{"id":4579,"date":"2018-01-10T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-01-10T19:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/math-alumnus-spots-secrets-and-stories-hidden-in-numbers-and-big-data\/"},"modified":"2025-03-03T22:20:11","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T06:20:11","slug":"math-alumnus-spots-secrets-and-stories-hidden-in-numbers-and-big-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/math-alumnus-spots-secrets-and-stories-hidden-in-numbers-and-big-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Math alumnus spots secrets and stories hidden in numbers and big data"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n\n    \n                                \n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-hero \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-hero\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n<div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n          \n<div class=\"f--field f--image\">\n\n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n    \n              \n      <img\n                            data-src=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/04\/story-2735-768x432.jpg\"\n          data-srcset=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2023\/04\/story-2735-768x432.jpg 768w\"          data-sizes=\"(min-width:1200px) 75vw, (min-width:768px) 83vw, 100vw\"          class=\"lazyload\"\n        \n                  alt=\"Math alumnus spots secrets and stories hidden in numbers and big data\"\n        \n        \n                                      \/>\n\n    \n    \n  \n  \n\n<\/div>\n  \n  \n  <div class=\"text-wrapper\">\n          <nav aria-label=\"Breadcrumb\" class=\"breadcrumbs\">\n        <ul>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\">News<\/a><\/li>\n                      <li><a href=\"\/news\/stories\/\/?category=alumni\">Alumni<\/a><\/li>\n                  <\/ul>\n      <\/nav>\n    \n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--page-title\">\n\n    \n  <h1>Math alumnus spots secrets and stories hidden in numbers and big data<\/h1>\n\n\n<\/div>\n    \n          <div class=\"subtitle\">\n            \n<div class=\"f--field f--description\">\n\n    \n  Numbers ninja Bradley Rava \u201916 searches for insights in statistics, from risk for corporate cyber attacks to factors that influence horse races.\n\n\n<\/div>\n      <\/div>\n    \n           <strong class=\"author-field\"><span >By<\/span><a href=\"mailto:communication@dornsife.usc.edu\">Eric Lindberg<\/a><\/strong>\n    \n          <span class=\"post-date-field\">January 10, 2018<\/span>\n      <\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--social-share \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--social-share\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"content-wrapper\">\n    <span class=\"a2a_kit a2a_kit_size_32 addtoany_list\" style=\"line-height: 32px;\">\n      <span class=\"title\">\n        Share\n      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class=\"a2a_label visually-hidden\">Email<\/span>\n          <\/a>\n                  <\/span>\n  <\/div>\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n \n\n\n\n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--rich-text \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--rich-text\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n      \n<div class=\"f--field f--wysiwyg\">\n\n    \n  <p>In the multibillion-dollar world of horse racing, gamblers are always looking for a competitive edge.<\/p>\n<p>From insider tips on a horse\u2019s health to the track\u2019s soil condition, there are countless variables to consider before placing a bet with hopes of walking to the pay window.<\/p>\n<p>Sorting through that complex tangle of information is overwhelming to most people, but for Bradley Rava, it\u2019s an exciting challenge.<\/p>\n<p>Rava, who completed his undergraduate degree in <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/mathematics\/degree-requirements\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">applied and computational mathematics<\/a> at USC Dornsife in 2016, is now a first-year Ph.D. student in statistics at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.marshall.usc.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">USC Marshall School of Business<\/a>. He revels in unearthing valuable secrets hidden in massive data sets.<\/p>\n<p>Where others might only see reams of numbers, Rava sees a story waiting to be told. The 23-year-old draws inspiration from finding patterns that reveal something about the world around him.<\/p>\n<p>He recently crunched the numbers on more than 4,000 horse races in the United Kingdom to determine whether being assigned to a specific stall at the starting line can influence the chances of winning. His research, part of a class project during a fellowship at Yale University, revealed that three of the four tracks he analyzed had \u201cdraw bias.\u201d That\u2019s industry lingo for advantageous or unfavorable starting positions.<\/p>\n<p>He has used his analytic skills to study the likelihood that a cybercriminal might target a specific company. He is currently considering how to refine formulas used by companies like ESPN to predict the winner of a sporting event as the game unfolds.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere is a lot of math, and the math is incredibly important, but there is also a huge element of creativity,\u201d Rava said. \u201cThat is what separates people who might be good at analyzing data from those who can use data to tell a story and make some kind of meaningful impact on society.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>His ability to pull valuable information from big data sets caught the eye of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nsf.gov\">National Science Foundation<\/a>, which granted him a three-year research fellowship that covers his tuition at USC and provides other perks, like conference funding and access to a powerful quantum computer.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 450px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/migration-uploads\/Rava2-2735.jpg\" alt=\"Photo of Bradley Rava seated at a computer outside.\" width=\"450\" height=\"290\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Bradley Rava uses his math and data analysis skills to tell stories that could have a positive impact on society. (Photo by Eric Lindberg.