Brian Westbrook Foundation Hosts Athletic Data Science Camp

By Jonathan Saxon

It’s never too early to consider career options, as a group of high schoolers learned from attending a data analytics camp with a sports focus at Bowie State University’s the Data Analytics Research Trading and Technology (DARTT) Lab over the summer. The camp, which was sponsored by The Brian Westbrook Foundation, was designed to show that data science is far more than conducting lab experiments or predicting marketing trends.

“This is our second year here at Bowie State,” said Gloria Westbrook, the executive director of the foundation “Less than three percent of folks who are working in a data analytics field are people of color. A lot of companies and corporations are looking to diversify their companies. We understood the need to get underrepresented students to know what data is about.”

The camp, which ran from July 24-Aug 4, featured presenters covering a variety of topics, such as how data is used to analyze sports injuries, assess athletes’ draft potential and other ways information informs front office decisions for professional sports teams. Westbrook hoped that building the camp around themes like sports and gaming could serve as a gateway to expose the students to jobs and professional opportunities in the data analytics field.

“We found a lot of the youth love sports and they also like gaming,” she said. “We want them to be the best athlete they can be, but we also know they can only play whatever sport for a certain amount of time. After that, they have to have something.  If they still love sports, there’s a way they can still be around it and live well. It’s through data.”

The camp concluded with student groups conducting data and cybersecurity presentations on topics such as sports digital marketing and sports injuries.

“If you’re able to understand data, you’re able to work anywhere in the world,” said Westbrook. “You’re very valuable, and you will always have a job somewhere if you’re able to interpret data and apply it to whatever the need is for the business.”