Today's speaker, Dr. Victor Tom, explains the control room set up at Fenway Park to monitor
the trajectory of each pitch throughout the game.
Minutes for Club Meeting of September 11, 2025
In attendance: Bill Babineau, Marilyn Bedell, Ron Bedell, Bruce Bergeron, Phil Bush, James Carroll, Dean Cashman, Dave Clarenbach, Hank Clarke, Steve Grant, Tim Guaraldi, Lars Hasselblad Torres (AVA), Willy Koppenheffer, Christian McDonald, Ron Michaud, Ernst Oidtmann, Bruce Pacht, Phil Rentz, Bill Secord, Richard Wallace, Cal Wolfe, and John Yacavone. Guests: .
Guests: Victor Tom (speaker), Swe Wen Tom, Travis Paige, Claire Geno, Doug Beaupre (Claremont), Carol Keefe (Zoom), Jeff Miller (Newport), and Peter Paquette (Osher).
Call to order at 12:10 by President Marilyn. She called for a moment of silence in remembrance of the events of September 11, 2001.
Tim Guaraldi led us in the Four-Way Test.
President Marilyn’s thought of the day focused on “falling forward.” Reggie Jackson struck out over 2,600 times, but he is remembered for the home runs that he hit—an example of falling forward. Thomas Edison had 1,000 unsuccessful experiments in trying to devise a filament for a lightbulb. It was the thousand-and-first experiment that led to the electric lightbulb. He too fell forward.
Speaker: Victor Tom
John Yacavone introduced Victor Tom and his wife Sze-Wen.
Dr. Victor Tom (MIT class of ’72) received his BS, MS, and ScD, all from the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department at MIT. He has worked at a number of defense companies and MIT startups. He is a third generation Rotarian, Past President of the Rotary Club of Bedford, Past District Governor of District 7910 (Central MA and MetroWest Boston) and advisor to the MIT Rotaract Club.
Sze-Wen Kuo (MIT class of ’73) received her BS in mathematics at MIT and her MS from SUNY (State University of NY) at Stony Brook. She has worked at a number of software companies, specializing in compilers and operating systems such as ADA. Sze-Wen has received the Bronze Beaver, the highest award that MIT can give to volunteers. Sze-Wen is also a Past President of the Rotary Club of Bedford and past District 7910 secretary.
Dr. Tom and his wife are actively involved in supporting the MIT PKG IDEAS Social Innovation Challenge by assisting students refine innovative projects designed to help underserved populations around the world. They have also recently endowed a Rotary scholarship to fund masters’ degree candidates in the MIT DEDP (Data, Economics, & Design of Policy) to fight poverty in underdeveloped countries. They are also building a network of MIT alumni Rotarians to help fund humanitarian projects at and originating from MIT in the seven Rotary focus areas. Together they are members of Paul Harris Society, Major Donors, Arch Klump Society, and the Bequest Society.
"How Rocket Science made its way into Major League Baseball
and the Strike Zone"
Victor Tom had a long career in electrical engineering and computer science at MIT. He also worked for a number of defense companies and MIT startups, and he is currently chief scientist at BAE systems in Burlington, Massachusetts.
Victor Tom help the US team win the 1992 America’s Cup trophy by mapping the wind through its effects on the ocean surface, so that the American team had a huge advantage over its opposition. In 1999, QuesTec started research on computer calling strikes and balls in baseball games. Victor Tom heard of this effort, got in touch with QuesTec and reviewed what they were doing. He almost immediately began thinking that he could do a much better job. So, he started the research and brought it to Fenway Park for a demonstration of what he came up with in opposition to QuesTec. This was in August 2000, and he got the contract.
He devised the system where two cameras placed as high up as possible in the right field stands and the left field stands would focus on home plate. In addition, there was a camera behind the back stop and a camera in the outfield. With those cameras in place, he could use the computer program he developed, together with these cameras, to accurately call balls and strikes.
In 2001, Victor developed an “umpire informational system,” funded by major league baseball and accurate to one-half inch. Sandy Alderson used UIS to grade the umpires. The umpire’s union sued everybody—major league baseball, Victor Tom, and the company that Victor Tom founded—because they didn’t like being graded and having their income affected as a result. The umpire’s union hired an expert from Yale. It turned out that this move was a mistake because the expert from Yale, after examining the umpire informational system, came to the conclusion that the system was amazingly accurate.
Victor Tom got a pair of tickets to all playoff games in the World Series from Sandy Alderson and was in the stands when the Red Sox finally broke the curse of Babe Ruth.
The latest development for Victor Tom’s system occurred this past spring. The system developed by him to this point had only been used for television viewing; major-league baseball, in fact, did not use it to call balls and strikes. In spring training this year, however, it was implemented; and the way it was used was to allow each team two challenges to be tested by the system in preseason. That is, in each game any player or manager for a given team could challenge a call made by the umpire, and if the computer driven system said the umpire was wrong then the call was corrected.
