New White Sox Baseball Tracking System Goes the Distance
IIT students develop more accurate measure for home runs
*Note to News & Sports Media: Demonstration begins at approximately 4:45 p.m. on the field behind the batting cage. Media must have White Sox credentials for the event. To arrange, please contact Ms. Vivian Stalling at 312-674-5300 or fax a request on letterhead to 312-674-5116. Students and staff from IIT and the IPRO team will also be at U.S. Cellular Field before the game tonight to demonstrate the new system.
The Chicago White Sox today unveiled a new home run distance measurement system for U.S. Cellular Field, developed by a team of undergraduate students at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). The measurement system, implemented at the start of the season, will be used extensively during the Century 21 Home Run Derby July 14, 2003, on the eve of the 2003 Major League Baseball All-Star Game.
The IIT team, made up of students from various engineering disciplines, computer science and architecture, developed a more reliable method to measure the distance of baseballs hit beyond the fence of U.S. Cellular Field. The project was one of IIT’s unique brand of student team Interprofessional Projects (IPROsSM). For the White Sox, the IPRO team developed a new, automatic home run distance estimation system, including a refined geographical survey and digital contour map of the ball field beyond the fences. The team also developed a computer software program that more accurately and quickly processes data, to depict the extrapolated distance of home runs.
“Working with the White Sox, we’ve taken home run measurement to new heights,” said Mark Thomas, civil engineering senior and IPRO team leader. “With this system now fully operational, we can provide the White Sox organization and its fans with a faster, more accurate ground distance estimate of a home run’s complete trajectory, within seconds after the ball lands in the stands or is caught by a fan.”
The White Sox had been using a manual method to determine the ground distance that a ball would have traveled, had it not landed in the seating or concourse areas behind the outfield fences. The older system also relied on an outdated contour map of the stadium, which made home run distance estimates even more difficult.
The IIT student project included an extensive re-measurement of the U.S. Cellular Field home run distance contours, which had changed over the past three years due to ballpark renovations and the moving of the outfield fences. The survey included landmark distances as well as elevations to update the current contour lines to better represent distances from home plate for any home run hit over the fence into the seating or concourse areas.
“Fans enjoy knowing home run distances as soon as they happen,” said Scott Reifert, White Sox Director of Public Relations. “Realizing that our old measurement system had to be improved and updated in time for the All-Star Home Run Derby, it made sense for us to partner with the minds at IIT to come up with a better way. We are elated with the results!”
The computer program, operated by an IIT student from the press box, uses information about the section, row, seat or area where the ball lands. The information on the ball’s location is then processed to calculate the distance it would have traveled. The resulting estimate is then announced to the media and posted on the scoreboard for fans.
The project motivated IIT students, with guidance from an interdisciplinary group of faculty advisers, to develop a digital grid system that involved tasks such as traditional civil engineering survey work, development of appropriate trajectory algorithms, computer visualization and high speed image tracking system design. As in sports, it takes a team to bring all of the critical talents together to achieve great things.
“Students are the winners in our interprofessional projects,” said Tom Jacobius, director of Interprofessional Studies and the IPRO program. “It gives them a chance to apply their know-how and ingenuity to come up with practical solutions to real problems in a team environment. It also gives them a critical advantage as they begin their professional careers.”
Founded in 1890, IIT is a Ph.D.-granting technological university awarding degrees in the sciences, mathematics and engineering, as well as architecture, psychology, design, business and law. IIT’s interprofessional, technology-focused curriculum prepares the university’s 6,200 students for leadership roles in an increasingly complex and culturally diverse global workplace.
