. 7,
2014, shares their data!
My Data Set
2004-2013 seasons
Over 100,000 games
Winner, loser, score, tournament location, time
of game, and more
Western Washington
Washington
15-13
15-10
15-13
Whitman
15-12
15-3
California
Oregon
Sharing Data
Sharing Data
King County shares real-time bus location data:
we get OneBusAway
Sharing Data
King County shares real-time bus location data:
we get OneBusAway
US Gov shares data
Q: You’ll release the data and just hope people do
interesting things with it?
A: Yes. Think about the Department of Defense. Modern
Satellite data was made available, you had this explosion
in the private GPS market. Now GPS is available on your
iPhone, so if you’re lost you can navigate. The car rental
industry uses it. Google and Facebook use it to help you
get real-time information on where your friends are and
where the closest restaurant is. The key is recognizing
that we don’t have a monopoly on good ideas and that
the federal government doesn’t have infinite resources.
- USA Chief Information Officer
Vivek Kundra, October 2009
Sharing Data
King County shares real-time bus location data:
we get OneBusAway
US Gov shares data
Making my website
US Open Data Website
PNW Civic Data Website
Concluding Remarks
An analogy:
On the field, ultimate players are expected to
know the rules and trust their opponents to
know and follow the rules as well.
Off the field, we need to hold ourselves to the
same standard.
Next Steps
• Make and publish website to share data
• Finalize CEP write-up
• After graduation, I’m interning in the data
science division at an advertising company
Reflection
Reflection
We all have something to contribute to our
communities.
Reflection
We all have something to contribute to our
communities.
Putting yourself out there is scary.
THANK YOU!