New season about to start, and just like the players tuning up in today’s pre-season game, we are also preparing some exciting things on the data front. If you want to be part of it, get in touch! We have a targeted call for PhD Scholarships for domestic students: www.qut.edu.au/study/fees-a...

Hello there, Dublin. Long time no see!

My analysis of the draw is up. Read on to see who got the easiest or toughest draw, and why we might have a South Africa v England final. #RWC2027draw #RWC2027 open.substack.com/pub/dimitrip...

My plan is to have an analysis of the pools within a few minutes of the draw. All the code is ready. I just need them to start the draw! #RWC2027Draw

Introduce yourself with five concerts you’ve seen Air Bell X1 Gemma Hayes Ryuichi Sakamoto U2

Just arrived in Sydney for the ADSN conference, hosted by @sydneyprecisionds.bsky.social. If you’re here too, let’s catch up during the breaks. Our Centre is represented on all 3 days. Today, you’ll hear from our members during the “fast-forward” presentations and the poster session.

Just arrived in London. So far, two English jerseys and five South African ones. Now to find a good place to watch the games. Any recommendations near Wimbledon? Ideally somewhere that would have decent numbers of Irish and/or Australian, so that I’m not alone cheering for these two teams.

So far today, I have spent longer in airports than in the air, but it is all about to change with a massive 18-hour flight from Perth to London. Wish me luck! 😴

I have looked at Australia’s path to a top seed for the RWC draw. If they can’t win all games, how many are enough? open.substack.com/pub/dimitrip...

Off to the UK, where the weather probably won’t be great, so Brisbane has decided to help my transition (from yesterday’s 38.5°C) by making this morning wet and miserable. Sorry everyone, it might be my fault.

I’m working on an update of my rankings simulator, to look more closely at the path to a top-6 for the Wallabies. Now that they have “only” four games left, it is more manageable to look at specific combinations of results. I should be able to post that later today.

I think I’ve seen a @bmcsport.bsky.social in the wild. Or an excellent lookalike. Or I need coffee. 😅

As we are about to embark on a big month of Test rugby, I have looked at what is at play for each team: open.substack.com/pub/dimitrip...

If you are coming to our Centre showcase today (see you soon!), stop at The Cube on level 4 to discover some of our work. And don’t miss out the morning tea featuring native ingredients, shortly after the official opening.

If you are coming to IDW, you will see many of our Centre members Monday-Thursday, but you can also join us on Friday for further networking: events.humanitix.com/screens-stor...

And it's posted! If you're interested and eligible, please consider applying through the UMD portal: umd.wd1.myworkdayjobs.com/en-US/UMCP/j.... If you're a PI working in algorithmic genomics (& you can recommend my lab to your top graduating students ;P), please let them know!

Australia dropped to 7th, but looking at a single week does not give you the whole picture. You need to look at all possible results, so it is time to update the rankings simulations. Everything is still to play for, not just for the TRC. open.substack.com/pub/dimitrip...

This should be a good read. I’m looking forward to it.

I have updated my simulations to include the two results from the weekend. Great win for the Wallabies, but consistency will be key to get a top-6 seeding. It is still far from certain: open.substack.com/pub/dimitrip...

First post on substack. I’ve had a look at World Rugby rankings, and what they might look like by the time they really matter (when the RWC draw is made). It’s there: open.substack.com/pub/dimitrip...

@saramostafavi.bsky.social (@Genentech) & I (@Stanford) r excited to announce co-advised postdoc positions for candidates with deep expertise in ML for bio (especially sequence to function models, causal perturbational models & single cell models). See details below. Pls RT 1/

I can't emphasize how important this is. If you are not an expert or able to check AI outputs you cannot use them safely. To add to this conversation here is recent work from Anthropic showing that REASONING models are NOT FAITHFUL mini 🧵 (🔭🧪) www.anthropic.com/research/rea...

It was a pleasure to talk to @paulcully.bsky.social a few days ago about my analysis of the Super Rugby Pacific season. His article is now up on the Sydney Morning Herald website: www.smh.com.au/sport/the-nu...

