KDnuggets™ News 13:n29, Nov 26

Features

• Cartoon: Thanksgiving, Big Data, and Turkey Data Science - Nov 25, 2013.
  To mark the the upcoming Thanksgiving Holiday, KDnuggets Cartoon imagines Big Data and Turkey Data Science.
• Harvard CS109 Data Science Course, Resources Free and Online - Nov 20, 2013.
  Harvard Fall 2013 CS109 Data Science is an excellent course, and most of its resources, including video archive and lecture slides, are freely available online - what a fantastic way to get ivy-league quality education (although without a diploma).
• IBM Webcast, Dec 6: What Lies Ahead for Big Data and Analytics - Nov 25, 2013.
  Join the panelists, Gregory Piatetsky-Shapiro, Editor of KDNuggets, and Michael Karasick, VP of research in IBM acclaimed Almaden Research as they discuss what will be the hottest topics and developments of 2014.
• PAW: Predictive Analytics World 2014, San Francisco, super early bird - Nov 25, 2013.
  Don't miss the predictive analytics industry BEST event. Before you fill up on your Thanksgiving feast, fill up your pockets with savings - get Super Early Bird pricing for Predictive Analytics World by Dec 6.
• Top Research Conferences in Data Mining, Data Science - Nov 21, 2013.
  We examine the top Data Mining and Data Science conferences. The top 5 by field rating are KDD, ICDE, IEEE ICDM, CIKM, and SIAM SDM.
• Top news for Nov 17-23: Harvard Data Science Course, free resources online; Huge Web Graph available - Nov 24, 2013.
  Harvard CS109 Data Science Course, Resources Free and Online; WDC Huge Web Graph - 128 billion hyperlinks - publicly available; KDnuggets Review of Analytics Marketplaces

Software

• RapidMiner v6 adds application wizards, better visualization, ease of use - Nov 21, 2013.
  The new application wizards put the power of predictive analytics into the hands of the business users and deliver the value within 5 minutes of installation. Other new features include suggestions for best visualization and ability to display results in multiple ways.

Webcasts

• Upcoming December Webcasts and Chats on Analytics, Big Data, Data Mining, Data Science - Nov 25, 2013.
  Webcast highlights include Predictive Talent Analytics, Is Data Science Your Next Career, What Lies Ahead for Big Data and Analytics, IIA 2014 Analytics Predictions, and Int. Year of Statistics Panel.
• IBM and SAP Big Data Science chats on Dec 4 - Nov 21, 2013.
  By an interesting coincidence, IBM and SAP have back-to-back online chats on Data Science and Big Data on Dec 4, to examine the changing role of the data scientist and Data Science careers.

Meetings

• Sentiment Analysis Symposium 2014 features top companies - Nov 23, 2013.
  Amazon, Huffington Post, American Express, MIT Media Lab, IBM, Gnip Speakers to Headline 2014 Sentiment Analysis Symposium in New York, March 5-6 in New York at the New York Academy of Sciences.
• KDD-2014, Top Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Data Mining, New York - Nov 23, 2013.
  KDD, the leading research conference in the field, will feature top research and application papers, industry practice, KDD Cup, workshops, tutorials, keynotes from field leaders, exhibits, and much more. Abstracts due Feb 13.

Jobs

• Senior Knowledge Analyst at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Boston, MA - Nov 25, 2013.
  All aspects of advanced analytics, from helping to create relevant service offerings to executing analytics work and continuing to expand the analytical foundation and competitive value proposition.
• Knowledge Expert, Operations Analytics at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Boston, MA - Nov 25, 2013.
  All aspects of Operations analytics, from helping to create relevant service offerings by working with priority global Practice Areas, to leading the execution of analytics work and continuing to expand the analytical foundation.
• Knowledge Expert, Marketing & Sales Analytics at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Boston, MA - Nov 24, 2013.
  Responsible for all aspects of Marketing & Sales analytics, from helping to create relevant service offerings by working with priority global Practice Areas, to leading the execution of analytics work and continuing to expand the analytical foundation and competitive value proposition.
• Knowledge Analyst at Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Boston, MA - Nov 24, 2013.
  Responsible for executing technical analytics that deliver valuable insights to BCG clients in collaboration with BCG case teams.
• Sr. Financial Analyst at ZeniMax Online, Hunt Valley, MD - Nov 22, 2013.
  ZeniMax Online Studios, a premier developer and worldwide publisher of world-class online games, seeks a talented, energetic Sr. Financial Analyst for our growing finance/accounting dept.
• Group Leader Data Mining at Bosch Research and Technology Center, Palo Alto, CA - Nov 20, 2013.
  Lead a team which researches data mining and large-scale machine learning algorithms and systems and applications to Bosch products and services in many domains, including Predictive Maintenance, Health Informatics, and Vehicle Diagnostics.
• Machine Leaning Engineer/Data Scientist at Adobe, San Jose, CA - Nov 20, 2013.
  Work on both research and development projects to help build the next generation of products that will allow digital marketers to maximize revenue and expand their brand presence.

Academic/Research positions

• Research Assistant, Jr. Researcher in Complex Event Processing at NCSR Demokritos, Greece - Nov 21, 2013.
  The Software and Knowledge Engineering Laboratory at NCSR Demokritos is looking for a research assistant and a junior researcher in the Complex Event Recognition group.

Publications

• Lecture: Social Network Analysis for Fraud Detection - Nov 25, 2013.
  As traditional techniques often fail to identify fraudulent behavior, social network analytics offers new insights in the propagation of fraud through a network - watch this short overview.
• HedgeChatter: Can Social Media Analytics predict stock market price? - Nov 24, 2013.
  HedgeChatter has launched an online SaaS dashboard that allows investors, traders and hedge funds to see how key influencers on social media are affecting stock price and view price trends based on real-time social media data (chatter).
• TDWI Launches Big Data Maturity Model Assessment Guide, Online Test - Nov 20, 2013.
  Online assessment and downloadable assessment guide enable organizations to determine the maturity of their big data analytics program; guide offers best practices for moving to the next level. Take the assessment free, online.

Top Tweets

• Top KDnuggets tweets, Nov 22-24: 50 R functions to clear a basic interview; Netflix Big Data Platform as a Service - Nov 25, 2013.
  R Guru Ajay Ohri list of 50 R functions to clear a basic interview; Netflix #BigData Platform as a Service architecture; Harvard Data Science Course, free resources online; Google Chairman Eric Schmidt on why Data Analytics is the Future
• Top KDnuggets tweets, Nov 20-21: Harvard CS109 Data Science Course free online lectures; Data Science and Text Mining with R - Nov 22, 2013.
  Harvard Data Science Course excellent lectures/slides free online; Data Science and Text Mining with R - very useful 27-page overview ; Must read: Deep Learning 101; Top Schools for MS in Data Science
• Top KDnuggets tweets, Nov 18-19: Must read: Deep Learning 101; "Pythonization" of data analysis - Nov 20, 2013.
  Must read for Data Scientists: Deep Learning 101; The "Pythonization" of scientific computing and data analysis; Python for Data Science - a walkthrough of a complete project

CFP - Calls for Papers

• WEBIST-14 : Web Information Systems and Technologies, due Jan 3
• SNOW 2014: Second Workshop on Social News on the Web, due Jan 14
• ASONAM'14: Advances in Social Network Analysis and Mining, due Apr 9

Quote

Statistics is the least important part of data science, Andrew Gelman blog, Nov 2013