KDnuggets™ News 12:n29, Dec 20

Features

• New Poll: Gun ownership vs Gun violence connection? ( comments) - Dec 19, 2012.
  The relation between gun ownership and gun violence is not a simple one, and is very political charged. But please set politics aside, put on your data scientist hat, and look at the data. What do you think is the connection? Please vote
• Top Data Trends of 2013 Webcast, Dec 20 ( comments) - Dec 13, 2012.
  Big Data promises to be a big deal, but what trends will break out from the pack? Listen to experts from SAP, IBM, and KDnuggets, 11 am PT, 2pm ET
• Top Analytics/Data Mining Stories in 2012 ( comments) - Dec 14, 2012.
  Top stories of 2012 touched on the popular software and languages for analytics/data mining, Key influencers in Big Data, KDD Cup, Cartoons which poked fun at the field, London Olympics, and even Stephen Colbert.
• Book: Journeys to Data Mining - Experiences from 15 Renowned Researchers ( comments) - Dec 13, 2012.
  The 15 contributors to book are among the leading data mining scientists and professionals. They wrote about their journeys, their motivation, the research milestones, notable successes and failures, advice for young researchers, and more. Also, an excerpt from Gregory Piatetsky-Shapiro chapter.
• PAW: Predictive Analytics World San Francisco Super Early Bird ends Dec 21 - Dec 19, 2012.
  Targeted towards analytics managers, marketers and technology experts, PAW San Francisco is a full-bore, one-week event featuring over 35 sessions and multiple networking opportunities with industry heavyweights. Super Early Bird rate ends Dec 21
• Realizing true value from customer analytics investments - Dec 18, 2012.
  Learn tips and tricks for nurturing customers to optimize their long term profitability; How to build lifetime 1-to-1 relationships with your customers; The keys to tracking social media feedback to spot trends and insights, and more.
• KDnuggets Exclusive: Talent Analytics on Data Scientist traits and characteristics ( comments) - Dec 17, 2012.
  I spoke to Talent Analytics about the results of their recent study of Analytics Professionals and discuss some interesting results about characteristics of data scientists and how they work.
• Opportunities in Biomedical Ventures - Equity Sharing - Dec 19, 2012.
  Several opportunities in biomedical ventures led by Aviva Lev-Ari, PhD, RN: seeking PhDs, MDs, Experts, Authors, Writers, Editors.
• Top news for Dec 9-15: Cartoon: Preparing for the Big Data Flood; Top applications for Analytics/Data Mining - Dec 16, 2012.
  Cartoon: Preparing for the Big Data Flood; Top applications for Analytics/Data Mining; Journeys to Data Mining Book
  Top jobs: Data Scientist at WeddingWire; Sr. AI Analyst, AI Engineer, Stat. Engineer positions at Campanja;

Software

• Intel GraphBuilder: a library for building Big Graphs from Big Data - Dec 15, 2012.
  GraphBuilder is a Java library for constructing graphs out of large datasets for data analytics and structured machine learning applications that exploit relationships in data.
• Pearl Graph, the Incredible Set: New Names for Statistical Methods ( comments) - Dec 17, 2012.
  Statisticians and Computer Scientists have done a poor job of choosing names. Who wants to use a method called "the Stalin-Mussolini Matrix Completion Algorithm"? And who would pass up the opportunity to use the "Schwarzenegger-Shatner Statistic" ? Here are some suggestions for renaming.
• Microsoft Patent for Personal Data Mining - Dec 15, 2012.
  Microsoft was granted a patent for personal data mining for analyzing data supplied by users, aggregating across users, and finding information that can improve business operations and/or quality of life. The patent lists Bill Gates as a co-inventor.

Courses, Events

• NSU New Courses: iOS/Android Programming, Data Visualization, and Cloud Computing - Dec 19, 2012.
  We are constantly working to ensure that you have course offerings that align with the latest industry demand.
• Statistics.com Launches 4 Certificate Programs with Interactive Planning Tool - Dec 18, 2012.
  The four certificate programs focus on four areas of study: Data Analytics, Biostatistics, Social Science, and Using R. The Institute also offers 100+ courses in statistics and analytics, with a format tailored to working professionals.
• INSOFE: Master Big Data in 20 Sessions from Stanford, John Hopkins, CMU Alumni - Dec 14, 2012.
  Int. School of Engineering offers online, interactive and applied E-learning certificate programs in "Essentials of Applied Predictive Analytics" and "Engineering Big Data with R and Hadoop Ecosystem".

Webcasts

• IBM Webinar (on-demand): Use the past to predict the future - Dec 19, 2012.
  Predictive analytics software can help you unlock hidden insights and use all of your data to drive better outcomes throughout your organization. Learn more in upcoming IBM webinar.

