Baseball and uncertainty: KC Royals analytics director to talk at Notre Dame

Daniel Mack, the senior director of quantitative analysis/amateur scouting for the Kansas City Royals professional baseball team, will deliver a talk, “You Always See Something New: Baseball and Uncertainty,” at the University of Notre Dame at 7 p.m. Oct. 11. The talk will take place in the Carey Auditorium located in the Hesburgh Library.

The event is free and open to the public.

Mack, who earned his bachelor’s degree in computer science from Notre Dame in 2006, was hired by the Royals in 2013 as an analyst in baseball analytics. He later became director of baseball analytics/research science, a role he held for three seasons before he was promoted in 2018 to his current position. He works closely with the quantitative analysis staff to assist with research and development across all areas of baseball operations with a focus on amateur scouting.

Prior to accepting the job with Kansas City, Mack obtained a doctorate in computer science from Vanderbilt University. His dissertation focused on machine learning and anomaly detection. While pursuing his doctorate, Mack worked as a research assistant at the Institute for Software Integrated Systems, where he and his research group won the NASA Associate Administrator Award for Technology and Innovation for work combining machine learning with fault diagnosis.

The Notre Dame Sports Analytics Club (NDSAC) promotes awareness of and opportunities in the burgeoning area of sports analytics to Notre Dame students. The club hosts speaker events on campus featuring industry professionals who discuss career opportunities as well as current trends in sport analytics, sport performance and sport science. The NDSAC is jointly sponsored by the Notre Dame Athletic Department and the Department of Information Technology, Analytics, and Operations (ITAO) in the Mendoza College of Business.

For more information about Mack’s talk, contact Michael Vanic (mvanic@nd.edu), NDSAC events and publicity coordinator.