Wayne Winston on Bauer Business Focus, March 14, 2014

Posted March 10th, 2014 - No Comments

On Bauer Business Focus — A conversation on sabermetrics with News 88.7 Business Reporter Andrew Schneider.

Wayne Winston, Decision & Information Sciences Clinical Assistant Professor at the C. T. Bauer College of Business at the University of Houston, has revolutionized the way analysis is done for basketball. Using sabermetrics, a tool to analyze baseball, Winston and his colleague Jeff Sagarin have developed a method based on how players change the score of the game to analyze players.

Winston recently stopped by Bauer Business Focus recently to discuss his experience in the mathematical analysis of sports.

“A really great basketball player during a 48 minute game would change the game 10 points in favor of his team, and a really bad player would change it five points against his team,” Winston said. “This lets us capture defense, but I still think a work in progress is trying to measure how good a basketball player is on defense. I think nobody’s really figured that out yet.”

Winston uses his expertise to teach a class on sports and math at Bauer. With March Madness coming up, Winston will be focusing on it in class and in his research.

“Usually when you run the odds on the final four right before the tournament begins, you would find out one team has over 20 percent chance to win and nobody else has over a 10 percent chance to win,” Winston said. “So, the team that I’ve got with a 25 or 26 percent chance to win at this point is Arizona.”

To hear the full interview, tune in to News 88.7 this Friday, March 14, 2014, at 6:35 and 8:35 a.m.

Flor Dimassi on Bauer Business Focus, March 7, 2014

Posted March 3rd, 2014 - No Comments

On Bauer Business Focus — A conversation on what it takes to go global in oil and gas with Andrew Schneider, business reporter for KUHF 88.7 FM.

Houston’s diversity has long reflected the oil and gas industry’s growing international presence. The availability of professionals from around the world offer an opportunity for translation services to be done right here in Houston.

Flor Dimassi, CEO of Global Speak Network, an oil and gas translation services company, recently stopped by Bauer Business Focus for a discussion on translating technical terminology for the global market.

“We started about 16 years ago and it became a surprise for us. There was a lot of demand to translate documents, heavy technical documents, operations manuals, videos. Then I realized we needed subject matter experts on the particular subjects we were translating,” Dimassi said.

Dimassi’s company translates many languages, but Portuguese, Spanish and Mandarin have been high in demand in recent years. Mexico recently announced it will open their oil and gas industry to foreign investment, boosting demand for Spanish language translation.

“We’re now getting a lot of work from companies who want to establish themselves in Mexico,” Dimassi added. “Everyone is getting ready to see how they’re going to participate with this new Mexican energy reform.”

Click here to hear the full interview.

Kent Eudy on Bauer Business Focus, February 28, 2014

Posted February 27th, 2014 - No Comments

On Bauer Business Focus — A conversation on creating the site of the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo with Andrew Schneider, business reporter for KUHF 88.7 FM.

The site of the Houston Rodeo goes from completely bare grounds to a complete site in a matter of weeks. One of the many companies responsible for putting it together is Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift of America, who represents forklift and truck companies, including primary rodeo sponsor Cat Lift Trucks.

Mitsubishi Caterpillar Forklift America Executive Vice President Kent Eudy stopped by Bauer Business Focus recently to talk about their role in creating the city’s largest annual event. The company heads all of the material handling, including concessions, ticket booths, fencing and pens. They receive requests from more than 100 rodeo committees.

“(Rodeo visitors) see our forklifts on the ground in Reliant Stadium during the transition between the rodeo and the actual concert itself. Our trucks are working on the grounds to bring out the auxiliary equipment to help with the stage,” Eudy said.

MCFA is in its tenth year as a rodeo sponsor. The equipment they provide is there from setup to teardown, but they also spend time working with students who enter the livestock and goods show competitions.

“We also spend a lot of time working with the young people who come in and display their goods,” Eudy said. “One of which is the agricultural mechanics group, which builds their own products then they come in and are judged so that they can potentially win scholarships. We provide 8-10 service engineers who act as the judges for that panel.”

Click here to hear the full interview.

Karr Ingham on Bauer Business Focus, Feb. 21, 2014

Posted February 20th, 2014 - No Comments

On Bauer Business Focus — A conversation on Houston’s oil and gas industry with Andrew Schneider, business reporter for KUHF 88.7 FM.

The Texas oil and gas industry has remained strong over the years, but with Texas’ crude oil production hitting its highest level in 30 years and gas prices on the rise, there are still many questions left unanswered.

Karr Ingham, petroleum economist for the Texas Alliance of Energy Producers, stopped by Bauer Business Focus recently to discuss how Houston’s oil and gas industry may see some changes in 2014.

“Employment levels for the exploration and production end remain very close to record levels. It may just be that we’re seeing a plateau in productivity in Texas. The number of rigs in 2013 was lower than in 2012, so there may be some expectations that prices may moderate and employment, although high, may be plateauing as we speak.”

But when will those prices drop?

“It may be that prices would be higher absent these fairly spectacular additions to supply,” Ingham said. “We have a somewhat improving economy domestically, the U.S. and the global economy, and any economic improvement is bullish in crude oil prices so again, it may be that prices would be higher, absent production, but I think we will likely see some mitigation in crude oil prices, perhaps in 2014.”

Click here to hear the full interview.