Students need to develop skills related to working with unstructured text data

Julie Petlick
Julie Petlick|February 17, 2012

It used to be so simple.  Pick a major, take lots of courses in the major and take several other courses to ensure your educational experience is well rounded.  It’s not that simple anymore.  Now days, the courses you take can have a huge impact on your employability after graduation.  Being selective and taking courses that help you develop skills that are highly sought after will give you an advantage over your peers when it comes to landing a job.

So how do students know what skills are highly sought after?  Well, you probably already hear on a regular basis “data is everywhere.” It’s true, and knowing how to do something with all that data is vital to any college student’s skill set.  So what is it you should learn to do with data?  Maybe a better question to start with is, “what sort of data should you learn to work with?”  Working with unstructured text data is a definite worthwhile area of skill development.

Think about how prevalent social media has become.  Some estimates indicate roughly 75% of data are unstructured data.  That’s a lot of data and the analysis of that data and the information it provides is extremely valuable to businesses. Do you blog or tweet? Have you ever mentioned a product or business and elaborated about your experience?  If so, people who know how to do sentiment analysis will find what you have to say very useful as it will give their business a way to gauge how satisfied you and other customers are with their products.

If you are at a university that offers courses in things like text mining, text analytics, or sentiment analysis, take advantage of the opportunity to develop your knowledge and skills for working with this type of data.  The global academic program just taught a Text Analytics with SAS Text Miner course to a group of masters students who specialize in analytics. They already know that having these skills will increase their employability.  Now you do too.  If you are interested in learning more about text analytics and how it is used, check out this video .  If your university does not offer courses in analyzing textual data, you can always consider taking a course at SAS. If you are a professor and want to introduce the use of text analytics to your students, contact academic@sas.com.

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SAS hosts high school students for a day of good old fashioned programming fun

Julie Petlick
Julie Petlick|February 10, 2012

In case you haven’t heard, SAS offers a SAS Programming for High Schools curriculum that is taught in several schools here in North Carolina and schools across the US. Every summer, a group of high school educators are hosted at SAS headquarters in Cary, NC where they spend a week learning all about the SAS programming language and collaborating with one another on ways to implement teaching SAS programming to their students.

The program fits nicely within high schools that are already teaching computer programming courses.  Typically the SAS programming course is taken in the junior year and it gives students a chance to learn how to program in SAS and develop skills that will serve them well in college and in their careers.  Learning SAS programming is very beneficial as it is widely used in colleges and universities around the world and entering college with SAS skills is a great way to get ahead.  SAS programmers are also in high demand and helping students develop skills that will be advantageous to their career aspirations is a big reason high school students are attracted to learning SAS.

For teachers and students who participate in the SAS Programming for High Schools program, SAS hosts a “SAS Day” event on the SAS campus every year where the students and teachers can network with one another, play with SAS in ways that are not necessarily covered in their courses, and also see some of the newest technologies SAS has to offer.

We just had this year’s SAS Day event and the students got to see something so new that only 20 or so people outside of the company have seen at this point.  That was pretty cool! The event for this year was themed, “Discover, Lead, Solve” and schools from Virginia and North Carolina took part in the event.  Most of these students just started their semester in January and are only a few weeks into their SAS programming course.

Students working on their code

That didn’t stop them from jumping onto the computers and working through some code exercises.  Something about sitting next to your peers and working on the same exercise inspires you to try to get the answer and maybe even do it before the person sitting next to you does.

In keeping with the theme of the day, SAS is used by so many industries to “Solve” problems so seeing some examples of how SAS is being used to solve real problems was something the students really connected with.  It is always nice to see how what you learn in the classroom really will impact things out in the world.

Thank you to all the teachers and students who came to the event!  We enjoyed spending the day with you and hope you had a great time.  We are already looking forward to next year!

For more information on the high school programs offered by SAS, contact highschool@sas.com.

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Is SAS visiting your campus?

Julie Petlick
Julie Petlick|February 2, 2012

The SAS Global Academic Program team may be coming to a campus near you!  One of the best things about being part of this team is getting to visit colleges and universities and hearing from the students and professors first hand.

