Saturday, September 06, 2025

James Malachowski, Sports Columnist

University of Rhode Island men’s basketball coach Archie Miller is at the forefront of utilizing AI-powered technology to support the basketball program, and a URI alum is helping to make it happen.

AI technology is everywhere, and marketers love the term, with even routine, static computer programs being referred to as “AI.” The application URI is using claims to be robust, deeply technical, data-rich, with independent program learning, and is a highly advanced artificial intelligence application. 

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A URI Alum is behind this

Roby Luna graduated from URI in 2000 with a BS in MIS (Management Information Systems). He is the President and one of the founders of Aretec, Inc., which is a technology company that provides data science, cloud services, and AI-powered solutions to government agencies and commercial clients. It specializes in using data to improve decision-making.

That is what Luna does for a living. Here is what he does for fun. Luna is also a co-founder of Slam Sports AI. He and others have applied their expertise in mining, analyzing, and presenting data to support decision-making to the field of college basketball.

Miller’s comments on the value of the AI platform

When asked about their AI initiative and Luna, Coach Miller said, “The technology created by Slam Sports offers a cutting-edge tool for player-performance evaluation. On and off the court, the game is moving faster than ever. When you find a tool that can speed up various evaluation needs, it helps us become more efficient in all of our work.”

Miller continued, “As an alum, Roby Luna has a clear affinity for URI. When he presented the potential uses of Slam Sport, being a part of this pilot program made sense. His understanding of data analytics and how it could benefit the basketball program made this a very useful tool.”

How does it work?

Slam Sports harvests videos of college basketball players and uses a proprietary AI software platform that “reads” and analyzes video to produce individual scouting reports on players. Coaches no longer have to spend hours and hours watching films to develop an assessment of a prospect. Instead, they receive a detailed and customized data-driven report on every prospect they are interested in.

This time-saving service is incredibly valuable in the era of the Transfer Portal, where a team may be looking at 100 players and has a short time to make decisions.

The data analysis and report on each player includes several items, including.

Foot speed
Athleticism
Acceleration
Passing accuracy
Decision making
Shooting from different distances
Movement without the ball
Off-ball defense
Transition from offense to defense
Transition from defense to offense
Reaction to missed shots
And more

The report on a player also includes “Sentiment Analysis.” Under this heading, factors such as body language, the player’s reaction when they are beaten on defense, their reaction when taken out of a game, a player’s mannerisms after a coach talks with them, how a player behaves on the bench, and other physical responses to activities on the court.

Wait, there is more

The player analysis and reports are not simply based on the athlete’s general performance. The analysis is based on a customized platform of Miller’s specific preferences for each aspect of playing basketball.

After lengthy discussions with Miller, Slam Sports creates a digital agent – an avatar, if you will, which represents Miller’s thesis for every component of playing basketball. A player’s performance is analyzed against Miller’s digital agent.

The software program that completes this task is high-level AI as it self-learns, refining its program and evolving as it analyzes players against the avatar.

Example of the AI platform in use

During this transfer period, URI was looking for a big man. They were aware of a center that played overseas. Traveling overseas to see a player firsthand is not something URI is going to do. Traditionally, coaches would review game films. However, a player’s performance is highly dependent on the talent level they are playing against, which can sometimes be difficult to determine when only watching film.

Slam Sports ran the player’s game film through their program and within minutes produced an analysis. The report revealed that the player’s foot speed and athleticism were insufficient to be competitive in the A-10, and his decision-making was suspect. URI moved off this player, saving time and avoiding the waste of NIL money and a roster spot.

Recruiting from the portal

This year, 2,700 college basketball players entered the transfer portal. That is an enormous number of players to look at and analyze. The first step for a basketball program is to identify the players it has the potential to recruit. The coaching staff then focuses on a selected group of players. If last year, URI focused on 100 to 200 players with the AI tool, they can look at twice as many and do it quickly.

Slam Sports also provides the service of identifying players whom URI may have overlooked. In harvesting their player data, Slam Sports may find a qualified player that URI did not have on its list to explore.

URI player evaluations

The AI analytics tool is also being used to evaluate current URI players for the purpose of player development. Basketball practices are videotaped and, along with game footage, are run through the AI program. Coaches and players receive detailed reports, which are used to identify specific areas for improvement that will be tracked throughout the year.

