A previous article discusses the geometry of weighted averages and shows how choosing different weights can lead to different rankings of the subjects. As an example, I showed how college programs might rank applicants by using a weighted average of factors such as test scores. "The best" applicant is determined
Fueled by a number of factors, including a global pandemic, data analytics skills are in high-demand. Organizations like the Youth Employment Services (YES) are well aware of the abundance of data and its growing complexity. That's why they partnered with SAS last year to provide free learning pathways to help
Many cities have Open Data pages. But once you download the data, what can you do with it? This is my second blog post where I download several datasets from Cary, NC's open data page, and and give you a few ideas to get you started on your own data
From this pandemic, every one of us has experienced some kind of loss or something that feels taken away. It could be a person, an activity, an event, an opportunity or even conceptual things like a sense of safety or normalcy. When I worked for hospice, it was routine to
When our knowledge was contained in books, learning to read was vital to understanding the world. Today, new information is increasingly generated and communicated in numbers, charts and graphs. That’s why data literacy is emerging as an essential skill for everyone who wants to understand our data-rich world and make
Data science expert Andy Pulkstenis describes how to skip common machine learning mistakes.
People love rankings. You've probably seen articles about the best places to live, the best colleges to attend, the best pizza to order, and so on. Each of these is an example of a ranking that is based on multiple characteristics. For example, a list of the best places to
What kind of movement do you hunger for? Yes, I said hunger for…what kind of movement would bring you joy? Maybe it’s a quick “snack” of restorative yoga postures, a set of barbell squats for “dessert”, or just a “side” of dancing for 5 minutes in the living room. Perhaps
Many cities have Open Data pages. But once you download this data, what can you do with it? I'm going to download several datasets from Cary, NC's open data page, and try to give you a few ideas to get you started on your own data exploration! And what data
As a huge road cycling fan, one of my favorite Olympic events is track cycling. With its speed and intensity, it is such a captivating set of events. While some events are sprint-focused and others are more endurance-focused, they all require powerful physical abilities, great bike-handling skills, cunning tactical expertise
Demand management concepts are now over 30 years old. The first use of the term "demand management" surfaced in the commercial sector in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Before that, the focus was on a more siloed approach to demand forecasting and planning that was manual and used simple
SAS System Engineer Sophia Rowland reveals how to embed decision flows into webpages and applications using the Microsoft Power Platform for a better customer experience.
Just over a year ago, SAS and Microsoft announced their strategic partnership. Since then we have been working together to provide the best experience and value to our customers as they migrate to the cloud. Here are six milestones you should know about; each highlights the early success of the two industry giants. The start of
One of the benefits of using the SWEEP operator is that it enables you to "sweep in" columns (add effects to a model) in any order. This article shows that if you use the SWEEP operator, you can compute a SSCP matrix and use it repeatedly to estimate any linear
I’m not ok and that is ok. One thing that I have learned from doing seminars on parenting with SAS employees across the globe this year is that none of us, no matter what country we live in or what language we speak, are ok. We have moments when we
What makes something easy (or difficult) to forecast? This question was answered by Prof. Rob Hyndman on the Forecasting Impact podcast (February 6, 2021), and it's worth a look at his response. Rob was recently named a Fellow of the International Institute of Forecasters, and is someone who is known
SAS' Ghohui Wu shows you how to construct spatial weights matrices based on contiguity and distance measures, then shows how PROC CSPATIALREG automates spatial regression model selection.
Underperforming schools can cast a shadow over the community. Not only do students suffer, but the downstream effects of poor performance can be felt across school funding, teacher retention, morale and the local economy. When one of the top 20 K-12 school districts in the US received a “C” ranking
Do you ever use a permutation matrix to change the order of rows or columns in a matrix? Did you know that there is a more efficient way in matrix-oriented languages such as SAS/IML, MATLAB, and R? Remember the following tip: Never multiply with a large permutation matrix! Instead, use
The predicted “Great Resignation” is underway, with the US Labor Department reporting people quitting jobs in record numbers, with 4 million doing so in April alone. At the same time, companies are expected to step up hiring, with 77 percent of executives in a recent poll claiming they plan to
In a previous article, I discussed a beautiful painting called "Phantom’s Shadow, 2018" by the Nigerian-born artist, Odili Donald Odita. I noted that if you overlay a 4 x 4 grid on the painting, then each cell contains a four-bladed pinwheel shape. The cells display rotations and reflections of the pinwheel. The
Art evokes an emotional response in the viewer, but sometimes art also evokes a cerebral response. When I see patterns and symmetries in art, I think about a related mathematical object or process. Recently, a Twitter user tweeted about a painting called "Phantom’s Shadow, 2018" by the Nigerian-born artist, Odili
Some claim that deaths in the US have been increasing, and some claim they have been decreasing. Which do you think is correct? Let's take a look at the data ... The Data Here in the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is a good/official source of data
In this Q&A with MIT/SMR Connections, Gavin Day, Senior Vice President of Technology at SAS, shares real-life examples of artificial intelligence (AI) at work, discusses picking the right problems to solve with AI, dispels a common misconception about AI, and defines AI success. Q: Could you describe some especially interesting
Throughout its history, the United States has invested in infrastructure that leverages new technologies and helps society and its economy thrive. With the advent of trains in the early 1800s, four of the country’s five transcontinental railroads were built with assistance from the federal government. When cars replaced horses and
Beloved Dummies: Let’s demystify another #AI-hype today: predictive maintenance. Yet another one of these buzzwords that require batteries of #DataScientists and truckloads of programmers. Let me show you how Dummies like you and me can address this. What is predictive maintenance? So we’re talking maintenance of machinery. Sure, you can
"With great power comes great responsibility." I'm not sure exactly where this quote comes from, but I think everyone should keep it in mind when creating graphs and maps! There are many design decisions that can influence how the end user perceives the data in a graph. For example: The
The last year and a half has certainly exacerbated many stresses that people were already facing. Unfortunately for many, complicated dynamics and tensions with family were not immune during this time. I was curious to look back at previous Work/Life posts that address difficult dynamics. Although all were created pre-pandemic,
A SAS programmer recently asked why his SAS program and his colleague's R program display different estimates for the quantiles of a very small data set (less than 10 observations). I pointed the programmer to my article that compares the nine common definitions for sample quantiles. The article has a
