JADS KPMG post-master students help Team Sunweb become more data drivenStudents of the KPMG post-master Data Science at JADS are helping Team Sunweb, the Dutch procycling team currently competing in the Vuelta a España. We’ve contacted Olivier Go, one of the people working hard on this project and got to ask him some questions.
What aspects are you focused on in your project? “KPMG, as Data Partner of Team Sunweb, is helping to make the team a more data driven organization. This means we help Team Sunweb with generating new insights from their data on the one hand but also help them create the futureproof dataplatform they need going forward. Furthermore we are helping the organization in making a great percentage of their decisions based on data.” What are the goals you hope to achieve with your Data Partnership? “In sports the goals is basically very simple. You want to be the best. In professional cycling that means we aim to help Team Sunweb win the Tour de France. To achieve this the team needs the optimal plan for an entire season. It is here we can aid Team Sunweb the most. But we also have goals in transforming the entire organization to be more data orientated. As sports enthusiasts ourselves we are proud to be helping the sport gain a higher level of professionalism.” Sport is emotion, how do you align that with the introduction of Data Science? Aren’t you making robots out of athletes? “Indeed, sport and emotion are fundamentally linked but sport at the highest level can’t be done without data analysis. That doesn’t mean we are removing emotion from the sport. The point is when you don’t know something you can do two things; you can try and find out through research or you can go with your gut feeling. We are convinced the first option will help the team improve more. The emotion you feel when you successfully execute the optimal plan and manage to win is just as real as when you just wing it. Data science increases the base level chance of success. There are dozens of examples where cyclists can go just that bit faster during stages that were special to them to deliver heroic performances. That part won’t change through the use of data science.” Read more about the data partnership between KPMG and Team Sunweb |
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