The future begins now for data science at Miami University

By Miami University

March 20^th, 2024

Dedication of McVey Data Science building draws big crowd, notable guests

Miami University President Gregory Crawford welcomes the community to the March 14 dedication of the McVey Data Science building.

Welcome to the future.

With those words, Miami University President Gregory Crawford set the stage — quite literally — for the dedication of the McVey Data Science building. President Crawford delivered his remarks from the facility’s Extended Reality (XR) Stage, one of the groundbreaking features found in Miami’s cutting-edge building located along Tallawanda Road.

Members of the Miami community filled McVey Data Science on Thursday, March 14, with others watching virtually via livestream, to formally celebrate the grand opening of the 92,000-square-foot-facility, which is fostering collaboration, crossing disciplinary boundaries, and inspiring Miami students and faculty to innovate with its state-of-the-art technology.

“When I walk in this building, I just want to invent and discover and create,” President Crawford said as the XR Stage generated a combination of augmented, mixed, and virtual realities on two large screens for viewers in McVey’s first-floor atrium.

The future begins now for data science at Miami University

Rick McVey ’81, the building’s namesake, and Billy Beane, the baseball executive whose data-driven approach was popularized through both the best-selling book and Academy Award-nominated film “Moneyball,” also took to the XR Stage throughout the event.

McVey’s lead gift of $20 million was at the center of the building’s creation. The founder and executive chairman of MarketAxess, a leading electronic trading platform for global bond markets, was co-captain of Miami’s 1981 Mid-American Conference men’s golf championship team and also served on the university’s foundation board.

His time at Miami was transformational, McVey said, and led not only to the gift for the new building but to supporting the men’s golf team and the Farmer School of Business with scholarships as well.

“I’ve come a long way from a small town in northeastern Ohio, but I’ve also held close those values of education, hard work, and personal responsibility,” McVey said.

Rick McVey '81 speaks at the March 14 dedication of McVey Data Science. McVey was the lead donor for the new building.

Conversations for Miami’s home for data science started in the summer of 2020 with what McVey called a “common vision” between himself and President Crawford. Things moved quickly, from the groundbreaking in fall 2021 to students utilizing the building for the first time in January of this year.

“Here we are in this beautiful new building that will serve Miami students so well for many decades to come,” McVey said.

Many, and varied, Miami students, too. The building is intended to create a spirit of collaboration across divisions and departments.

Among those operating at McVey are the Department of Statistics, the Department of Emerging Technology in Business + Design, and the Department of Computer Science and Software Engineering, as well as the Center for Analytics and Data Science and the Lilly Leadership Institute. Information Systems and Analytics also has a presence in the building.

Tours were given during Thursday’s open house, including stops at the Experiential Learning Lab, the User Experience (UX) Lab, the Virtual Reality Lab, and the Cybersecurity Lab.

“This is our future, right here tonight,” President Crawford said.

“It’s very exciting to open this fantastic space up and have so many disciplines here all working together. You’re really going to see the talent that we have here at Miami University.”

Beane got a sneak preview of some of that talent before joining David Seidl, Miami’s vice president for information technology and chief information officer, for a chat on the XR Stage. Beane met with students in the Department of Sport Leadership and Management for a pre-dedication conversation.

President Crawford noted students ran production for the event. “That’s what makes Miami such a special place,” he said.

“Special” is also a word that could be used to describe Beane. The inspiration behind both the book and film “Moneyball,” Beane shattered the long-held assumption that higher payrolls in baseball meant more wins. A multiple-time Executive of the Year with the Oakland Athletics, Beane was a first-round draft pick who later found great success in the front office for his analytical approach to the game.

“I passed the eye test,” Beane said of his career as a player. “I knew the whole time this was really a classic case of an overvalued asset. I was coming up playing with guys who didn’t necessarily pass the eye test but passed the data test.”

David Seidl, left, Miami's vice president for information technology, leads a conversation with Billy Beane, right. Beane is a pioneer in using data analytics in Major League Baseball and was the subject of the bestselling book "Moneyball."

During their more than 20-minute talk, Seidl asked Beane questions ranging from his way of evaluating players to how ethics fit into data.

The business of baseball used to be more of a closed environment, and if you played the game, “you inherited the business,” Beane said.

Now, the sport competes with companies like Google and Goldman Sachs for talented, data-oriented employees.

“I want the same skills that come out of this place,” Beane said.

Beane’s advice on not letting opinion cloud decision-making was “wisdom worth writing down,” Seidl told the crowd.

“You need to get out of your own way when you’re looking at data,” Seidl noted.

A brief Q-and-A session with Beane, McVey, and President Crawford concluded the presentation portion of the evening.

“None of this would have been possible without the generous gift of Rick McVey,” President Crawford said. “We’re just so grateful and so appreciative.”