Scatter plots for scatter brains

Anna Brown
Anna Brown|May 17, 2013

The Data Visualization Charting 101 series explores different tools to visualize data. Check out other posts to see which data visualization is right for you.

This scatter plot compares car prices and horse power

Have so much data that your head is spinning? If you have a lot of data that needs to be visualized, a scatter plot, aka an X-Y plot, would be the most useful of the charts we’ve examined on this blog series. They can help your audience quickly identify patterns and correlations.

Scatter plot basics:

  • Two-dimensional plot that shows the joint variation of two data items
  • Each marker (symbols such as dots, squares and plus signs) represents an observation
  • The marker position indicates the value for each observation
  • A scatter plot matrix is a series of scatter plots that displays every possible pairing of the measures that are assigned to the visualization

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Discovering statistics resources

Georgia Mariani
Georgia Mariani|May 16, 2013

Get ready statistics lovers. As part of my new role, I’ve been researching and discovering all the resources that SAS has for statistics – and I’m eager to share what I’ve found. Here are just a few things I discovered that you might find helpful.

That should keep you busy for awhile. I’ll be back soon with more great resources and stories to share with you about statistics.

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Do you see what I see: a real-world data visualization

Jennifer Marchi
Jennifer Marchi|May 15, 2013

What do you see when you look at the picture to the right?

Like you, I see a busy dad with his daughter trying to maneuver a shopping cart full of groceries!

But the real question:  is there more?

What do you really see?

In a business setting, depending on the “hat” that you wear in the business – you might see something different in the picture.  As a matter of fact, you are likely to see something that exemplifies your perspective based on who you are and what you do for your company.

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Big data is back ... and he has a mail cart

Alison Bolen
Alison Bolen|May 14, 2013

A few weeks ago, we asked, "What would big data say if it could talk?"

Today, we might ask, "What if big data had a mail cart?!"

It's a fun metaphor that shows how overwhelming big data can be without a strategy for managing it. Watch the short video below to see what I mean: Read More »

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Beyond the lobby doors: 4 ways SAS is like Stark Industries

Shannon Heath
Shannon Heath|May 13, 2013

It seems like only yesterday that the SAS Executive Briefing Center (EBC) parking lot was filled with Craft Services tents, high-end luxury cars, movie cameras and, oh, a few celebrities.  But, it’s been nearly a year since SAS became Stark Industries for a day when parts of Iron Man 3 were filmed on SAS campus.

Surely many of you have by now seen the movie, and hopefully recognized that the beautiful lobby and glass doors of Stark Industries looked like the SAS Executive Briefing Center (EBC) lobby.

SAS LEED-certified Executive Briefing Center served as part of Stark Industries in Iron Man 3

As I watched Happy Hogan walking through the SAS lobby on the big screen, and later Pepper Potts and Aldrich Killian saying their goodbye in front of the beautiful glass doors of the EBC, I started thinking - clearly there must be other similarities between our two companies besides our lobbies.

For example, both companies are eco-friendly workplaces.  Stark Tower is powered by its own arc reactor, capable of sustaining the tower for a year at no cost to the city.  The SAS EBC is LEED-certified, which boasts many self-sustaining features, including water and energy conservation, a green roof, rainwater repurposing, electric car charging stations and more. Read More »

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Discovering and celebrating statistics

Georgia Mariani
Georgia Mariani|May 10, 2013

In the past, I’ve contributed to this blog with posts about the use of analytics and statistics in the education industry. I haven’t written in a while because I’ve been transitioning to a new role as the product marketing manager for statistics. I’ll give you three reasons why I’m excited about this new role:

Did you catch that last one? Or have you already heard about the International Year of Statistics? How are you celebrating? SAS, of course, has a ton of things going on to celebrate.  Here are some of my favorites:

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Does your company suffer from islands of efficiency?

Bob Davis
Bob Davis|May 9, 2013

Everyone wants to be efficient. Everyone wants to do a good job. And yet, inefficiency abounds.

Islands of efficiency are set up when individual goals of a person or location override the efficiency of the whole network. In the "intended island of efficiency" each person or persons, working in their little link in the chain, think of themselves as pulling their own weight and effectively moving product to the final customer facing location.

What happens when there are barriers set up in technology that short circuit the very best of human intentions and turn “little links in the chain” into what could best be described as inventory “elephants on parade”? Each chain link looks efficient, but when looked at as a whole, the supply chain takes on the appearance of bloated elephants. Each elephant is holding onto the tail of the one in front and blindly following the lead.

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SAS loves stats: Mark Bailey

Annette Marett
Annette Marett|May 8, 2013

Mark Bailey

Statistics. Should this branch of study call its home with mathematics or the sciences? Mark Bailey is a self-proclaimed science enthusiast, so you can guess which way he leans.  As a full-time instructor with JMP, Mark use statistics in his job to help customers decipher their data. That means a lot of travel, but he enjoys the variety of interesting people and business challenges. A favorite quote of Mark’s is, “The best thing about being a statistician is that you get to play in everyone's backyard.” In his spare time, Mark squeezes in everything from fishing, photography and brewing his own beer to breezing through audio books while he hikes 8 to ten miles a day. Enjoy Mark’s story and also be sure to check out the rest of the SAS loves stats series as we focus on the International Year of Statistics.

What do you do at SAS?
I am a Principal Analytical Training Consultant in the Education division of JMP.  I’ve recently celebrated my fifteenth anniversary with SAS.

What’s your educational background?
My BS from SUNY Fredonia, as well as my MS and PhD from the University of Rochester, are in chemistry. I was a science geek for as long as I can remember. You know, dissecting worms and making concoctions in the basement lab. My academic research was in transition metal catalysis (inorganic chemistry) and the mechanism of hemoglobin binding (biophysical inorganic chemistry). I also became the de facto computer scientist in our group for real-time data acquisition and analysis, and early work in visualization of protein structure.

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Once a geek, always a geek – and by the way geeks are totally cool!

Jennifer Marchi
Jennifer Marchi|May 8, 2013

Andrew McAfee, MIT

I’m a geek at heart – I always have been and I always will be.  I love technology and I love math.  I love that my job combines both.  But you know what is even better?  In today’s world of big data and data visualization, it is totally fashionable to be a geek.

Last week, I attended SAS Global Forum where Andrew McAfee talked about HiPPOs and Geeks. HiPPO refers to the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion, meaning these people make decisions based on experience, intuition and likely some data.  Geek refers to us number crunchers – those who make decisions purely based on the data.  A HiPPO can also be a geek – but in today’s business world, most – by in large – are not.

As McAfee conveyed, it takes a leap of faith as a Hippo to follow the data – especially if it contradicts the HiPPO’s intuition.  The best type of Hippo will be the HiPPO that sets aside their personal belief and lets the data rule.  Many are using data to make decisions but, are they truly letting the data guide them?  Or is there still a very natural tendency to let intuition and rationale heavily influence decisions, even when confronted with the data?

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The first data visualisation?

Philip Male
Philip Male|May 8, 2013

As a boy growing up in the 1970s, I was fascinated in particular by dinosaurs.  I knew all their names, Tyrannosaurus Rex, Diplodocus, Triceratops etc.  And I could also remember in which geological time period they lived, and on which continent; and what they ate, often each other of course!

To work all this out, I would pore over colourful time charts, with millions of years BC on one axis and types of dinosaurs shown as long rivers of colour.  When they first appeared, and when they died out.  Such charts had been around for a very long time, and were generally used to how when famous people such Plato, or Napoleon had lived.  The first one in fact appeared in 1765 and was designed by Joseph Priestley. Read More »

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