ONLY AT THE MICHIGAN STATE CHAMPIONSHIP

[Jim Zondag]

Originally Posted by efoote868

Could you elaborate on what Signal / Noise Ratio is in this context, and how it is calculated?

Signal to Noise Ratio is used a lot in engineering methods were physical phenomena are measured for quality. It is used in communications, electonics and recently is used a lot in quality methods to measure the quality of processes and components. SNR (or S/N) is a logarithmic value measured in dB.

It turns out that methods for measuring quality in the world of Engineering and Manufacturing can be easily applied to sports. Another great opportunity for crossover learning in the world of STEM/FRC.

SNR give you a ratio of variabliy compared to the level of the signal you are measuring. In this case I am using Average Event OPR as the measurment of interest. The higher the SNR value, the more "competatively balanced" the event is, meaning that the distribution of the capability of teams is tighter than at an event with a lower SNR value.

Example, Compare Central Valley with Alamo. Both have nearly identical average OPR numbers for the event, (15.4, 15.2), however the distribution of OPRs for the teams at Alamo was much broader than at Central Valley.
What this a higher SNR means is that the event not likely as dominated by a few good teams, but instead was much more balanced competitively.

On these scatter graphs, Higher is means better overall event scoring ability, points to the right have better competitive balance.

I plan to write a paper on this, if I can ever find the time.
I use this same method to measure many factors in FRC competitive analysis, from the quality of individual teams, team quality growth over time, game design comparisons, and more. Fun with math.