Bill Secord presented Victor Tom with the book See Marcus Grow to be presented to the Kilton library.
See Marcus Grow, by Marcus Bridgewater (Author), Reggie Brown (Illustrator)
Marcus Bridgewater, also known as the social media sensation Garden Marcus, shows kids the lessons he learned in his grandma's garden when he was growing up.
Grandma's favorite place is her garden. It seems like she could stay there forever! Marcus wants to know why—so they set about exploring it together. From shells protecting seeds (like Marcus's helmet protects his head!) to a small seed eventually growing into something big (also just like Marcus!), there are so many amazing connections to be made in this wonderful place. Day after day, Marcus delights in realizing how much he has in common with the plants—he drinks water every day, too, and he gets haircuts just like the plants get pruned. As his grandma says, there's a whole world to explore in a garden, and Marcus likes thinking about it as a playground for all the snails, birds, bugs, and worms. And one of its many beauties is the bounty they are rewarded with after all the love and care they pour into it!
Upcoming Events:
September 15—Salt hill social.
September 20—dental clinic at the old Elks building in Hartford; looking for volunteers.
September 29—flu clinic in Plainfield.
October 2—flu clinic in Enfield.
Happy dollars:
Marilyn for having Tom as guest and speaker. She had met Tom and Sze at a Rotary conference in Massachusetts earlier this year.
Bill Babineau for turning 70.
Victor Tom for his six-month-old grandson’s having had a successful operation.
Raffle:
Winner of Raffle for Jake's Carwash in Enfield was John Yacavone.
Upcoming meetings:
Our nomad existence for September and first week in October:
September 18, 2025: Club Business and Charities Reports. Lunch at Salt Hill Lebanon (order what you want from menu or forgo eating…your choice).
September 25, 2025: Rob Stenger Simple Energy, Service Credit Union, Mechanics Street…DO NOT ARRIVE BEFORE 11:30 PM. Help will be needed for set up and clean-up at the end of the meeting. We need to be out of the room by 1:30 PM. Sign-in prior to coming up to the meeting room on level two.
October 2, 2025: District Governor Luc Pomerleau + RYLA presentation at Service Credit Union, Mechanics Street…DO NOT ARRIVE BEFORE 11:30 PM. Help will be needed for set up and clean-up at the end of the meeting. We need to be out of the room by 1:30 PM. Sign-in prior to coming up to the meeting room on level two.
October 9, 2025: If all goes as planned, back to Harvest Hill’s Dwinell Room. Speaker Grace Gray, Rotary Global Scholar.
Upcoming service and other activities:
Social Gathering at Salt Hill on September 15, 2025, at 5:30 p.m.
Dental Clinic, request from Rudy Fedrizzi for September 20th from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Cornerstone Community Center on Maple Ave in WRJ…Rudy is looking for over a dozen volunteers.
Closet Cleaning and File Sorting at Harvest Hill, TBD
Styrofoam (October) – Sustainable Lebanon is looking for volunteers to help.
CALENDAR THROUGH THE END OF THE YEAR:
September 18: BOD, Charities Report, and Classification talk at Salt hill Pub.
September 25: Rob Stenger, one of the owners of Simple Energy at Service Credit Union.
October 2: District Governor Luc Pomerleau plus RYLA presentation at Service Credit Union.
October 9: Emily Gray, Global Scholar—Policies for Sustainable Food Production in Consumption. We should be back at the Dwinell Room.
October 16: PDG Eric Denu—Polio Awareness Day.
October 23:BOD/Charities Reports +/- Classification Talk.
October 30: Matthew Garcia, Windsor County Mentors.
November 6: Susan Cherry—Rotary Foundation Month—Focus on Middle East Peace Center in Turkey.
November 13: Roy Schlieben, Executive Director, MAXT Makerspace, Peterborough, NH.
November 2: BOD/Charities Reports +/- Classification Talk—Announce BOD and Trustee for 2026/2027.
November 27: NO MEETING—Thanksgiving.
December 4: TBD.
December 11: Phil Bush, if no meeting on 18-Dec or another topic/Club Elections.
December 18: NO MEETING or Phil Bush—Holiday Songs.
Sze-Wen Kuo (MIT class of ’73) received her BS in mathematics at MIT and her MS from SUNY (State University of NY) at Stony Brook. She has worked at a number of software companies, specializing in compilers and operating systems such as ADA. Sze-Wen has received the Bronze Beaver, the highest award that MIT can give to volunteers. Sze-Wen is also a Past President of the Rotary Club of Bedford and past District 7910 secretary.
