Welcome!

My name is Aaron Nielsen, and I'm an Associate Professor in the Department of Statistics at Colorado State University, specializing in undergraduate education and sports analytics.

I completed a B.A. in Philosophy at CSU in May 2024. Here is an article about my philosophy studies.

I am leading one section of CSU Statistics Book Club during Fall 2025. We are reading Basketball Beyond Paper by Dean Oliver. For more information, see the book club website.

Teaching Schedule Fall 2025

• STAT 201 (General Statistics): Tues 3:20-5:00pm
• STAT 204 (Business Statistics): Tues 11:00-12:50pm
• STAT 495 (Indpendent Study in Sports Analytics)

Recent Projects

• College Football Players' Path to the Draft: I advised Chandler Grote on an undergraduate summer research project with the Colorado State University football team.
• Informing Tactical Periodization in Collegiate Football: I advised Gabe Macklem on an undergraduate summer research project with the University of Nebraska football team.
• A Statistical Analysis of Philosophers on Philosophy: I advised an undergraduate research project by Jake Shankles that created a Shiny app to visualize the 2020 PhilPapers survey.
• Analyzing College Softball Rapsodo Tracking Data: Pitching Analytics (by Danielle Contreras) and Hitting Analytics (by Aidan Feeley). We attended the Society of American Baseball Research Analytics Conference 2024.

Courses Developed

• STAT 351 / Sports Statistics and Analytics I / Fall: Syllabus
• STAT 451 / Sports Statistics and Analytics II / Spring: Syllabus

Undergraduate Certificate

I coordinated the creation of a new undergraduate certificate in Sports Statistics and Analytics that is now available.

Feel free to email me for more information about my courses, research interests, or other inquiries.