Denis Beausoleil is an assistant coach for the SFU men’s basketball team. His main role with the basketball team is to track all of the data analytics throughout the conference and to communicate those results to the rest of the coaching staff and the student-athletes.
Denis has a MEd in Coaching Studies from the University of Victoria, his NCCP Level IV from the National Coaching Institute, and a BSc Geology from Queen’s University. In his free time, Denis loves to play League of Legends and was the head coach for Echo Fox.
Luke was formerly Vice President, Strategy and Analytics at the Sacramento Kings and Associate Professor of Statistics at Simon Fraser University (currently on leave). His academic research is focused on developing statistics and machine learning methods for high dimensional spatio-temporal data, with a primary focus on extracting insights from player tracking data in sports.
Dr. Jiguo Cao is a renowned data scientist and professor at Simon Fraser University, Canada. His research spans functional data analysis, sports analytics, and machine learning, addressing real-world issues in various fields. In 2021, he received the CRM-SSC award for his research excellence. Dr. Cao's work is prolific, with over 100 publications in esteemed journals, 14 lectures, 85 invited talks, and $4 million in research funding since 2013.
He's dedicated to nurturing future research leaders, having mentored postdocs, Ph.D., and MSc students who've secured academic positions globally. Additionally, he serves as an associate editor for five prestigious journals.
Tianyu Guan is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Mathematics and Statistics at Brock University. She had her PhD in Statistics from Simon Fraser University. Her research interests include Sports Analytics, Functional Data Analysis, and Machine Learning.
She is currently a Principal Investigator of the CANSSI Collaborative Research Team in Sports Analytics. She has a passion for sports and has published several papers on various sports. Her goal is to use sports data to help teams and players gain an edge.
Dr. X. Joan Hu is a Professor of Statistics in the Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science at Simon Fraser University, Canada. Her statistical research has primarily been in methodological development for handling conventional data. She has collaborated with investigators from a variety of subject fields, such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, public health, reliability, forest fire management, psychology, political science, and sports.
She enjoys identifying statistical problems from real-life projects and developing approaches to addressing the challenges.
Harsha is a bigtime sports fanatic and an avid follower of Tennis. He completed his PhD under the supervision of Prof. Tim Swartz and his entire PhD was about Cricket Analytics.
Dr. Pfaff is a tenure-track assistant professor of mathematics at Queen's University, Ontario. She holds a PhD in geometric group theory from Rutgers University - New Brunswick and has held various research positions, including a postdoctoral research fellow in mathematics and computer science at l'Universite d'Aix-Marseille, Universitat Bielefeld, and the University of California Santa Barbara.
She has received numerous awards, including an NSERC Discovery Grant, and is a co-supervisor of research students and co-host of the Friends of Tracking educational soccer analytics youtube channel.
Alex Rucker is a founding partner of KBAR Consulting LLC and, at present, the senior analytics consultant for the Toronto Raptors. He heads a small team that provides basketball analytics exclusively for the Raptors.His long-time business partner, Keith Boyarsky, and him have built a modelling and predictive analytics system that can directly inform coaching decisions such as shot selection on offence and positioning and rotation on defence.
He got started in the business of basketball in the mid-90s working first for the University of Western basketball team, and then with an internship at Simon Fraser University. Jay Triano (the previous coach of the Raptors and the current coach of the Canadian men’s national team) was the head coach of SFU, and they stayed in touch. When Triano became the head coach of the Raptors, he invited Rucker to demo his analysis to the coaching staff.
Dr. Stockie is a Professor and Graduate Chair in the School of Mathematics at Simon Fraser University. His research focuses on solving problems in fluid dynamics through the use of mathematical analysis and numerical methods. Most of the problems he studies are inspired by fluid flows arising from applications in either engineering or biology.
His current research activities can be broadly classified into four areas: 1) industrial mathematics, 2) fluid-structure interaction, 3) porous media flow, 4) scientific computation. Stockie regularly teaches an undergraduate course on the mathematics of olympic sport, and he is currently involved in a research project on modelling of the dynamics of a nordic ski race.
Assistant Coach and Performance Analyst, SFU Men's and Women's Soccer
Jonas Worth joined SFU men’s soccer staff as an assistant in 2020 following a 15-year career in collegiate coaching across NCAA, U SPORTS, and CCAA levels. He holds a Canada Soccer Association A License and a UEFA B License, along with expertise in performance analysis and talent identification.
Having completed a master's in sports psychology from UBC in 2010, Worth has worked extensively with teams and athletes to enhance their mental skills at an elite level. He operates a video technology-based performance analysis business with global reach, serving national teams and professional footballers. Worth collaborates with SFU Sports Analytics Group and oversees work-study students aiding data analytics for Red Leafs’ teams.
Additionally, he is a certified diversity and inclusion consultant, notably as a director at the You Can Play Project, working with prominent sports leagues and organizations. Born in New Brunswick, Canada, and raised in New York, Worth studied at McGill University and played soccer internationally in Brazil, Germany, the UK, and Canada.
