(Editor’s note: This is the seventh in a series of stories highlighting College of Information Sciences and Technology students and their summer internships and professional development experiences.)
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — This summer, Mojisoluwa Awe is putting her skills in data analytics to work in Major League Baseball's rookie-level circuit.
Awe, a rising senior studying data sciences in the Penn State College of Information Sciences and Technology, is working as a data analyst intern for two minor league affiliates of the San Francisco Giants. While Awe has always had an interest in working in baseball, she specifically sought a position with the Giants due to their well-respected research and development team, which won the award for Best Analytics Organization at MIT’s Sloan Sports Analytics Conference.
"I’m truly grateful for the opportunity and the space to learn about how data analysis and data science are being utilized in the baseball industry,” said Awe. “Baseball as a sport has the longest history of using analytics … and it feels truly surreal to be a part of where the sport has evolved to now.”
Awe is a data analyst for the club’s two Arizona Complex League teams, Giants Black and Giants Orange. In her role, Awe uses data her team collects during each game to create post-game reports. She also communicates with coaches about trends on how players are developing and generates scouting reports on opposing players.
“I’ve expanded my knowledge of baseball by so much, which will help me as I advance my career,” she said. “I’ve been able to answer questions while pulling from a variety of databases and resources. I’ve also gained the ability to communicate technical and statistical information to people who don’t have a technical or data-focused background.”
Awe, who aspires to work in sports analytics after graduation — and perhaps even become a coach one day — realized her passion for the field through her work with the Penn State men’s baseball team, with which she serves as a data analyst. There, she uses data from advanced technologies, such as Trackman, to create various types of visualizations to help coaches and players improve.
“We are also encouraged to discuss projects we’ve been working on and ideas we have during meetings with the analyst team,” said Awe. “Having this experience has made me realize that I want to continue growing my passion of baseball analytics, and it has provided me the space to deepen my knowledge with hands-on experience working with data and starting projects from scratch.”
She has especially been inspired by her supervisor and mentor Jake Stone, director of operations and player development for the Penn State men’s baseball team.
“Jake has continued to be a great resource for all my questions and concerns,” said Awe. “He has encouraged me throughout my entire internship process and has been a great mentor to all of the student managers, especially the analysts.”
“Last year was Jiso’s first year with the program and from our very first interaction in her interview process, I knew she was going to make a difference here,” said Stone. “She has both the technical skills and personal skills to do some great things in this game, and that was reinforced for me after hearing feedback from her time spent this summer with the Giants.”
The skills she has gained through her work with Penn State men’s baseball, combined with knowledge gained through her Penn State classes, have aided Awe in her internship with the Giants.
“After my first interview for the internship, I was given a type of coding assessment to do an analysis on a dataset, and everything I was able to do in my analysis was based off of things I learned in my data sciences classes and was able to apply when working with the Penn State baseball team,” said Awe. “Later, when I was asked to explain my thought process in creating this analysis, I was able to point back to the things the Penn State baseball team values, and the way of teaching my professors have shown me.”
Now, Awe is proud to see the work she’s done to date help her to make an impact in the minor leagues.
“The most rewarding thing about my internship is getting to see the programs and reports I created being used in game planning, or to help players improve their abilities at the plate or mound,” she concluded.