Scouting opponents

Slam Sports has been collecting videos of players on the teams URI will be competing against this year. These videos, along with current game videos, will be used to analyze opponents, producing a data-rich but consumable scouting report prior to every game.

More about Luna

Luna provides Slam Sports AI services to URI at no cost. It’s his way of giving back to the University he loves and feels indebted to.  Luna’s parents immigrated to the United States from the Dominican Republic when he was a young boy. He grew up in Providence, attending Central High School.

He was a gifted athlete with dreams of playing in Major League Baseball. However, he lost his singular focus on this goal and succumbed to distractions. So, it was off to the U.S. Army after high school.

After his time in the armed services, URI’s Talent Development Program, which is designed to give students from underperforming high schools or with disadvantaged backgrounds the opportunity to attend URI, became aware of Luna and accepted him into the program.

In talking about the Talent Development Program, Luna said, “I was ill-prepared for the rigors of college. But my advisor at the time, Sharon Forleo, was instrumental in helping me to stay the course. I am forever grateful to her for helping me push forward and try to achieve my dream of making a dent in the universe.”

Luna further said, “I will forever bleed Rhody blue.” In addition to these latest efforts with the basketball team, Luna serves on the URI Board of Trustees and Chairs the Committee on Institutional Risk and Compliance.

What’s next

Luna believes his AI program and analysis system are capable of providing real-time in-game analysis. The first five minutes of a game are generally a time when teams are feeling each other out, and coaches are evaluating how their game strategy is working. Although Slam Sports does not currently have the functionality, Luna envisions that in the near future, after the first five minutes of a game, the coaching staff will be given a detailed analysis of the game generated by its AI platform.

Real or magic

So, is this all real, or is it magic? Was Luna the lucky one who was walking across the Quad and found the pouch of magic dust some wizard left behind? Or has this all happened due to the intersection of hard work, perseverance, and the award-winning Talent Development Program at URI?

You will need to decide.

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Among the eight candidates looking to connect with voters in Pittsboro this fall is Ashley Gross, an artificial intelligence advocate, consultant and course creator.

Gross filed to run for the town government’s Board of Commissioners in July, joining a crowded race to replace the outgoing Pamela Baldwin and James Vose. A resident of the Vineyards neighborhood of Chatham Park, she works as a keynote speaker and consultant for businesses looking to learn more about AI practices in the emerging technology space, leading her own consulting company and working as the CEO of the organization AI Workforce Alliance.

In an email with Chapelboro, Gross described herself as “a mom who loves this little corner of the world we call home” and committed to the area. When describing her motivation to run — in which she incorrectly stated she was running for a county commissioner seat — she said helping the greater Pittsboro community feel connected and supported with a variety of resources is key amid the town’s ongoing growth.

“I see the push and pull between people who have called Chatham home for generations and those who are just discovering it,” Gross said. “I believe that our differences are not barriers. They are opportunities to learn from each other. My strength is sitting down with people, even when we disagree, and finding the common ground we share. I am a researcher and an experimenter by nature, and I have seen that the most successful communities are built when people come together around shared interests and goals. That is the kind of leadership I want to bring, one that unites us instead of dividing us.”

Gross cited uplifting small businesses to help maintain the local economy as a key priority, as well as public safety and investments into local infrastructure.

“Safe roads, modern emergency response systems, and preparation for the weather risks we face mean families can feel secure no matter what comes our way,” she said. “And as we grow, I will focus on smart development that keeps our small town character intact while building the infrastructure we need for the future.”

Other priorities the Pittsboro resident listed as having strong local schools, improving partnerships with local colleges and expanding reliable internet to each home and business — all issues that fall more under the purview of the Chatham County government more than the town government.

When describing what she is looking forward to during her campaign for Pittsboro’s Board of Commissioners, Gross wrote that she wants to hear directly from residents about their “concerns, hopes and ideas” while listening and using “data and common sense” to inform her policy decisions.

“Every choice I make,” Gross wrote, “will be guided by a simple question: will this keep our families safe, connected, and thriving? At the end of the day, I am just a mom who believes Chatham is at its best when we work as one community, where families stay close, opportunities grow here, and every neighbor feels they belong.”