I'm planning to attend #ISMBECCB2025 in Liverpool in July and will spend a few days in London beforehand (July 16-19). If you are around then, let's get coffee? Or invite me to visit your institution?

Great to speak with Queensland Reds hooker Matt Faessler for this week's @rugbypass.bsky.social column. - Agrees the Reds are yet to show their best in SRP this season - Cannot wait for the Lions Series - but is battling to not think about it www.rugbypass.com/plus/matt-fa...

May 1 we launch this great new tool that allows rugby teams to code games live, track their season and compare themselves to their peers around the world! Marketed by The Rugby Site, the app is available to all for a yearly subscription.

Everyone is excited about the Super Rugby Pacific season, but why has it been so good? I have crunched some numbers to find out, and you can read about it on RugbyPass here: www.rugbypass.com/news/the-raw...

Earlier I was writing in an article draft that we haven’t seen a 25+ margin yet, as one of the many reasons why the season is exciting. If you look at previous seasons or other competitions, it’s 13-28% of the games. I was worried that the Chiefs would force a rewrite, but Moana saved my draft!

Opening Day is on the way. Get 2 free months of full access to jballallendotcom by subscribing now. Unfettered access to my NPB databases, live zoom chats with former players, coaches and managers and unlock all paid content. Offer good through April 1, 2025 jballallen.com/register/?le...

For anyone wondering, the answer is yes. Three of the five games from Round 3 of #SuperRugbyPacific have opposite outcomes compared to last year (including the only game that had reversed home and away teams).

People have commented on how exciting the first two rounds of Super Rugby Pacific have been, in terms of both the scoring and how tight some games have been. What I also find very interesting is how different the outcomes have been. (1/3)

Week 1 for Super Rugby! Here's the spreadsheet I've made to keep track of the season and help with the new finals system: docs.google.com/spreadsheets... (copy it to your own Google account to edit). I'll update it as the season progresses. Thx @rugbykino.bsky.social for the Champions Cup original.

I’m told there’s an issue with the previous link for some people. Let me delete and try again…

If you love @rugbykino.bsky.social's great Champions Cup spreadsheet (and why wouldn't you), I am working on transforming it into a Super Rugby version because a) the season is about to start, b) it will be a tight race, and c) the semi-final permutations are annoying to do by hand.

Almost two weeks into my role of Head of Data Strategy at the Queensland Reds. Love it! Highlights so far: regular discussions with the coaches, starting to get some nice results with the game data, and being at Suncorp yesterday for photos.

Day 1 with the Reds

It’s that time of year again. Teaching evaluations are known to be sexist, racist, and xenophobic. They can be mentally harmful (especially for ECRs). Yet our institutions insist on using them. Remember - you do not actually have to read your evaluations. You do not need to volunteer for harm 🫡

I am rewatching ROOKIES (ルーキーズ) on Netflix, and suddenly it struck me: Aniya, Shinjo, Okada, Hiyama, etc. All the characters are named after Hanshin Tigers players! I had watched it before living in Kansai, and had not realised at the time.

I also have two studies on rugby data that I am really keen to get out. One is 80% done (but still needs to be written up), and the other has barely started (but is fairly clear in my end). Busy month ahead!

You might be wondering “what are these studies you’re talking about?”. Well, for instance, we have done some work on the use of generative AI in education (both for teaching and in assessments). We think we have some interesting results worth sharing. Hopefully submitted before the end of the year.

Still “a little bit” of marking to do before the semester wraps up. Once it’s done, I can go back to some interesting studies we are trying to get out.

Very excited to spend time with the Reds next year and accelerate our work together! And if you want to join in and do a PhD with us, please get in touch.

Life has been crazy and I have not been very active on this platform, but I am off to #ISMB2024. See you there?

Come study with us on exciting projects at the intersection of sports and data science! #phd #scholarship – $2.27M boost to train data scientists for sports tech challenges qut.edu.au/news?id=192009

The annual ABACBS conference is in Brisbane this week, so I thought it was time to #makeitmore Brisbane.

OK, let's get this started by saying I am at ISMB/ECCB 2023 in Lyon this week. Ping me if you want to catch up. Do we use hashtags here? Is #ISMBECCB2023 a thing?