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h2>What can you do with math?<\/h2>\n<p>He is still narrowing down his interests, which include machine learning, network analysis and high-dimensional statistics. But Rava said he was drawn to applied math and statistics in general because of their usefulness in virtually every field, from <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/bisc\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">biology<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/usc-neuroscience\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">neuroscience<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/econ\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">economics<\/a> and business.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverybody needs math,\u201d he said. \u201cIt\u2019s an underlying language that we can use to describe processes around us. It\u2019s cool to be able to jump into a new field and find something useful using that language.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That ability recently came in handy during the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.citadel.com\/careers\/the-data-open\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Citadel Data Open<\/a>, a regional \u201cdatathon\u201d held at Caltech that pitted teams of coders, programmers and data scientists against the clock in a race to analyze a large data set featuring transportation information from New York.<\/p>\n<p>Rava and his teammates, who included fellow USC Marshall Ph.D. student Michael Huang, spent hours hunched over their laptops in a fervent frenzy of coding, barely pausing to wolf down a quick lunch.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI get fairly competitive with these things, so it was pretty intense,\u201d Rava said. \u201cLuckily, we came up with something the judges liked, and we ended up winning. It was the best seven hours of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The judges cited their rigorous and logical approach to analyzing how Uber is gaining the edge over taxis in the city\u2019s outer boroughs, awarding them with $20,000 in cash and an invitation to the national competition in New York. They didn\u2019t win that event, but they\u2019re already planning strategies for the next showdown.<\/p>\n<h2>Using math and data to shape decisions<\/h2>\n<p>A native of El Segundo, Calif., Rava can\u2019t point to a specific moment in his life that sparked his interest in math. He admits he didn\u2019t grow up with an innate gift for analyzing numbers, but always enjoyed the struggle to solve a problem and reach a definitive answer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo be good at anything,\u201d he said, \u201cyou just need to work hard at it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He figured out quickly as an undergrad that he was more interested in applied math rather than what he terms pure math.<\/p>\n<p>Pure mathematicians, he said, find enjoyment in creating and refining analytic tools and theories with little consideration of how they might be used.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s super important and valuable,\u201d Rava said, \u201cbut I look at these tools and think, these are awesome because we can use them to understand the world around us and help shape policy and answer important questions.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>After finishing his undergraduate studies at USC Dornsife, he received a one-year Emerging Scholars Initiative Fellowship to attend Yale University, allowing him to take courses on various statistical strategies that bolstered his interest in real-world applications of math.<\/p>\n<p>Although he is still settling into his first year in the Ph.D. program, Rava envisions pursuing a research career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor now, I\u2019m exploring a lot of problems, being exposed to a lot of tools I didn\u2019t know about and learning as much as I can,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n  \n        \n  \n    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n<div\n  class=\"cc--component-container cc--article-related-stories \"\n\n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  \n  >\n  <div class=\"c--component c--article-related-stories\"\n    \n      >\n\n    \n  <div class=\"inner-wrapper\">\n    \n                  <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/masters-program-teaches-math-behind-artificial-intelligence\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >Training the minds behind the AI algorithm<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/three-million-dollar-research-training-group-award-mathematics\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >$3M NSF grant funds new USC Dornsife mathematics research and training program<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n              <article>\n              \n<div class=\"f--field f--cta-title\">\n\n    \n  <h3>\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/dornsife.usc.edu\/news\/stories\/new-natural-sciences-faculty-join-usc-fall-2024\/\" \n                        class=\"\" \n      >New faculty members further elevate USC Dornsife\u2019s natural sciences prowess<\/a>\n      <\/h3>\n\n\n<\/div>\n        <\/article>\n            <\/div>\n\n\n  <\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Numbers ninja Bradley Rava \u201916 searches for insights in statistics, from risk for corporate cyber attacks to factors that influence horse races.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":4582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[264,877,876,96,875],"class_list":["post-4579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alumni","tag-alumni","tag-applied-and-computational-mathematics","tag-bradley-rava","tag-natural-sciences","tag-statistics"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Math alumnus spots secrets and stories hidden in numbers and big data<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Numbers ninja Bradley Rava \u201916 searches for insights in statistics, from risk for corporate cyber attacks to factors that influence 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