Gross will be on the ballot along with Freda Alston, Alex M. Brinker, Corey Forrest, Candace Hunziker, Tobais Palmer, Nikkolas Shramek and Tiana Thurber. The top two commissioner candidates to receive votes will serve four-year terms on the five-seat town board alongside Pittsboro Mayor Kyle Shipp — who is running unopposed for re-election.

Election Day for the 2025 fall cycle will be Tuesday, Nov. 4, with early voting in Chatham County’s municipal elections beginning on Thursday, Oct. 10.

Featured image via Ashley Gross.

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Called AlphaEarth Foundations, the geospatial AI model pulls together satellite images and other environmental data to create a single picture of the planet, according to a blog post.

Satellites orbiting Earth collect large amounts of information every day. While this data is valuable, it’s often stored in many different formats and comes from different times and sensors, making it hard to combine.

AlphaEarth Foundations acts like a “virtual satellite” that can merge all this information into one consistent view, the post said.

For example, the model can see through persistent clouds in Ecuador to map agricultural plots in various stages of development, according to the post. It can also map the surface of Antarctica, normally a tough place to image.

The AI model can spot changes in land use, such as new construction, deforestation or crop growth, in 10-meter squares, per the post. It also stores the information much more efficiently, using 16 times less space than comparable AI systems.

To make it available to the public, Google is releasing yearly snapshots from 2017 through 2024 in a new Satellite Embedding dataset within Google Earth Engine. This dataset contains more than 1.4 trillion data points each year and is ready to use without extra processing work, the post said.

Over 50 organizations have already tested the system, including the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, Stanford University, Oregon State University and others, according to the post.

For example, the Global Ecosystems Atlas, an initiative that aims to comprehensively map and monitor the world’s ecosystems, is using AlphaEarth Foundations to help countries classify unmapped ecosystems into categories such as coastal shrublands, per the post. In Brazil, environmental mapping group MapBiomas is using the tool to track farmland and forest changes.

However, even though the model is a “cutting-edge technological breakthrough” in Earth mapping, it is dependent on high-quality satellite data, according to a GoGeomatics Canada blog post.

“While it is known for effectively filling gaps in missing or incomplete data, interpreting poor-quality inputs in critical situations can lead to misdirection,” the post said.

Read also: T-Mobile and SpaceX to Test Satellite-to-Cell Service

How AlphaEarth Foundations Works

AlphaEarth Foundations combines information from many different satellite and environmental sources into one clear, consistent picture of Earth. It works a bit like stitching together thousands of puzzle pieces into a single image, except the puzzle pieces come from different satellites, sensors and even time periods.

The system takes in a variety of public data, including the following:

• Optical satellite photos, like those available on Google Earth
• Radar scans that can penetrate cloud cover
• 3D laser mapping
• Climate and environmental readings, such as temperature and rainfall
• Elevation maps and gravity measurements
• Descriptive information linked to locations

It treats the images from the same location over time like frames in a video. This lets it “understand” changes through the seasons or from one year to the next, like crops being planted and harvested, forests being cleared or cities expanding, the Deepmind blog post said.

AlphaEarth Foundations then condenses all this into what Google called a “64-dimensional representation” for each 10-meter square, whether land or coastal water.

Consider that 3D only provides latitude, longitude and elevation; 64 dimensions provide richer detail, not just location but also appearance, environment and behavior over time.

“What is interesting is that they’re able to get down to 10-by-10 meter squares, which is phenomenal,” Christopher Seeger, professor and extension specialist of landscape architecture and geospatial technology at Iowa State University, told The Register. “It’s going to be great for decision makers.”

“This breakthrough enables scientists to do something that was impossible until now: create detailed, consistent maps of our world, on demand,” the DeepMind blog post said. “…[T]hey no longer have to rely on a single satellite passing overhead. They now have a new kind of foundation for geospatial data.”

The system can be used for many purposes, including monitoring wildfires, tracking water levels in reservoirs and spotting urban growth. It can also help create detailed maps with fewer samples, saving time and resources.

Google plans to explore combining AlphaEarth Foundations with its Gemini multimodal model to expand the system’s capabilities further.

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