I just got back from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where they hosted a SAS Day.  It was a great event. Thank you UIUC!  If you’ve never been to a SAS Day, they are great.  There’s always a variety of speakers, some from SAS, some from academia, and some from industry. It is a great way to see how the SAS skills learned at the university are put into practice after graduation.

We also frequently visit campuses and give guest lectures and workshops.  Our team has a variety of expertise so one day we might be presenting on advanced business analytics and another day it might be multivariate analysis.  SAS Enterprise Miner and SAS Enterprise Guide are some technologies we are frequently asked to provide hands-on workshops for.  Those are a lot of fun as it really lets people gets their hands-on the technology and put it to work.

Here are just a few of the colleges and universities that are on the 2012 schedule:

  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
  • University of Alabama
  • Kennesaw State University
  • University of Connecticut
  • Oklahoma State University
  • University of Houston

If you are a professor and are interested in SAS coming to speak to your class, or providing a workshop, or even a SAS Day event, contact academic@sas.com. We would be happy to hear from you and find out how we can help support your program.

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SAS is offering free workshops in Advanced Business Analytics or Data Mining to educators again this summer!

Julie Petlick
Julie Petlick|January 26, 2012

Organizations today are dealing with diverse issues, a wider range of regulations and heightened global competition.  Insights gleaned from data about customers, suppliers, operations and performance will provide companies an edge in solving complex business problems. The market demand for professionals with data management, analytical and problem solving skills is high. Are your students prepared?

If you are teaching, or planning to teach Business Analytics or Data Mining, these workshops are a great way to prepare for your course.  Each workshop provides coverage of the core concepts and includes plenty of hands-on exercises.  The workshops also provide attendees an opportunity to network with other colleagues who are teaching these courses or are in the process of preparing for their first offering.  Attendees receive all teaching materials and data sets which can be incorporated into their courses.

The workshops are free of charge to university professors.  In addition to the training, breakfast and lunches are also provided.  Attendees are responsible for their travel and lodging during the workshop. Registration is now open for these offerings.

If you are a professor and are interested in these workshops, SAS would like to invite you to attend one or both of our weeklong summer workshops for educators.  Both workshops will be held at SAS headquarters in Cary, NC.

  • Advanced Business Analytics (PDF)
    July 9-13, 2012
    In its third year, the Advanced Business Analytics workshop introduces professors to a semester long academic course which focuses on manyanalytic topics introduced via case studies.  The course was designed with graduate business students in mind.  It is expected that professors will teach  using complimentary access to our SAS OnDemand software to support the hands-on portion of the course.
  • Data Mining for Educators (PDF)
    July 23-26, 2012
    In its 10th year, the Data Mining for Educators workshop gives university-level professors the unique opportunity to learn more about incorporating SAS Enterprise Miner into their curriculum.  The event also provides attendees an opportunity to network with a number of colleagues who are  currently teaching data mining using SAS Enterprise Miner software and to take advantage of the latest analytical training from SAS.

Should you decide to attend, you must register.  Space is limited so register as soon as possible, but no later than May 28, 2012.  You can register by calling 1-800-333-7660 and ask to speak to Ramona Boone or Mandi Chada. If you would prefer to register via e-mail, please contact training@sas.com. Please include your name, university, mailing address, phone number, track preference, optional session attendance and e-mail address.

If you have any questions, please contact academic@sas.com. We look forward to seeing you this summer.

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The Institute for Advanced Analytics discusses the importance of students earning SAS certifications

Julie Petlick
Julie Petlick|January 19, 2012

I am frequently contacted by students who are nearing graduation, have SAS skills, and are interested in working here at SAS or for one of our customers.  In my conversations with these students, they are eager to point out any SAS certifications they have earned.  Likewise, I am often contacted by students who have not yet learned SAS but know that it will help them get a job.  They want to know how to get started and whether or not they should get certified.  I know that I am a bit biased, so I’ve made it a point to find out why students seek out SAS Certification.  I recently had the pleasure of talking about this very question with Laura Ladrie, Academic Program Coordinator for the Institute for Advanced Analytics at North Carolina State University.  The students graduating from that program are in high demand and their job placement is exceptional.  One aspect of the program, is that they have made SAS certification an optional part of the program.  Laura was kind enough to contribute a blog about the program, why it includes SAS certification, and some of the students have also shared their perspective as well. Here is what Laura shared.