Jobs

• Data Scientist - New Grad at Twitter, San Francisco, CA - Dec 16, 2012.
  Use statistical analysis and data mining techniques to help us better understand how users engage with Twitter, determine whether new and experimental features should be launched, and measure Twitter's success across the entire organization
• Data Mining/Recommendation Engine/Java Developer (part-time, full-time possible) at theophilus, Inc, telecommute or New York, NY - Dec 14, 2012.
  We are looking for a developer who can hit the ground running as a member of a development team working on a next-generation data mining/recommendation system.
• Data Scientist at PB, Shelton, CT - Dec 12, 2012.
  Work with a dynamic, forward-thinking group of experienced scientists and professionals, in the areas of Data Mining and Analytics, Privacy and Security, Mobile and Context-aware Technology, and Emerging Internet Technologies (Social Media analytics and Semantic Web).

Academic/Research positions

• Faculty in Big Data (Tenure-track) at Rutgers, Piscataway, NJ - Dec 14, 2012.
  We are particularly interested in candidates with research and teaching interests in "big data" problems concerning data whose scale and diversity challenge the theory and practice of computer science and/or statistics

Competitions

• CHEMDNER: Chemical compound and drug name recognition - Dec 17, 2012.
  The goal is to promote the implementation of systems that are able to detect mentions in text of chemical compounds and drugs, which is crucial for subsequent text processing, such as detection of drug-protein interactions, and adverse effects of chemical compounds.

Publications

• Big Data in Motion ( comments) - Dec 17, 2012.
  Notes and observations from MassTLC (Mass Technology Leadership Council) Roundtable on Big Data in Motion.
• Book: Statistical and Machine-Learning Data Mining, by Bruce Ratner - Dec 18, 2012.
  This book distinguishes between statistical data mining and machine-learning data mining, and explains GenIQ Model, a machine-learning alternative to statistical regression. In 2012 this book is on Intel Recommended Reading list.
• Should You Outsource Your Data Scientist? ( comments) - Dec 18, 2012.
  The well-documented shortage of workers with advanced, data-science skills has sent nearly every organization on a mad dash to acquire the capability or be left behind.
• On Big Data, Analytics and Hadoop, and Hadapt - Dec 16, 2012.
  Unfortunately, Hadoop was designed for dealing with unstructured data, and tasks like extracting keywords from the web to build Google index. Hadoop does not use structure in relational data to speed up query processing, and its performance for processing relational data is suboptimal.
• IDC Study: Digital Universe in 2020 - Dec 15, 2012.
  New Digital Universe Study reveals Big Data gap: less than 1% of world data is analyzed; less than 20% is protected. Machine-generated data is a key driver of data growth.
• Book: Managing and Mining Sensor Data - Dec 14, 2012.
  Comprehensive survey driven book on sensor data management and mining with chapters contributed by prominent researchers in the field
• Top KDnuggets tweets, Dec 13-16: 26 Univ. offer Data Science in 2013 in US; 8 tests for a data scientists business acumen - Dec 17, 2012.
  26 Univ. offer Data Science in 2013 in US; 8 tests for a data scientists business acumen; Music Network Visualization using R; The 5 most influential data visualizations of all time
• Top KDnuggets tweets, Dec 10-12: Data Science - a personal history; What Hadoop is and what Hadoop isn't - Dec 13, 2012.
  Data Science - a personal history, from Jeff Hammerbacher; What Hadoop is and what Hadoop isn't; Poll Results: Where did you apply Analytics/Data Mining in 2012? Changes in top 5; International Year of Statistics video - show it to your innumerate friends

News Briefs

• Skytree Big Data Analytics Survey - Dec 19, 2012.
  Take The Big Data Analyitcs Survey win cool prizes, and get a copy of the results.
• IIA 2013 Predictions for Analytics: Smarter Business, Big Data deaths ( comments) - Dec 15, 2012.
  The realities of production and contraction will kill off some big data startups in 213, bringing down with some of the market hype. But analytics as a whole will benefit from better big data use cases, improved cross-channel integration, and machine learning.
• 13 Big Data Vendors To Watch In 2013 ( comments) - Dec 15, 2012.
  From Amazon to Splunk, here's a look at the big data innovators that are now pushing Hadoop, NoSQL and big data analytics to the next level.

CFP - Calls for Papers

• BSI2013: Behavior and Social Informatics, due Jan 6
• ASONAM 2013-w: Advances in Social Networks Analysis and Mining, due Jan 10
• ACS-2013: Analytics for Cyber-Physical Systems , due Jan 18
• ADMI-13: Agents and Data Mining Interaction , due Feb 11
• IWLCS 2013: The Sixteenth Int. Workshop on Learning Classifier Systems , due Mar 28
• TSD 2013: Text, Speech and Dialogue, due Mar 31
• JTAER: Cloud Computing and Electronic Commerce, due Apr 1
• RecSys 2013-w: Recommender Systems workshops, due Apr 15
• AILAW-13: Computational Methods for Enforcing Privacy and Fairness in the Knowledge Society, due Apr 15
• RecSys 2013: Recommender Systems, due May 6
• RecSys 2013-t: Recommender Systems tutorials, due May 20

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