Research

The Columbia-Dream Sports AI Innovation Center supports technically ambitious, application-driven research at the intersection of AI and sports. Current areas of inquiry include reinforcement learning, generative modeling, biomechanics, and user-centric optimization.

Some of the center’s ongoing research projects include: 

dollar icon
Budget-Constrained Promotions

This project develops a transformer-based framework for personalized promotion delivery under dynamic budget constraints. By leveraging autoregressive sequence modeling and generative pretraining techniques, it overcomes the scalability and retraining limitations of conventional CMDPs and Q-learning. Key innovations include dynamic adjustment of user cost thresholds and self-attention-based credit assignment to identify high-impact user segments.

line-chart icon
Dynamic Catalog Optimization for Contest Generation

This work introduces a state-dependent framework for dynamic contest design. Integrating behavioral models of user selection, demand forecasting, and real-time event triggers, the system adaptively modifies contest offerings to optimize engagement and mitigate cannibalization. The project combines robust stochastic programming with reinforcement learning for live optimization under high-dimensional constraints.

heartbeat icon
Cardiovascular Health Monitoring in Athletes with Ultrasound

This project extends Pulse Wave Imaging (PWI), a high-frame-rate ultrasound technique, to both central and peripheral arteries, enabling real-time, non-invasive vascular health monitoring during exercise. It integrates unsupervised deep learning for elasticity and pressure estimation and is advancing toward miniaturized, wearable ultrasound sensors using PMUT arrays.

video-camera icon
Motor Learning Through Robotics

This research leverages a robotics testbed (RobUST) to improve motor skill acquisition through assist-as-needed training. Using real-time EMG, EEG, motion capture, and force plate data, the system characterizes expert-novice motion differentials and applies machine learning to generate adaptive, personalized force feedback profiles for movement correction and retention.

connectdevelop icon
AI-Optimization for User Behavior Modeling

This project formulates a data-driven, behaviorally aware optimization pipeline to manage contest recommendation and user retention strategies. It explicitly incorporates peak experience effects—sustained engagement after single wins—into RL-based engagement maximization, balancing short-term actions with long-term user value.

Hongseok Namkoong

Assistant Professor of Business Decision, Risk & Operations Div.
Columbia Business School

AI Agents Optimizing Long-term Objectives


Lydia Chilton

Assistant Professor of Computer Science

Simulating Fan Experiences with Multi-Agent LLMs


Kostis Kaffes

Assistant Professor of Computer Science

From Noisy Signals to Clear Decisions: Optimizing Long-Term Outcomes with Relative Feedback and Causal Inference


James Anderson

Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering

Multimodal Tabular Language Models for Sports Time Series


Yunzhu Li

Assistant Professor of Computer Science

Physics-Informed Neural Simulators for Dynamics Modeling in Complex Systems


Steven Feiner

Professor of Computer Science

Silvia Sellán

Assistant Professor of Computer Science

3D Geometry Learning for Extended Reality Guidance of Rock Climbing Poses


Henry Lam

Associate Professor of Industrial and Operational Research

Calibrating and Dissecting System-Level Simulators for User Policy Optimization
 

Vineet Goyal

Professor of Industrial and Operational Research 

Will Ma

Associate Professor of Business Decision, Risk & Operations Div.
Columbia Business School

Calibrating and Dissecting System-Level Simulators for User Policy Optimization

 

Vineet Goyal

Professor of Industrial and Operational Research 

Henry Lam

Associate Professor of Industrial and Operational Research

User Behavior Modeling via AI-Optimization Integration

 

Shipra Agrawal

Associate Professor of Industrial and Operational Research

Reinforcement Learning for dynamic contest design and catalogue optimization

 

Dan Rubenstein

Professor of Computer Science

Vijay Pappu

Professor of Computer Science

A Sequential Modeling Approach to Budget Constraint Promotions At Dream Sports

 

Sunil Agrawal

Professor of Mechanical Engineering 

Accelerating Motor Learning and Skills Acquisition in Sports Using Robotics

 

Elisa Konofagou

Professor of Biomedical Engineering 

Monitoring Cardiovascular Health in Athletes during Exercise with Ultrasound

Research