Learn more about this 2026 Madison Trust Project
SportSavvy by JMU: Integrating AI, Experiential Learning, and Community Engagement
Presenters
Dr. Sandy Manjunath | manju2sx@jmu.edu Assistant Professor, Hart School, College of Business
Abstract
SportSavvy will be an Al-driven tournament management platform designed to simplify how local communities organize, schedule, and promote sporting events. By automating time-intensive tasks such as team registration, bracket creation, and result tracking, the tool reduces administrative costs and increases participation. Developed collaboratively by JMU students, faculty, and industry mentors, SportSavvy serves as both a community resource and an experiential learning laboratory. Through this initiative, Computer Science program (CS) and Hart School of Hospitality, Spart, and Recreation Management students will gain real-world experience in sport technology, data analytics, and event management. Designed as an interdisciplinary learning project, it provides students with real-world experience at the intersection of technology and sports management. The project ultimately aims to make organizing community sports smarter, more inclusive, and more sustainable.
Project
The Need and Opportunity: Across parks, schools, and recreation centers, the appetite for local sport is strong, but the people who make competition possible are burning out. Organizing even a modest tournament requires hours of manual scheduling, field/court assignments, rule compliance, communications, score reporting, and payments. As experienced organizers step away, communities see fewer events, shorter seasons, and declining participation. Existing software alternatives are either priced for elite clubs, designed for national governing bodies, or too complex for volunteers and small departments. The result is a gap: community organizers need a simple, affordable, innovative tool that fits their world. Our Solution: SportSavvy will be an AI-driven tournament management platform that streamlines the entire lifecycle of a community event, from registration to intelligent scheduling, bracket creation, live scoring, and results sharing. Built with and for local organizers, the platform will reduce administrative time and costs while raising the quality and consistency of the participant experience. The first live pilot, a UREC basketball
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tournament, will allow us to validate features in a real setting, stress-testing automated scheduling, on-site scorekeeping, and communications, then refine the product with user feedback, software malfunctions, and necessary upgrades. Overall, SportSavvy will combine smart software with hands-on education to revitalize community sport. SportSavvy will be developed at JMU, driven by students, and designed to evolve with every season. Why it’s Innovative: AI where it matters: Instead of generic tools, SportSavvy employs scheduling logic tuned to real constraints: limited courts/fields, fair rest periods, officials’ availability, and travel/time windows. 1. Community-first design: The interface will be built around small staffs and volunteers. Organizers will be able to launch events in minutes, not days. 2. Local insights: Over time, anonymized participation patterns help departments choose formats (e.g., 3v3 vs. 5v5), optimize time blocks, and plan facility use more effectively. 3. Built for teaching and research: Every feature doubles as a learning object where students can examine algorithms, user flows, operations, and outcomes, turning sport tech from a concept into a living lab. Interdisciplinary by Design: This project brings two distinct disciplines together in a way that mirrors the modern sport industry. Computer Science program students will lead software architecture, data models, UX prototyping, testing, and AI/automation features. Hart School (Sport & Recreation Management) students will drive event operations, officiating workflows, fan and participant communications, and market research with recreation departments and clubs. Faculty co-mentors guide both tracks, ensuring rigor and real-world relevance. The result: a single, integrated product where technology and sport operations are co- created. Competitive Landscape and Why It’s Not Enough: Several platforms occupy adjacent spaces: SportsEngine, LeagueApps, Tourney Machine, GotSport, and TeamSnap Tournaments. These tools can be powerful, but for many community organizers they are cost-prohibitive, feature-heavy, or tuned to travel/elite programs rather than neighborhood play. Others require long contracts, complex setup, or add-on fees for capabilities (e.g., payments, messaging, live scoring) that small events need day one. SportSavvy’s edge is fit and focused: streamlined workflows, education pricing, and community-ready defaults that reduce training time and eliminate hidden costs. Sustainability and Growth: Madison Trust support ($25,000) funds a working beta, the UREC pilot, and an initial series of community events in high-interest sports (e.g., basketball, pickleball, flag football). From there, we will: • Institutionalize the Lab: Make SportSavvy a standing course/lab experience, with annual cohorts improving features, dashboards, and training modules.
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• Build Revenue Responsibly: Offer campus/community tiers, event-based pricing, or partner licenses that keep costs low for local organizers and help fund continued student engagement. • Expand Thoughtfully: Add modules (officials’ management, facility reservations, youth safety compliance) based on user demand and student research. Why Now? Why JMU? JMU is uniquely positioned to lead this space with deep expertise in sport operations (Hart School), strong technical talent (CS), a culture of experiential learning, and a community network ready to pilot. As organizers dwindle and participation wanes, SportSavvy can reverse the trend, making tournaments easier to run and more enjoyable to play, while turning JMU into a place where sport innovation and student learning intersect, year after year.
