This week, I met with my mentors, Dr. Yu-Han Chang and Dr. Rajiv Maheswaran from the Computer Science department at the University of Southern California (USC) and from the Computational Behavior Group at the Information Science Institute of USC. I was also introduced to the mession and goals of the group more>>
This week, more data needed to be arranged for the machine learning process. A different source of raw data was found and needed to be organized and oploaded onto the sql server for the machine leanning process. Information gotten from this data is useful as it would constitute several experiences for the machine, which will it will latter use more>>
The last queries from last week's source were ran this week. These allowed the breakdown of our previous tables to create more tables with clearer description of the over a million game events considered from one of our sources. The large amount of information in the new table required much more time for the execution of queries aimed at populating the new tables... more>>
The Graphical User Interface (GUI) started last week was not done. As I learned how to query information and plot points from a database, so did I apply that in the building of the GUI. This week, I worked on generating those two graphs depicting the shot positions and angle for various players, in various teams during various games in different years... more>>
More Graphical User Interface (GUI) was done this week. The GUI made last week was modified for more querying and new tables were created out of the database and existing ones were altered in order to ease and speed up the querying being performed on the GUI. Features were either added to the GUI or modified for the purpose of the research. More visualization features were added... more>>
This week, I kept on working on the GUI to make it more effective. I had to finish the coding for the user's querying through the database records via the GUI, and also finish the calculation of the percentages of a shot being made at different angles and distances from the basketball hoop... more>>
The week started with a holiday on July 4th, so I resumed worked on Tuesday. This week, the programming for the query was completed as well as some other details on the charts. The new task was to create a new table from the existing once on the server in order the extract information regarding each missed shot during each game of the over 3500 games being analyzed... more>>
This week, I worked on more GUI interfaces. I created more heat maps. These new heat maps displayed information about missed shots. The type of rebounds after a missed shot was determined. Different types of player and teams rebounds for all the missed shots were derived from the database and used to build the maps... more>>
This week, I completed the heat maps. As with the previous heat maps, the graphs were formatted to include grid areas and the angular sectors, and a slider was added to make these sectors adjustable. As suggested by my mentors, I made some changes to the structure of the heat maps portraying information about missed shots and rebounds... more>>
This is my last week. Few additions were made on my code. To have a more accurate sense on the shots made in each grid sector, we do not only need to know the location of the shot and an evaluation of the number of shots made at the specific interval defined in the grid square sizes. Processing information this way does not provide an appropriate visual on the number of shot that occurred within a grid sector... more>>

I arrived in Los Angeles, California on Friday, two days before the start of my program. Unfortunately, due to the flight delays, I could not move into my appartment upon arrival, for the housing offices were closed and the weekend was at hand. I moved into a hotel for two days. During these two days, I mostly visted the various streets that surrounded the hotel I was logging in. The most exciting were the restaurants I visited. Though they were mostly latinos, I also came across some others. I met with various people in the regions I lived. Most of them spoke primarily ... More>> Public transportation in LA was about $1.25. However, I seldom made use of this. Transportation to Marina Del Ray, where my research actually took place was by the University of Southern California transportation services. A shuttle was available at no cost each morning and each afternoon to help me move to and from Marina Del Ray. This was a daily routine where I left my apartment sometimes as early as 8:00 in the morning and was back no earlier than 5:30 in the evening. Marina Del Ray was quite far, but the free shuttle was helpful in swallowing the cost of any other transportation means. More>> Week ends were the only days I did not go to work. I sometimes did some work from home, but also got involved into other adventures. I used these days to know Los Angeles neighborhoods and other street. I took walks to explore different parts of the city, meeting different people, and visiting different restaurants. My last week end in LA, I took a trip to San Diego, a neighboring city. I visited some parks in San Diego and was accompanied by a friend who was spending... More>>