The Institute for Advanced Analytics at North Carolina State University has been offering optional certification opportunities to its students since launching in 2007. The program, which concentrates on educating the whole individual and on practical, applied use of analysis to solve real world problems, has found SAS certifications to be very popular with students and employers alike.  Since the first Master of Science in Analytics (MSA) class graduated in 2008, at least three quarters of our students in each class have earned Base SAS Certification.  Class of 2012 was the first to achieve 100% Base SAS Certification. What’s more, up to 50% of the students will be Advance SAS Certified upon graduation and 75% will be Predictive Modeler certified as well.  Is it any wonder that last year’s MSA graduates enjoyed a 100% placement rate within 60 days of graduation?

Brand recognition for SAS Certification by employers is well acknowledged and I have observed that certification helps MSA students distinguish themselves from other analysts in the field.  These certifications affirm the abilities of MSA students to competently use SAS software as well as to apply analytical techniques to solve problems facing all industries that accumulate data.  Certification also allows students to benchmark their abilities with other programmers around the world.  What’s more, it opens doors to positions that would otherwise be unavailable, especially for the younger analysts who do not have years of industry experience.

Working at the Institute for Advanced Analytics I have found SAS Certifications to be very beneficial all the way around and well worth the training and investment necessary. It is one of the characteristics that sets the MSA program above its peers and allows its graduates to be highly sought after in these challenging economic times.  Thank you SAS!

Laura Ladrie
Academic Program Coordinator
Institute for Advanced Analytics
North Carolina State University

Here’s what the students in the program have to say….

My initial reasoning behind pursuing these SAS certifications was to boost my resume. It has been commented on many times, that for a technical career there are few greater eye-catchers on a resume than a SAS certification. Interestingly enough, I think the greatest gain I have had the pleasure of benefiting from, is the actual process of preparing for the certification exams. The rigorous learning required during the preparation process has been of as much a benefit to me as the actual certifications themselves.

Marina Akushevich

I was interested in earning a SAS certification because these certifications are recognized everywhere. I have asked several alumni from my program for career advice and almost all of them indicated that knowing SAS has helped them be a more versatile analyst in their new careers. During the process of preparing for these certification exams, I found that I learned a lot of important techniques that I might have not necessarily learned had I not been pursuing the certification. I feel I am now a much better analyst and have a broader skill set. My SAS certifications give me an edge over other job candidates. The job market is flooded with well-qualified applicants, and having a SAS certification is an effective way for me to let the employers know that I can start working and contribute from day one.

Tu Nghiem

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Students are you ready for a great semester?

Julie Petlick
Julie Petlick|January 13, 2012

2012 is off to a great start here at SAS.  I have already talked with several students this year and the semester is just getting started!  If you are a college student and have just returned to campus, then you probably already have a pile of course syllabi and are in no hurry to plan out every assignment just yet.  Chances are you have at least one project this semester that requires you to do some research and analysis.  If you’re anything like me, doing the research isn’t the hard part.  The hardest part for me was narrowing down the topic to something that was manageable given the project requirements, funding (or lack thereof), and timeframe.

I had the pleasure of attending several of the SAS Users Group Conferences this past year and I got to meet a lot of students from all across the US and hear about their projects and how they were using SAS.  Several of these students had papers accepted at the conferences and I was fortunate to be able to attend many of their presentations. To help get your semester off to a great start, I have listed some of the presentations I think you will find interesting. These papers will help give you some ideas for potential topics you could explore and ways you could use SAS in your projects.

Student Papers from 2011 SAS Users Group Conferences

If you will be using SAS for the first time as part of a project, or if you want to find out more about how you can attend a SAS user group conference and present your research, you will find lots of information and resources specifically for students on the SAS Global Academic Program Web site. Have a great semester!

