Artificial Intelligence in basketball: UNED and L'Alqueria LAB join forces to improve sports performance

VALENCIA, 28 Dec. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The UNED PhyUM Research Center and the Valencia Basket 2000 Foundation, through L'Alqueria LAB, Co-Innovation Department of L'Alqueria del Basket, have signed a collaboration agreement through which they will apply Artificial Intelligence (AI) techniques. to the collection of data that allows "to detect and develop talent, improve sports performance and support rehabilitation processes."

The agreement arises from the increasing presence of Artificial Intelligence in all areas of society, including sports, the promoting entities report in a statement.

The UNED professor and director of the PhyUM research center, Olga C. Santos, highlights the importance of this collaboration to create a pool of researchers: "Just as sports entities such as L'Alqueria del Basket promote training from an early age To help the development of sports talent, at PhyUM we have been involved for almost 10 years in the training of researchers who apply Artificial Intelligence in the field of personalization of psychomotor learning. In fact, continuing with the sports simile, we have researchers at PhyUM who "They started with their Final Degree Project and have already finished their Doctoral Thesis and are playing in the league of research projects."

In this sense, the head of L'Alqueria LAB, Borja Ricart, comments that "it is essential for our entity to establish collaborations of this type, since they allow us to add the experience and trajectory of the UNED to, through optimization and innovation, improve the performance of our athletes.

In fact, L'Alqueria del Basket seeks to turn Valencia into the leading city in Europe in comprehensive training and the development of knowledge within the environment and practice of this sport, and collaboration with the PhyUM Research Center in the field of Artificial Intelligence reinforces this commitment, including research aspects of special relevance for the city, which can be used by students at UNED Alzira-València, where more than 7,000 people are studying.

As Dr. Santos highlights, "this opportunity allows us to increase the training offer that UNED offers to undergraduate, master's and doctoral students, in this case providing UNED students who study in Valencia with a way to develop themselves." in areas such as Artificial Intelligence with a sports focus".

This offer complements the activities that have been carried out between PhyUM and UNED Alzira-València to support research and knowledge transfer in the field of active aging4.

For his part, the UNED researcher and secretary of the PhyUM Research Center, Miguel Ángel Portaz, emphasizes that "the promotion of sporting and human talent promoted by L'Alqueria LAB is closely related to many of the ethical and collaborative principles that we investigate." from projects such as HUManAID, where we advocate for human-centered developments under the Hybrid Intelligence paradigm, which promotes synergy between machines and humans."

Those responsible for the research emphasize that in order to carry out research that truly impacts society, it is necessary to leave the laboratory and, in this context, Portaz highlights: "For us, being able to collaborate hand in hand with the professionals of an internationally renowned club, which is also especially committed to the youth team and the training and development of players, it is an incredible opportunity.