KDnuggets™ News 13:n30, Dec 11

Features

• New Poll: Did you switch between R, Python, or other Data Science Languages?- Dec 9, 2013.
  New KDnuggets Poll focuses on on the controversy around whether Python displaces R as language for Data Science, or whether R remains the dominant language. Please vote if you switched between R, Python, or other data analysis language in 2013.
• 3 Stages of Big Data ( comments) - Dec 8, 2013.
  The confusion around Big Data is partly the result of different aspects of Big Data which have very different meaning and produce very different results. We propose a 3 stage classification.
• Why RapidMiner? By Usama Fayyad, a Top Data Scientist and Entrepreneur - Dec 5, 2013.
  With the current release of RapidMiner v6, and the introduction of application wizards to help business analysts instantly work with their data, RapidMiner will continue to be the platform of choice for anyone analyzing Big Data.
• New Book: A Programmer Guide to Data Mining - Free Download - Dec 9, 2013.
  New book "A Programmer Guide to Data Mining" - a guide to practical data mining, collective intelligence, and building recommendation systems by Ron Zacharski. Free download of all chapters.
• Statistical Community and Big Data disconnect: Discussion Highlights ( comments) - Dec 5, 2013.
  Highlights from a vigorous discussion on Statistical community and Big Data, including: Are data scientists reinventing statistics? Did statisticians miss the boat in 1990s? Is more data always better? Statistics 2.0?
• Why statistical community is disconnected from Big Data and how to fix it ( comments) - Nov 26, 2013.
  The leaders of ASA - American Statistical Association discuss their view on Big Data, 3 reasons why statistical community seems to be disconnected from the Big Data movement, and how they plan to fix it.
• PAW: Predictive Analytics World 2014 San Francisco: Have you seen the Agenda? - Dec 9, 2013.
  Predictive analytics professionals will be beating down the doors of this international conference to hear from PAW keynote speakers. Dont miss your chance to save on PAW registration - register by Jan 24 with Early Bird Pricing.
• Data Science for Social Good Summer 2014 - Dec 3, 2013.
  The Eric & Wendy Schmidt Data Science for Social Good 2014 Summer Fellowship at the University of Chicago is looking for students, mentors, and project partners - apply by Feb 1.
• Top stories for Dec 1-7 - Dec 8, 2013.
  Harvard CS109 Data Science Course, Resources Free and Online; Open Source Data Science Masters Curriculum; Gates Foundation Grants: Big Data for Social Good; Statistical Community and Big Data disconnect
• Top stories for Nov 24-30: Harvard CS109 Data Science Course; Thanksgiving Big Data Cartoon - Dec 2, 2013.
  Harvard CS109 Data Science Course, Resources Free and Online; Cartoon: Thanksgiving, Big Data, and Turkey Data Science; Yahoo SAMOA, Open Source Platform for Mining Big Data Streams
• Top news, jobs in November: Harvard Data Science Course; Field Guide to Data Science; KDnuggets Thanksgiving cartoon - Dec 1, 2013.
  Harvard Data Science Course, free resources online; Field Guide to Data Science - free download; WDC Huge Web Graph; Cartoon: Thanksgiving, Big Data and Turkey Data Science
• Additions to KDnuggets Directory in November - Dec 1, 2013.
  Swift IQ, Plotly data and visualization platform, Data Science Programs, and more companies, datasets, meetings, software, and solutions.

Software

• