tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-218313842013-05-21T19:41:56.429-07:00BzSTBusiness. Statistics. Technology.Galit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.comBlogger158125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21831384.post-30251326752194834522013-05-13T23:35:00.000-07:002013-05-13T23:35:29.457-07:002013-05-13T23:35:29.457-07:00An Appeal to Companies: Leave the Data Behind @kaggle @crowdanalytix_qGalit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.com0A while ago I wrote about the wonderful new age of real-data-made-available-for-academic-use through the growing number of data mining contests on platforms such as Kaggle and CrowdANALYTIX. Such...tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21831384.post-43937132975546700772013-04-30T22:19:00.002-07:002013-05-01T05:03:41.694-07:002013-05-01T05:03:41.694-07:00Collaborations of Latex and Word usersGalit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.com0The two popular text editors used by researchers in academia are LaTex and Microsoft Word. Or, put differently: Microsoft Word and LaTex. In more technical fields, LaTex is king, while in less...tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21831384.post-78977881139368321492013-04-27T20:44:00.001-07:002013-04-27T20:46:54.560-07:002013-04-27T20:46:54.560-07:00New short guide: "To Publish or To Self-Publish My Textbook?"Galit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.com0My self-publishing endeavors have led to a growing number of conversations with colleagues, friends, colleagues-of-friends and other permutations who've asked me to share my experiences. Finally, I...tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21831384.post-16286431205836430052013-04-03T07:18:00.002-07:002013-04-03T07:18:51.827-07:002013-04-03T07:18:51.827-07:00Analytics magazines: Please lead the way for effective data presentationGalit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.com1Professional "analytics" associations such INFORMS, the American Statistical Association, and the Royal Statistical Society, have been launching new magazines intended for broader, non-academic...tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21831384.post-27867504475441028832013-01-22T00:22:00.006-08:002013-01-22T00:23:40.774-08:002013-01-22T00:23:40.774-08:00Business analytics student projects a valuable ground for industry-academia tiesGalit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.com0Since October 2012, I have taught multiple courses on data mining and on forecasting. Teams of students worked on projects spanning various industries, from retail to eCommerce to telecom. Each...tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21831384.post-38661178759938704432013-01-16T22:38:00.000-08:002013-01-16T22:38:08.382-08:002013-01-16T22:38:08.382-08:00Predictive modeling and interventions (why you need post-intervention data)Galit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.com0In the last few months I've been involved in nearly 20 data mining projects done by student teams at ISB, as part of the MBA-level course and an executive education program. All projects relied on...tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21831384.post-15131828263181943742013-01-15T09:09:00.003-08:002013-01-15T09:24:12.930-08:002013-01-15T09:24:12.930-08:00What does "business analytics" mean in academia?Galit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.com1But what exactly does this mean?
In the recent ISIS conference, I organized and moderated a panel called "Business Analytics and Big Data: How it affects Business School Research and Teaching". The...tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21831384.post-60033460790986588552012-10-04T08:34:00.002-07:002012-10-04T09:09:12.067-07:002012-10-04T09:09:12.067-07:00Flipping and virtualizing learningGalit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.com0Adopting new technology for teaching has been one of my passions, and luckily my students have been understanding even during glitches or choices that turn out to be ineffective (such as the...tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21831384.post-76447669670559378822012-09-19T03:51:00.000-07:002012-09-19T03:51:31.117-07:002012-09-19T03:51:31.117-07:00Self-publishing to the rescueGalit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.com0The new Coursera course by Princeton Professor Mung Chiang was so popular that Amazon and the publisher ran out of copies of the textbook before the course even started (see "new website features"...tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21831384.post-15368195239744825182012-09-01T06:05:00.004-07:002012-09-01T06:18:31.475-07:002012-09-01T06:18:31.475-07:00Trees in pivot table terminologyGalit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.com0Recently, I've been requested by non-data-mining colleagues to explain how Classification and Regression Trees work. While a detailed explanation with examples exists in my co-authored textbook Data...tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21831384.post-66526695901228618632012-08-06T21:08:00.001-07:002013-01-09T07:16:02.196-08:002013-01-09T07:16:02.196-08:00The mad rush: Masters in Analytics programsGalit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.com10The recent trend among mainstream business schools is opening a graduate program or a concentration in Business Analytics (BA). Googling "MS Business Analytics" reveals lots of big players offering...tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21831384.post-46978317749121720822012-07-30T06:53:00.000-07:002012-07-30T06:54:11.516-07:002012-07-30T06:54:11.516-07:00Launched new book website for Practical Forecasting bookGalit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.com0Last week I launched a new website for my textbook Practical Time Series Forecasting. The website offers resources such as the datasets used in the book, a block with news that pushes posts to