Determining the Optimal Design of Collegiate Ballroom Competitions
Faculty Sponsor
Tiffany Kolba
College
Arts and Sciences
Discipline(s)
Statistics
Presentation Type
Poster Presentation
Symposium Date
Spring 5-3-2019
Abstract
Collegiate ballroom competitions are a pastime that many students enjoy when they are not busy with academic work. This research seeks to evaluate collegiate ballroom competitions in a few categories: song length impact on judge agreement, investigation of round structuring, and factors that influence variation in judging. Various statistical tests are applied to evaluate these questions using data from collegiate competitions in the Midwest from 2015-2017 from O2cm.com. It is often assumed that longer song lengths in the first round would be beneficial to increasing judge agreement, but perhaps other factors such as number of heats, number of judges, and age of judges could have some influence. The results of this research could result in modifications to the structure of Valparaiso University's next home competition, ValpoComp 2020.
Recommended Citation
Metcalfe, Jonathan, "Determining the Optimal Design of Collegiate Ballroom Competitions" (2019). Symposium on Undergraduate Research and Creative Expression (SOURCE). 801.
https://scholar.valpo.edu/cus/801
Biographical Information about Author(s)
Jonathan Metcalfe is a Statistics and Economics double major who enjoys spending his free time competing in collegiate ballroom competitions. His experiences in ballroom have led him to wonder if competitions are designed optimally. He hopes this research contributes towards the future success of collegiate ballroom competitions in the Midwest.