Advantages:
· Results communicated electronically to internet
· Reduces errors and increases accuracy
· For use with hand-held mobile devices
Background
Many competitions, ranging from academic science bowls to soccer, tennis, and basketball, are organized as tournaments. As the teams or individuals compete against each other in a match they advance to the next round. Maintaining and disseminating the results is essential for all participants, officials, and spectators. Academic competitions typically have 30 minute rounds with just a few minutes between rounds. Given the size of an event, the matches can be spread out in location and time. Efficient communication of the results is very important for making a tournament run smoothly. When the competitors complete a match they need to know the time and location of their next match. The results should be distributed to all match locations as quickly as possible to keep everyone informed.
Tournaments consist of a series of rounds with multiple matches per round. Winning teams advance to the next round. Losing teams are either eliminated (single elimination) or move to consolation rounds (double elimination). The presentations of tournament pairings within rounds are known as brackets. Given the proliferation of the Internet and mobile devices, displaying the brackets over the Web is the most efficient means of showing tournament results. The brackets also indicate the time, location, and opponent of the next match. Showing the results on the Web enables everyone involved to see the results from anywhere instead of having to return to a centralized scoreboard after every round. This means participants can move directly from one match to another without having to return to a central location. All participants benefit from reduced travel time. This is particularly helpful when a team plays consecutive matches at the same location in a short period of time.
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL)
The U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) is a Collaborative National Center for plasma and fusion science. Its primary mission is to develop the scientific understanding and the key innovations which will lead to an attractive fusion energy source. Associated missions include conducting world-class research along the broad frontier of plasma science and providing the highest quality of scientific education.
Inventors
Eliot Feibush is a scientist in the Computational Plasma Physics Group at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory. He is developing software to visualize data from fusion experiments and simulations. His visualization work includes designing and installing the Display Wall in the Princeton University Lewis Science
Library and the collaborative display in the PPPL Control Room. Prior to joining PPPL, he has developed graphics, visualizations, and user interfaces for architectural design, medical imaging, and geospatial/situational awareness applications. He has published journal articles on modeling, rendering, and visualization. Eliot received his B. Architecture (1979) and M.S. in computer graphics (1981) from Cornell University.
Andrew Zwicker is the Head of the Science Education Department at PPPL. A Fellow of the American Physical Society, The American Association of Physics Teachers has named him to its list of 75 leading contributors to physics education. He is currently the Editor of the APS Forum on Physics and Society's newsletter and a past chair of that Forum. Additionally, he is a past member of the APS Committee on Education. At Princeton University he is a lecturer in the Writing Program and a faculty advisor for freshmen and sophomores. He received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University.
Princeton is seeking to identify appropriate partners for the further development and commercialization of this technology.
Contact
Michael R. Tyerech
Princeton University Office of Technology Licensing • (609) 258-6762• tyerech@princeton.edu
Laurie Bagley
Princeton University Office of Technology Licensing • (609) 258-5579• lbagley@princeton.edu