Jordi Mompart highlights the role of artificial intelligence in sport at the XIII GEFENOL-DIFENSC Summer School

• The XIII GEFENOL-DIFENSC Summer School gathered over thirty researchers from across Europe to explore how statistical physics helps explain complex phenomena in biology, ecology, networks, and social systems.
• In his closing lecture, Jordi Mompart (UAB) examined how artificial intelligence is reshaping sport through data analysis.
• Mompart connected these developments to the broader framework of complex systems physics and reflected on the value of fundamental research.

This year’s edition gathered more than thirty researchers from leading European institutions, including the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Universitat de Barcelona, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, Universitat de les Illes Balears, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, University Grenoble Alpes, and the CRM itself. This diversity of origins and disciplines underscores the school’s interdisciplinary character and its ongoing role as a forum where physics, biology, mathematics, and data science intersect.

The closing talk was delivered by Jordi Mompart, professor at the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), under the title Artificial intelligence in a sports club. Discussing the growing influence of AI, he identified two main areas where its impact is most evident: data analysis and smart stadiums. “In the world of sport, there are two verticals where data and artificial intelligence are beginning to have a very large impact,” he explained. “Tracking data, combined with artificial intelligence algorithms, is used for pre-match, post-match, and scouting analyses in a highly professional way.” He also highlighted how new technologies are changing the infrastructure of sport itself. “Many clubs are renovating or building new stadiums, and these stadiums have many devices. This is the world known as the Internet of Things,” he said. “These devices produce vast amounts of data that are highly relevant for maintenance, operations, and security.”

“Complex systems are everywhere. They can be found in the study of how cancer progresses in the body, in the movement of bees or bird migration, in market behaviour or social network interactions. But they also exist in the world of entertainment and in football.”

Mompart linked these transformations to the core concepts of complex systems physics, one of the main focuses of GEFENOL. “Complex systems are everywhere,” he noted. “They can be found in the study of how cancer progresses in the body, in the movement of bees or bird migration, in market behaviour or social network interactions. But they also exist in the world of entertainment and in football. We all know that individual players are important, but players form associations and ultimately constitute a complex system.”

He also underscored the role of basic research in driving today’s technological breakthroughs. “Things start in the academic world; then, if they work, they move into engineering and eventually reach the market,” he said. “Scientists who work deeply in a specific field of knowledge can see whether one day it will make its way to the market. Those who worked on the foundations of quantum computing knew that sooner or later it would emerge; the same is true for artificial intelligence.”

Mompart emphasised that academic training develops valuable skills applicable beyond research. “The fact that scientists attend conferences, teach, and can explain things in depth but clearly is very valuable,” he said. “These skills developed through research and teaching have been very useful to me in the business world. There’s a certain shortage of people with an academic background who have this analytical and explanatory ability.” For him, mastering the fundamentals of a discipline remains essential. “Having worked on the foundations of a field of knowledge is very rewarding, because there’s depth, there are mistakes, and you learn from mistakes,” he reflected. “Having gone through them before anyone else gives you a competitive advantage.”

With his talk, Mompart closed another edition of the GEFENOL‑DIFENSC Summer School, which continues to consolidate its status as a forum for interdisciplinary dialogue aimed at understanding the collective mechanisms that shape the world.

You can listen to the full interview on CRM’s YouTube channel.