the...tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21831384.post-41299429329698192912012-07-25T09:01:00.000-07:002012-07-25T09:01:37.753-07:002012-07-25T09:01:37.753-07:00Explain/Predict in EpidemiologyGalit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.com0Researchers in various fields have been sending me emails and reactions after reading my 2010 paper "To Explain or To Predict?". While I am aware of research methodology in a few areas, I'm learning...tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21831384.post-64254986509384225112012-07-24T09:51:00.001-07:002012-07-24T17:59:07.559-07:002012-07-24T17:59:07.559-07:00Linear regression for binary outcome: even better newsGalit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.com2I recently attended the 8th World Congress in Probability and Statistics, where I heard an interesting talk by Andy Tsao. His talk "Naivity can be good: a theoretical study of naive regression"...tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21831384.post-74220132925696561832012-05-28T04:47:00.001-07:002012-05-28T04:47:06.666-07:002012-05-28T04:47:06.666-07:00Linear regression for a binary outcome: is it Kosher?Galit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.com0Regression models are the most popular tool for modeling the relationship between an outcome and a set of inputs. Models can be used for descriptive, causal-explanatory, and predictive goals (but in...tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21831384.post-16510248816458265712012-05-22T03:20:00.002-07:002012-05-22T03:37:00.477-07:002012-05-22T03:37:00.477-07:00Policy-changing results or artifacts of big data?Galit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.com0The New York Times article Big Study Links Good Teachers to Lasting Gain covers a research study coming out of Harvard and Columbia on "The Long-Term Impacts of Teachers: Teacher Value-Added and...tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21831384.post-86492836008320006122012-04-16T23:15:00.000-07:002012-04-16T23:15:40.555-07:002012-04-16T23:15:40.555-07:00Google Scholar -- you're not alone; Microsoft Academic Search coming up in searchesGalit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.com2In searching for a few colleagues' webpages I noticed a new URL popping up in the search results. It either included the prefix academic.microsoft.com or the IP address 65.54.113.26. I got curious...tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21831384.post-11566830780129753562012-04-03T09:26:00.000-07:002012-04-03T09:26:10.358-07:002012-04-03T09:26:10.358-07:00New Google Consumer Surveys: revolutionizing academic data collection?Galit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.com2Surveys are a key data collection tool in several academic research areas. As opposed to experiments or field studies that yield observational data, surveys can give access to attitudes, reaching...tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21831384.post-62332948976104988242012-04-01T20:52:00.001-07:002012-04-01T20:52:53.728-07:002012-04-01T20:52:53.728-07:00The world is flat? Only for US studentsGalit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.com0Learning and teaching has become a global endeavor with lots of online resources and technologies. Contests are an effective way to engage a diverse community from around the world. In the past I...tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21831384.post-72006684354562775662012-03-13T09:33:00.000-07:002012-03-13T09:37:24.660-07:002012-03-13T09:37:24.660-07:00Data liberation via visualizationGalit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.com0"Data democratization" movements try to make data, and especially government-held data, publicly available and accessible. A growing number of technological efforts are devoted to such efforts and...tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21831384.post-63342701316726735552012-03-11T01:59:00.002-08:002012-03-11T03:00:41.870-07:002012-03-11T03:00:41.870-07:00Big Data: The Big Bad Wolf?Galit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.com2"Big Data" is a big buzzword. I bet that sentiment analysis of news coverage, blog posts and other social media sources would show a strong positive sentiment associated with Big Data. What exactly...tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21831384.post-78123658385069111812012-03-07T04:00:00.002-08:002012-03-07T04:04:00.321-08:002012-03-07T04:04:00.321-08:00Forecasting + Analytics = ?Galit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.com0Quantitative forecasting is an age-old discipline, highly useful across different functions of an organization: from forecasting sales and workforce demand to economic forecasting and inventory...tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21831384.post-7681648072863361192012-02-19T20:00:00.000-08:002012-02-19T20:00:27.274-08:002012-02-19T20:00:27.274-08:00Explain or predict: simulationGalit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.com0Some time ago, when I presented the "explain or predict" work, my colleague Avi Gal asked where simulation falls. Simulation is a key method in operations research, as well as in statistics. A...tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21831384.post-63754726389590193562011-12-20T07:16:00.000-08:002011-12-20T07:18:08.200-08:002011-12-20T07:18:08.200-08:00Trading and predictive analyticsGalit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.com1I attended today's class in the course Trading Strategies and Systems offered by Prof Vasant Dhar from NYU Stern School of Business. Luckily, Vasant is offering the elective course here at the Indian...tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21831384.post-926542815953822772011-12-07T02:48:00.001-08:002011-12-07T03:24:41.824-08:002011-12-07T03:24:41.824-08:00Polleverywhere.com -- how it worked outGalit Shmuelihttps://plus.google.com/118139001828424343335noreply@blogger.com0Following up on my earlier post about the use of polleverywhere.com for polling in class, here is a summary of my experience using it in a data mining elective course @ ISB (38 students, after four...