Benefit to JMU
Benefits to James Madison University •
Experiential Learning at Scale: SportSavvy becomes a recurring lab and/or course project, offering year-round practicums in software development, event management, analytics, marketing, and user research. • Recruitment & Reputation: A visible, student-built platform that powers real tournaments positions JMU as a national leader in applied sport-technology education. • Research Output: Faculty-student teams will generate conference presentations, white papers, and case studies on community sport analytics, scheduling optimization, user experience, and workforce development. • Cross-Campus Collaboration: Beyond CS and the Hart School, the project invites contributions from Business (pricing, go-to-market), Design (UI/visual identity), and Data Science (predictive insights). • Community Impact: Local partners (UREC, Parks & Recreation, schools, clubs) gain an accessible tool that increases participation and lowers costs strengthening JMU’s civic footprint.
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Projected Budget
Personnel:
$6,000
Travel:
$2,000
Equipment:
$3,000
Supplies and materials:
$4,000
Postage and Printing:
$1,000
Speakers’ Honoraria:
$1,000
Other:
$8,000
Total:
$25,000
• Personnel: Student research assistants, project interns, and graduate assistants supporting testing, analytics, and marketing. • Travel: Local and regional travel to community sport sites and partner organizations for pilot testing. • Equipment: Laptops, servers, and licensed AI software tools required for the prototype build. • Supplies and materials: Marketing, event logistics, community outreach materials, and pilot activation costs. • Postage and printing: Design and printing of promotional and educational materials for community engagement. • Speakers’ Honoraria: Guest experts in sport technology, event management, or AI applications for student workshops. • Other: Contracted software development services, cloud hosting, and long-term maintenance during the pilot phase. o Developer Contract (part-time) - Coding & backend development - $4,500 o Cloud Hosting & Database - AWS/Azure subscription - $1,500 o AI & API Licenses - AI scheduling / analytics integration - $700 o Domain + SSL - Professional domain & secure access - $150 o UX / Project Tools - Design, management, version control - $400 o Maintenance & Testing - Pilot upkeep, troubleshooting - $750 This detailed budget demonstrates efficient use of funds across technical development, student engagement, and community impact. The allocation ensures that the project can deliver a functional AI prototype, provide hands-on experiential learning for
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students, and establish sustainable community partnerships. Each expenditure directly supports innovation, implementation, and dissemination of outcomes.
With partial funding, SportSavvy would focus on building a minimum viable product —a working prototype that automates core functions, such as registration, scheduling, and results tracking. This version would be tested through a pilot tournament at JMU's URec facility, with limited features, providing students with hands-on experience in software testing, event operations, and data analytics. Even at a smaller scale, the project would still achieve meaningful outcomes: cross-disciplinary collaboration between Computer Science and Hart School students, a real-world proof of concept, and the foundation for expanding SportSavvy into a recurring experiential learning lab that grows year after year.
Project Team
• Project Lead: Dr. Sandhya Manjunath – Assistant Professor, Hart School of Hospitality, Sport and Recreation Management. Dr. Manjunath brings over 15 years of experience in sport event operations and management, having led student experiential learning programs across major NCAA and international sporting events. Her leadership ensures the SportSavvy project bridges academic research with real-world application, offering JMU students a hands-on opportunity in sport technology and community engagement. • Computer Science Collaborator: Dr. Chris Johnson – Professor, Computer Science, College of Integrated Science and Engineering. Dr. Johnson brings 23 years of experience and scholarly interest and expertise in computer graphics, programming languages, mobile development, and computational fabrication. • Student Collaborator: Emma Bacon – Undergraduate Student, Sport and Recreation Management. Emma is an active leader within the Hart School, with practical experience in officiating and event coordination across several cities along the East Coast. Her involvement brings valuable insight into tournament logistics, rule compliance, and participant experience, ensuring the SportSavvy platform meets the needs of real-world organizers and users. • Technical Collaborator: Dr. Chandan Ganesh – AI Scientist and Software Development Advisor. Dr. Ganesh is an accomplished researcher with over 30 peer-reviewed publications in the fields of biomedical data science and artificial intelligence. As a passionate advocate for applied technology, he will serve as the project’s technical resource person, advising on software architecture, algorithmic design, and data ethics to build a robust and scalable AI-driven tournament management tool.
Supplemental Materials
• Sports Information Systems: A systematic review: https://reference- global.com/article/10.2478/ijcss-2021-0001
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