As a linguist, I am fascinated with words, their meanings and use. So when I recently saw the words “learning analytics” in a conference paper title, I started thinking about the prevalence of the word “analytics” itself. In the last decade, we have preceded “analytics” with many modifiers referring to
The term “disruptive technologies” frightens many organizations, but to companies like Alibaba, Uber, Airbnb and Facebook, it’s the secret to their success. These four companies from unrelated industries have one major commonality: They don’t “own” anything, at least not in the traditional sense. What they provide is a digital service,
I recently saw an article on washingtonpost.com showing what methods are used to generate electricity in each state. The data was interesting enough that I decided to try my hand at graphing and mapping it with our SAS software. Read along to see what I kept the same, and what
So you think you can outsmart your statistical forecast? Apparently, lots of people do. In "Judgmental Adjustments to Forecasts in the New Economy" (Foresight, Issue 38 (Summer 2015), 31-36), Manzoor Chowdhury and Sonia Manzoor argue that forecasters are becoming more dependent on judgmental adjustments to a statistical forecast. Sometimes this
Our new book, Exercises and Projects for The Little SAS® Book Fifth Edition, includes a variety of exercises to help people learn SAS programming. Rebecca Ottesen, Lora Delwiche and I designed this book so that it can be used either in a classroom setting or by individual readers working alone.
I wanna be an airborne ranger, Live the life of guts and danger.* If you are an 80's movie buff, you might remember the scene in The Breakfast Club where Bender, the juvenile delinquent played by Judd Nelson, distracts the principal by running through the school singing this song. Recently,
The intersection of data governance and analytics doesn’t seem to get discussed as often as its intersection with data management, where data governance provides the guiding principles and context-specific policies that frame the processes and procedures of data management. The reason for this is not, as some may want to
In my first blog post in the Education meets Big Data blog series, I explained the need for Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems(SLDS). In the blog post following, I shared an interview with Armistead Sapp, one of the authors of the book, "Implement, Improve and Expand Your Statewide Longitudinal Data System." In this
Machine learning is all about automating the development process for analytical models. One way to extend the use of machine learning is to broaden your library of machine learning algorithms. Another way is to scale your machine learning process by reducing the time required to process machine learning algorithms on
10 Gründe, warum Sie das Big Data Analytics Forum am 6.10. in Frankfurt besuchen sollten Big Data ist in Deutschland angekommen. Das ist die wesentliche Veränderung des letzten Jahres. Das sagen nicht nur diverse Analysten oder Studien (wie die jüngste BARC-Studie zu "Big Data Use Cases"), sondern zeigen auch meine
I've spent a great deal of time in my consulting career railing against multiple systems of record, data silos and disparate versions of the truth. In the mid-1990s, I realized that Excel could only do so much. To quickly identify and ultimately ameliorate thorny data issues, I had to up
Are you thinking about completing a fall race? Whether it’s a 5K, 10K, or half or full marathon, it’s going to be here before you know it. I’ve been running for years, and I can tell you, there’s nothing like the motivation of signing up for a race to get
Typically a correlation analysis reports the correlations between all pairs of variables, including the variables with themselves. The resulting correlation matrix is square, symmetric, and has 1s on the main diagonal. But suppose you are interested in only specific combinations of variables. Perhaps you want the pairwise correlations between one
The Wall Street Journal recently published a study of the top 17 medical areas (or body parts) that venture capitalist investments are likely to benefit. They used graphs to summarize the results, but "the graph guy" in me just couldn't resist trying to improve them. Did my improvements help? -
In my local paper this morning, I read about how a North Carolina state commission plans to recommend changes to our teaching standards for mathematics. One of the topics that they want to bring back: Roman numerals. Why? According to my exhaustive 30 seconds of Internet research, the only practical
SAS is hosting this year’s European Analytics 2015 conference in Rome November 9 – 11. This three-day inspiring event will give you the chance to boost your company’s analytics culture in an international environment to make sure your knowledge and expertise meet the demands of the digital era. But what if
Now that another summer of 12-hour family road-trips to Maine and Ohio, pricey engineering and basketball camps for the kids, and beating the heat at the beach are over, I've taken a fresh look at what people are focused on with their data – and what SAS is providing in the data management space.
When SAS 9.4m3 was released last month (including SAS/STAT and SAS/IML 14.1), I was happy to see that a HEATMAP statement had been added to the SGPLOT procedure. Although heat maps in the SAS/IML language have been available for several releases, you previously had to use the Graph Template Language
Today’s Medicaid environment is drastically different from that 5, 10 or 20 years ago. Medicaid enrollment has grown to monumental heights with recent CMS numbers (April 2015) at over 70 million. As enrollment rises, concerns about efficient management of care access, cost, quality, and effectiveness have become even more prominent.
The 2016 summer games are less than a year away, and British sports fans are hoping for a performance that beats Team GB’s record medal tally at London 2012. That’s never been achieved by a country directly after hosting the Games. And the pressure’s on us in the GB Rowing Team given
“Garbage in, garbage out” is more than a catchphrase – it’s the unfortunate reality in many analytics initiatives. For most analytical applications, the biggest problem lies not in the predictive modeling, but in gathering and preparing data for analysis. When the analytics seems to be underperforming, the problem almost invariably
If you know me, you know two undeniable things (other than my love for froyo): I consider shopping a sport and I am an Analytics geek. Being an Analytics geek means that I see potential for using data everywhere, and never more than when it’s my data as a customer.
Sustainability is an idea whose time has come. Individuals, organizations and governments are increasingly recognizing that it doesn’t make sense to compromise the future to meet the needs of the present. To that end, the UN recently replaced the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It’s
There's a lot of buzz about Hadoop these days. I started checking into it, and there seemed to be a gazillion releases. So, being The Graph Guy, I decided to create a graph to make it a little easier to digest! During my search for Hadoop information, I found the
A few of our clients are exploring the use of a data lake as both a landing pad and a repository for collection of enterprise data sets. However, after probing a little bit about what they expected to do with this data lake, I found that the simple use of
Choosing nutrient-dense foods is only half the battle when it comes to eating right. The other half is making sure you’re getting the most benefits from your great food choices. How do you do that, you ask? The answer is pretty simple. Paying attention to a few common food prep
While discussing ways and means to improve Sales and Operations Planning (S&OP) and forecasting, many a time business executives ask “What can we do with social media?" This was definitely NOT a usual topic in S&OP forum just a few years back! Most of the time, I push back the
Last month I wrote about how to simulate a drunkard's walk in SAS for a drunkard who can move only left or right in one direction. A reader asked whether the problem could be generalized to two dimensions. Yes! This article shows how to simulate a 2-D drunkard's walk, also
Machine learning is moving into the mainstream. Once the sole purview of academic researchers and advanced technology firms, machine learning is now being is used by many companies in more traditional industry verticals. Machine learning uses mathematical (not necessarily statistical) models to learn about data. In this context, learning about
As technology and analytics continue to evolve, we're seeing new opportunities not only in the way that we analyze data, but also in deployment options. More specifically, real-time deployment of analytical algorithms that enable organizations to detect and respond to security threats, offer timely incentives to customers, and mitigate risk by detecting compliance