 

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Teaching SAS this semester and need some teaching materials?

Julie Petlick
Julie Petlick|January 6, 2012

SAS is widely used for both teaching and research in universities around the world. As part of the SAS Global Academic Program team, one of the questions I’m frequently asked by those teaching is “does SAS have any materials such as slide decks, data sets, or exercises they can make available?” The answer is yes!

SAS offers teaching materials to college and university instructors who are teaching courses to degree seeking students or training internal university employees. These materials are free of charge.  They may be used in whole or in part, so whether you are looking to create a single activity, a for-credit course, or even a sequence of courses building toward a degree, these materials can help support your content.

Teaching materials include:
• Chapter-by-chapter instructor notes
• PowerPoint slides for easily presenting the material to your students
• Course data sets for demonstrating the concepts
• Practice exercises to enhance student comprehension

There are over 80 courses to choose from.  To help you identify which materials might best support your courses, I’ve listed some of the most frequently requested teaching materials.

If you are teaching programming courses, I recommend the following teaching materials:
• SAS Programming: Essentials
• SAS Programming: Data Manipulation Techniques

If you are teaching Statistics and want your students to learn how to use SAS as part of the course, I recommend the following teaching materials:
• Statistics 1: Introduction to ANOVA, Regression, and Logistics Regression
• Statistics 2: ANOVA and Regression

If you are teaching Data Mining or Text Mining and use SAS as part of your course, I recommend the following teaching materials:
• Applied Analytics Using SAS Enterprise Miner
• Decision Tree Modeling
• Text Analytics with Text Miner

To see the descriptions for what the teaching materials cover for each of these course or to see the entire list of course materials, click here.

The SAS Global Academic Program team is here to support you and your students. If you would like to receive teaching materials, click here to learn more about the program and to submit a request for teaching materials.

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Institutional Research and SAS!

Tom Bohannon
Tom Bohannon|December 20, 2011

College campuses have emptied out as final exams are completed and commencement ceremonies have now passed.  But, in just a few short weeks campuses across the nation will be brimming with students, faculty and staff and the daily activities of a college campus will be in full swing once again.  Making everything operate efficiently at an institution of higher education is no small task.  In fact, the data about the institution are vital to helping these institutions drive planning and decision making.

Have you ever wondered how universities stay on top of what is going on, and more importantly, what will be going on in the future? The answer is..... The Office of Institutional Research.  Research conducted within an institution of higher education for the purpose of providing information for planning, policy formation, and decision making is called institutional research. This research can be distinguished from research in higher education whose purpose is the advancement of knowledge in higher education in general. Most accrediting agencies recognize the importance of institutional research and require that someone at the institution or system be responsible for institutional research functions. These functions can be centralized in one office or can be the responsibility of several offices. The size of the office of institutional research, in terms of people, depends upon the size of the institution and whether the functions are centralized or de-centralized.

It is my belief that this research is best conducted out of a centralized office with that office having sole responsibility for institutional research functions. In these situations, the office is usually designated as the source of official information for planning, policy formulation, and decision making. It is embarrassing to the institution for information to be coming from different sources and not being consistent with one another. Having one office as the official source of information increases the consistency of the information being reported both internally and externally.

For an office of institutional research to be successful, the information provided by this office must be timely and accurate. To accomplish the purposes and goals of institutional research, many offices of institutional research rely on SAS.  The roles and functions of an office of institutional research are dependent upon several factors, such as the number of staff members , their skills, is the institutional research function centralized, position of the office in the organizational structure of the institution, and budget constraints. However, regardless of these factors, there are certain tasks and roles that can be defined as institutional research responsibilities. Some of these are listed below and note how easily these can be performed using the SAS System.

  • Creation of a data management system for institutional research, this database is built by pulling data from several different transactional systems.
  • Producing standard reports for the institution on student and employee counts, enrollment management statistics, peer analysis, assessment analysis, budget analysis, and many others. These reports would have a standard format and be produced each year at approximately the same time.
  • Responding to external sources requesting information about the institution, these could be state and federal agencies.
  • Responding to multiple ad hoc requests for information in the form of surveys or detailed analysis of a particular topic.
  • Application of predictive modeling for enrollment, retention, financial projections, and many other areas in the institution.

