KDnuggets™ News 13:n21, Aug 28

Features

Top Languages for analytics, data mining, data science ( comments) - Aug 27, 2013.
The most popular languages continue to be R (used by 61% of KDnuggets readers), Python (39%), and SQL (37%). SAS is stable at around 20%. The highest growth was for Pig/Hive/Hadoop-based languages, R, and SQL, while Perl, C/C++, and Unix tools declined. We also find a small affinity between R and Python users.
Forbes on Data Science: "Half-Life Of A Buzzword" ( comments) - Aug 20, 2013.
Read the discussion on the half-life of a buzzword and is "Data Science" replacing "Business Analytics" as the popular degree title for people interested in data and analytics.
Stanford Data Mining and Statistics Online Courses - Aug 20, 2013.
Earn a world-class Stanford credential in Mining Massive Data Sets, Financial Risk Analysis and Management, Quantitative Methods in Finance, with Online courses.
NYU Stern MS in Business Analytics - Aug 22, 2013.
NYU Stern Master of Science in Business Analytics teaches experienced professionals how to understand the role of evidence-based data in decision-making and to leverage data as a valuable and predictive strategic asset.
Nova Online Graduate Certificate in BI/Analytics - Aug 27, 2013.
The curriculum is designed to equip students with the knowledge and skills necessary to effectively use available data for competitive advantage, and focuses on business analytics and data mining techniques for organizational decision-making.
2013 Acquisitions in Analytics and Big Data ( comments) - Aug 21, 2013.
We review 2013 acquisitions in Analytics and Big Data, by Actian, EMC, Facebook, Google, IBM, Twitter, WalmartLabs and more. What is the worth of an engineer in acqui-hire?
Analytics 2013, Oct 21-22, Orlando - Exclusive Discount for KDnuggets Subscribers - Aug 27, 2013.
Over 1,000 analytics practitioners will gather to learn the latest trends, technology and research in analytics, data mining, forecasting, high-performance analytics, statistics, predictive modeling and visual analytics. Get exclusive KDnuggets discount here.
Top news for Aug 18-24: Stanford Data Mining and Statistics Online Courses; Data Scientists and Start-ups - Aug 25, 2013.
Stanford Data Mining and Statistics Online Courses; Data Scientists Guide to Making Money from Start-ups; 2013 Acquisitions in Analytics and Big Data
Top jobs: Research Scientist: Data Mining at Bethesda company, Bethesda, MD; Data Mining Programmer at Real Time Data Solution, Toronto, Canada;
Top news for Aug 11-17: Nate Silver 11 statistics principles for journalists; Mining a Data Mining Conference - Aug 18, 2013.
Nate Silver at JSM: 11 statistics principles for journalists; Mining a Data Mining Conference: Analytics on KDD-2013; Coursera Andrew Ng: Education for Everyone
Top jobs: Software Developer, Machine Learning at SGI; Data Mining Programmer at Real Time Data Solution

Software

DARPA SBIR: Defense Against National Vulnerabilities in Public Data - Aug 23, 2013.
Could a modestly funded group deliver nation-state type effects using only public data? This DARPA SBIR calls to investigate the US national security threat posed by public data and develop tools to characterize and assess the nature, persistence, and quality of the data. Opens: Aug 26, Closes Sep 25, 2013.

Webcasts

Webinar: Data Mining: Failure to Launch [Sep 11] - Aug 26, 2013.
Learn how to get started with predictive modeling and overcome strategic and tactical limitations that cause data mining projects to fall short of their potential. Next webinar is Sep 11.
Salford: The Evolution of Regression Modeling: Watch on Demand - Aug 16, 2013.
This webinar series addresses the problems of classical regression and improvements such as regularized and nonlinear regression, and modern ensemble and data mining approaches. Very useful to any data miner or data scientist.

