KDnuggets™ News 11:n21, Aug 31

Features (6) | Courses, Events (9) | Jobs (7) | Academic (2) | Publications (2) | NewsBriefs (5) | CFP (7) | Quote

Features

• New Poll: What do you call data mining? - Aug 30, 2011.
  Is it Business Analytics, BI, Data Science, Data Mining, KDD / Knowledge Discovery, Predictive Analytics, Statistics or something else? Please vote
• Growing Need for "Big Data" Analysis Spurs Growth in KDD Conference - Aug 24, 2011.
  More than 1,100 experts who analyze "Big Data" gathered in San Diego for the industry's major conference on "Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining" (KDD) (22% increase over last year).
• Predictive Analytics World NYC in 7 Weeks - Aug 30, 2011.
  $200 in Early Bird savings ending Sep 2. 7 reasons you don't want to miss Predictive Analytics World NYC, October 16-21, 2011.
• Analytics 2011 Conference, Oct 24-25 - Aug 29, 2011.
  30% discount for KDnuggets subscribers. Find the latest trends at Analytics 2011. The agenda is now available.
• Top news for Aug 21-27 - Aug 28, 2011.
  Poll Results: Top Languages for Data Mining/Analytics; The New Big Data;
  Top jobs: Research Internships at Yandex, Moscow, Russia; Big Data and Machine Learning Engineer at State, London, UK;
• Top news for Aug 14-20 - Aug 21, 2011.
  Poll Results: Top Languages for Data Mining/Analytics; Radoop ~ Yahoo Pipes for Hadoop; Gartner "Hype Peak" for Social Analytics
  Top jobs: Statistical Analyst/Data Modeler at Quicken Loans; Data Analyst at eHarmony

Courses, Events

• Stanford Graduate Certificate in Data Mining - Online - Aug 24, 2011.
  Sharpen your skills with graduate courses from Stanford University. Data mining graduate certificates are available in a) Mining Massive Data Sets, b) Data Mining and Applications.
• Online courses in statistics, data mining, R, and more - Aug 17, 2011.
  For a 20% tuition savings, use kdnuggets11 in the promo box. For more details go to statistics.com
• Statistical Learning and Data Mining III, Boston, Sep 22-23 - Aug 18, 2011.
  10 hot ideas for learning from data. This course focuses on both "tall" data and "wide" data, and gives a detailed overview of statistical models for data mining, inference and prediction.
• Tools for Discovering Patterns in Data, Sep 26-27, Charlottesville, VA - Aug 30, 2011.
  a practical, experience-based, concepts course, which demystifies data mining with clarity and humor. Learn to isolate the essential aspects of a problem and select and combine the right software tools to find useful patterns in noisy, incomplete data.
• SAS Courses: Mine with the experts this fall - Aug 30, 2011.
  Through real-world knowledge and practical application our instructors teach you how to apply data mining techniques to generate true business intelligence.
• Statistical Modeling Week Workshops, Boston, Oct 17-21 - Aug 30, 2011.
  featuring applications-oriented seminars focusing on the latest trends in statistical analysis. Led by a group of experts in the field, the seminars teach professionals how to apply and understand today's major breakthroughs in statistical methodology.
• Nov 17-18, San Francisco: Probability Models for Customer-Base Analysis - Aug 25, 2011.
  Wharton 2-day workshop provides overview of probability models for forecasting, and focused examples that show state-of-the-art approaches for customer-base analysis.
• UT (Knoxville) offers new MBA and business analytics degree - Aug 22, 2011.
  The new dual-degree goal is to bridge the big gap between the practical aspects of business and the analytical capabilities enabled by information systems
• Stanford adds free online courses on DB, Machine Learning - Aug 19, 2011.
  taught by top researchers Widom and Ng, courses on DB and machine learning will be offered for free in Fall of 2011. Students will get lecture videos, lecture notes, receive feedback on progress, answers to questions, and a statement of accomplishment upon successful completion.