As mentioned earlier, SAS is the tool chosen by many offices of institutional research to assist them in carrying out their responsibilities.  Offices of institutional research at Baylor University, University of Central Florida, Slippery Rock  University, and Western Kentucky University are a few of the offices that have made extensive use of SAS in performing their responsibilities.  Below are links to each of these offices, take a few minutes and look at the work these offices do with SAS!

http://www.baylor.edu/irt/

http://www.iroffice.ucf.edu/

http://www.sru.edu/academics/institutionalresearch/Pages/InstitutionalResearch.aspx

http://www.wku.edu/instres/

If you are an institutional researcher and are interested in learning more about using SAS, contact the SAS Global Academic Program team at academic@sas.com.  We also attend several of the conferences for institutional research so look for the SAS Global Academic Program booth and stop by and see us.

 

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Mining With Trees?

Tom Bohannon
Tom Bohannon|December 14, 2011

I first was exposed to decision trees several years ago when working on a predictive modeling project for Baylor University. At first glance the graphics resembled an organizational chart and the terminology associated with trees was different and strange. These were terms such as root, branch, leaves, pruning, splitting, random forest, maximum tree, optimum tree, node purity, stump, bagging, boosting, and many other terms that might be associated with forestry. After the initial exposure to these terms and decision tree concepts, I soon learned that the decision tree technique is one of the most intuitive and popular data mining methods.

There are many definitions for data mining, but in this context data mining is the science and art of exploring large amounts of data in order to discover useful patterns. There are numerous tools and techniques available for data miners to apply for discovery and prediction.  As mentioned above, one such tool is the decision tree.  An important characteristic of decision trees are that they are easy to use and simple to explain, being a simple person I like decision trees.  A decision tree could be described as a set of algorithms whose purpose is to develop a hierarchical set of rules that describe how to partition a data set into smaller data sets. The objective being that the observations in the smaller datasets are more similar. Trees are successful in explaining the relationship between predictor variables and the target variable, making them a good tool for predictive modeling. In data analysis without a target variable, decision trees are useful in detecting patterns in the data and grouping or clustering the data.

Some of the applications and benefits of decision trees are:

  • A tool for data mining tasks , such as classification, regression, clustering, and variable selection
  • Intuitive and easy to use
  • Handles continuous, categorical, and textual data
  • Handles missing data from non-normal distributions, missing values and extreme values
  • Relatively small computational resources yields high predictive performance
  • Used as an exploratory tool
  • Available in almost all data mining software packages.

To learn more about decision trees and their application to data mining tasks, Google “Decision Trees” and browse some of the many documents on this subject. If you are new to data mining and want to gain knowledge and hands-on experience with decision trees, SAS Education also has several training courses that present excellent coverage of this topic.

If you are teaching data mining or are interested in developing a data mining course and are looking for good data sets and teaching materials, the SAS Global Academic Program offers teaching materials on several data mining topics.  Contact academic@sas.com to request data mining teaching materials.

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Want to learn about SAS OnDemand for Academics?

Julie Petlick
Julie Petlick|December 5, 2011

SAS OnDemand for Academics provides an online delivery model which gives professors and students immediate online access to SAS.  It is free to professors and their students for use in their courses.  Whether your course involves SAS programming, analyzing large or small volumes of data, predictive modeling, or forecasting, SAS OnDemand for Academics can be easily incorporated into your course.  The online delivery model makes it easy for both traditional and distance learners who need to use software as part of a course. There are two upcoming WebEx sessions which will cover how to register, install and access SAS OnDemand for Academics.  Space is still available so register now!

Upcoming Sessions:

7 DEC – 3:00PM to 4:00PM EST:

Introduction to SAS OnDemand for Academics: Enterprise Guide for Instructors

9 DEC – 12:00PM to 1:00PM EST:

Introduction to SAS OnDemand for Academics: Enterprise Miner for Instructors

Click here for more information or to register.

If have not heard about SAS OnDemand for Academincs, click to Learn More.

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