Courses, Events

SAS BKS Courses: Learn how to use data mining effectively - Aug 27, 2013.
The SAS BKS Series offers effective courses developed and delivered by leading industry experts, including Advanced Analytics for the Modern Business Analyst, Data Mining: Principles and Best Practices, Net Lift Models, Survival Data Mining, and Text Analytics. Check out our fall classes!
TMA Courses in Data Analytics [Sep: Washington, DC; Dec: Las Vegas] - Aug 26, 2013.
Get up to speed in data mining faster and more effectively than with any other training program available. Next courses in Washington, DC and Las Vegas, NV.
Machine Learning: Hands-On Introduction, Oct 18-19 - Aug 24, 2013.
Requiring no previous background in machine learning, this two-day seminar is a hands-on introduction to the field as well as to the R statistical environment that will be used to illustrate the machine learning concepts.

Meetings

ACM KDD 2013, Chicago: Report by Dirk Van den Poel ( comments) - Aug 25, 2013.
Read Dirk Van den Poel excellent and detailed reports and photographs from KDD-2013 conference in Chicago, August 10-14 - one of the prime events in the data mining, big data, and data science.
IEEE Big Data Conference, Oct 6-9, Santa Clara - Aug 27, 2013.
Join us for this exciting event with high quality program, including 45 papers selected from over 300 submissions, 15 workshops, 4 keynote speakers, tutorials, and an industry program. Early bird reg is Sep 10.
KNIME User Day Boston, USA, October 22 - Aug 22, 2013.
A full day program is scheduled to talk about big data, social media analysis, time series analysis, predictive analytics, chemo-informatics, finance, sentiment analysis, and more. Participation is free, but numbers are limited.
Big Data Innovation Summit, Mumbai, India, Oct 31-Nov 1 - Aug 19, 2013.
Spending on Big Data technologies in India is growing, but its full use is hampered a lack of data driven decision makers. Big Data Innovation in Mumbai will address this issue. Early bird passes until Aug 23.

Jobs

Data Scientist: Media Measurement at Bulletin Intelligence, Reston, VA - Aug 27, 2013.
Bulletin Intelligence delivers fully-customized briefings and dashboards to senior executives in many large companies (and the White House), described as "the perfect antidote to information overload".
Sr. Research Scientist at MEDai, Orlando, FL - Aug 24, 2013.
Play an important role in improving the quality and efficiency of clinical healthcare delivery, be capable of project leadership, have experience in machine learning and data mining of big data sets.
Research Scientist at MEDai, Orlando, FL - Aug 23, 2013.
MEDai, a LexisNexis Company, is a national leader in the field of data mining, predictive modeling, and clinical analytics solutions for healthcare payers and providers.
Research Scientist: Data Mining at Bethesda company, Bethesda, MD - Aug 20, 2013.
Our client is looking for several Associate to Sr. Level Research Scientists with Ph.D.'s in CS, OR, EE, Statistics, Applied Mathematics or related field with expertise in one or more of the following areas: data mining, text mining, or distributed/cloud computing.
Data Mining Programmer at Real Time Data Solution, Toronto, Canada - Aug 17, 2013.
Have a significant impact on our business and take a leadership role in implementing our new real time data mining web application and its infrastructures.

Academic/Research positions

Scientists and Postdocs at QCRI, Doha, Qatar - Aug 27, 2013.
Seeking talented scientists and software engineers at all levels to join our team and conduct world-class data mining and machine learning research focused on tackling large-scale computing challenges.
Two Graduate Research Assistant Positions at Tennessee Tech U., CS Program, Cookeville, TN - Aug 22, 2013.
Positions are in the field of Knowledge Discovery, with a focus in the application areas of Healthcare Informatics and Graph-Based Anomaly Detection.
Assistant Professor of Business Analytics at University of Tennessee-Knoxville, Knoxville, TN - Aug 16, 2013.
A primary research interest in developing analytic tools relevant to business is expected. Publication in top journals desired, and an interest in collaboration and experience with finding solutions to business problems.

