Bringing the data to every sideline

His first sports analytics project began with a cold email.

As a first-year student, Wang reached out to MIT Sloan School of Management Senior Lecturer Ben Shields to see if he could assist Shields with his research on sports strategy and analytics. Shields later connected Wang with a coach he knew who was interested in analyzing the two-point conversion strategy for MIT's football team.

The project revealed that MIT could benefit from attempting two-point conversions much more frequently. The experience opened the door to the MIT Sports Lab, where Wang found mentors including Lecturer Christina Chase, Professor Anette "Peko" Hosoi, and former research scientist Ferran Vidal-Codina.

His research now focuses on two central questions: How can technology democratize access to sports data, and how can it help officials make better decisions?

Wang works with FIFA Innovation, the group within soccer's global governing body that leads the development and testing of match technology used on the field. His research explores automatic event detection and officiating technologies designed to assist referees without disrupting the fan experience.

In one recent project, Wang helped develop a semi-automated system that uses players' skeletal data and ball tracking to determine which player last touched the ball before it goes out of bounds. The research prototype aims to assist goal kick and corner kick decisions while minimizing interruptions to the game.

For Wang, success means that referees find the tools helpful, and fans barely notice it at all.

"A ball goes out of bounds, and we can immediately tell the referee it's a corner kick," he says. "The fans don't even notice it."

Alongside his doctoral research, Wang has gained experience across professional sports, spending two years with the Boston Red Sox's baseball sciences team before accepting a role as a senior data scientist in basketball research and development with the Philadelphia 76ers, where he will continue working after graduation.

Despite his demanding schedule, he says the work rarely feels like work.

"I enjoy it so much," he says. "I really don't know what else I would be doing."

Outside the lab, sports continue to anchor his life. Swimming at MIT provided structure and community during challenging moments.

"MIT can be pretty hard," Wang says. "Having a consistent 5-to-7 o'clock swim practice every day definitely helped a lot."

For Wang, sports have always been more than competition. They have shaped his friendships, inspired his research, and guided his career trajectory.

Now, as he works to build technologies that could change how billions of people experience the world's most popular games, he is still driven by the same sense of love he felt watching sports as a child.

"I want every kid who plays sports to have the best experience possible, because I know how meaningful that can be toward someone's life journey," Wang says.