Jobs

• Data Mining Consultant/Scientist at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee, Chattanooga, TN - Aug 30, 2011.
  support all BCBST business units by conducting analytics/data mining/research, and developing tools and processes that improve the outcomes, quality, access to, cost and utilization and management of health care to BCBST members as well as member retention and attracting new members.
• Core Technology (Data) Scientist at Visible Measures, Boston, MA - Aug 29, 2011.
  a venture-backed start-up changing the way publishers, advertisers, and audiences engage with internet delivered video. Our Video Experience Measurement (VXM) suite of products provides objective 3rd party metrics about the viewing experience.
• Sr. Analytics Consultant at TIBCO, East Coast or telecommute - Aug 24, 2011.
  provide analytics expertise, pre/post sales, proof-of-concept, customer implementation, methodology development and code development.
• Manager, Advanced Analytics at Orbitz, Chicago, IL - Aug 23, 2011.
  The Advanced Analytics group applies statistical and machine learning techniques to help solve business problems across the Orbitz organization. We are seeking a strong individual contributor who is also capable of leading others on cross-functional projects.
• VP of Audience Research and Development at True North Custom Media, Chattanooga, TN - Aug 23, 2011.
  provide insight regarding audience trends, sustainability, strategy, and execution for all digital and print media, working in conjunction with the Executive Leadership Team.
• Big Data and Machine Learning Engineer at State, London, UK - Aug 22, 2011.
  building an ambitious big new site in the social web area, with plenty of technology challenges at the core. Need a software engineer who can work on the machine learning, data mining and recommendation aspects.
• Statistical Analyst/Data Modeler at Quicken Loans, Detroit, MI - Aug 17, 2011.
  We need informavores with the quantitative skills of the Heart of Gold's infinite improbability drive, the mental dexterity of a wet-wired Watson, and the creative drive of masterful artists like Beethoven, da Vinci and Zappa.

Academic/Research positions

• Operations Research Scientist at U. of Phoenix and Apollo Group, Phoenix, AZ - Aug 30, 2011.
  qualitative and quantitative analysis on data from existing databases, observations, and business processes; design, implement, and communicate results of research projects; publish and present findings via scholarly journals and conferences.
• Faculty Opening at Stanford U., Dept. of Mgmt Science and Engineering, Stanford, CA - Aug 18, 2011.
  at the frontiers of Management Science & Engineering, broadly defined, including engineering and the mathematical, medical, physical, and social sciences.

Publications

• The New Big Data - Aug 23, 2011.
  Big data is forcing researchers to find new techniques for knowledge discovery and data mining.
• Analytics-as-a-Service: Understanding how Amazon.com is changing the rules - Aug 23, 2011.
  requires some serious heavy lifting and complex infrastructure. Enter the AWS cloud. The cloud offers some interesting value 1) on demand; 2) pay-as-you-go; 3) elastic; 4) programmable; 5) abstraction; and in many cases 6) better security.

News Briefs

• Algorithms Tell Consumers When to Buy Tech Products - Aug 30, 2011.
  Sites help people find the balance between buying right away (and paying top dollar) and buying later (and possibly getting an outdated gadget).
• Discovering fake reviews online - Aug 29, 2011.
  The computer was much more accurate than humans in detecting fake reviews (90% vs 60%). Humans are just bad at telling when people are lying.
• The Big Data revolution: 5 startups mining the trend - Aug 27, 2011.
  Memeburn takes a look at five Silicon Valley startups and how they're looking to use Big Data.
• HP buys Autonomy, focuses on analytics - Aug 20, 2011.
  Autonomy unstructured document management capabilities give HP the opportunity to build a "next generation information platform", according to HP CEO Apotheker. Analyst Tony Byrne criticized the move: "With Autonomy, HP is acquiring an aging technology base from a company that is little-loved by most of its customers".
• VC invest In Cloud BI Platform GoodData - Aug 18, 2011.
  offers a cloud-based data analytics solution that is more cost-effective than similar products offered by IBM, SAP and Oracle. Companies can plug GoodData products into their own cloud-based SaaS products.

CFP - Calls for Papers

• PAKDD 2012-W: Workshop proposals for PAKDD 2012, due Aug 28
• WSDM'12 tutorials: Web Search and Data Mining, due Sep 1
• OCABook: Chapter Proposals, Online Collective Action: Dynamics of the Crowd in Social Media, due Sep 15
• WSDM-12-Phd: WSDM 2012 Doctoral Consortium Submissions, due Sep 16
• PAKDD 2012: The 16th Pacific-Asia Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, due Oct 2
• PAKDD 2012-T: Tutorial proposals for PAKDD 2012, due Nov 13
• LMS: Literature-Mining Solutions for Life Science Research, due Nov 15

Quote

An engineer, a chemist and a statistician are staying in a hotel. The first night, a fire breaks out and wakes them up. The engineer gets up, grabs the fire extinguisher and puts out the fire. Later, they're all woken by another fire. The chemist thinks "the fire reaction requires oxygen", grabs a fire blanket and smothers the flames until they go out. Even later, the engineer and the chemist are woken by the statistician lighting a series of fires in the corner. "What are you doing?", they cry. Statistician replies - "Increasing the sample size"..
(thanks to 4D Pie Charts blog)