Competitions

CDMC2013: Cybersecurity Data Mining Competition - Aug 20, 2013.
The focus of this competition is on application of knowledge discovery techniques for protecting personal computer information by means of detection, preventive measures, and responding to various attacks.

Publications

New Book: Data Science for Business, by Provost and Fawcett - Aug 26, 2013.
This book is for those who need to understand data science/data mining broadly and those who want to develop their skill at data-analytic thinking. It presents fundamental principles which are the foundation for many data mining techniques, and the basis for approaching business problems data-analytically.
LIONbook Chapter 7: Ranking and selecting features - Aug 23, 2013.
The LIONbook on machine learning and optimization, written by co-founders of LionSolver software, is provided free on a chapter by chapter basis for personal and non-profit usage. Chapter 7 examines the process of feature selection, a key step in getting more accurate and understandable models.

Top Tweets

Top KDnuggets tweets, Aug 23-25: Hottest areas for CS Research, according to Google; U. of Waikato MOOC on Data Mining - Aug 26, 2013.
Hottest areas for CS Research, according to Google; U. of Waikato, home of open-source WEKA Data Mining suite, launches MOOC on Data Mining; Beware of the "giraffes" in your data: very large outliers which dominate their area; Revolution Analytics Big Data Sets you can use with R
Top KDnuggets tweets, Aug 16-22: 11 Tips on how to handle #BigData in R; Lessons from a Crash Course in Data Science - Aug 23, 2013.
11 Tips on how to handle #BigData in R (and one bad pun); Lessons from a Crash Course in Data Science; Inspirational: 2013 ICML Classic Paper winner was rejected by NIPS; Amazing Map shows every person in USA: Segregation, diversity, and clustering
Top KDnuggets tweets, Aug 14-15: Andrew Ng explains Deep Learning; Advances in K-means Clustering, Free eBook - Aug 16, 2013.
Andrew Ng explains Deep Learning, the breakthrough Machine Learning technique; Advances in K-means Clustering: A Data Mining Thinking - Free eBook Share; How a "Deviant" Philosopher Built Palantir, a CIA-Funded Data-Mining Juggernaut; Top 10 KDnuggets tweets, Aug 12-13: A Beginner Guide to Data Visualization

News Briefs

DataXu: 5th fastest growing company on Inc 5000 - Aug 25, 2013.
DataXu was ranked 5th on Inc 5000 fastest growing US companies. We look at DataXu and other fast growing analytics and Big Data companies.
White House Expands Guidance on Promoting Open Data - Aug 21, 2013.
White House officials announced expanded technical guidance to help agencies make more data accessible to the public in machine-readable formats.

CFP - Calls for Papers

IEEE BD-T: IEEE BigData 2013 Call for Tutorial, due Aug 31
TAW SF: Text Analytics World, due Sep 20
PAW Toronto: Predictive Analytics World, due Sep 27
PAW SF: Predictive Analytics World, due Oct 3
MLOSS: Workshop on Machine Learning Open Source Software, due Oct 9
PAW Chicago: Predictive Analytics World, due Nov 1
CIFEr-14: IEEE Computational Intelligence for Financial Engineering and Economics, due Nov 1
BigSpatial-2013: Analytics for Big Geospatial Data, due Nov 5
FDM: FLAIRS-2014 Special Track on Data Mining, due Nov 19
DBKDA 2014: The Sixth Int. Conf. on Advances in Databases, Knowledge, and Data Applications, due Nov 28
PAW Gov: Predictive Analytics World Government, due Feb 14
PAW Bos: Predictive Analytics World, due Mar 14
TAW Bos: Text Analytics World, due Mar 14

Quote

I still have a dream, a dream deeply rooted in the American dream – one day this nation will rise up and live up to its creed, 'We hold these truths to be self evident: that all men are created equal.' I have a dream ... Martin Luther King, Jr., Aug 28, 1963, 50 years ago.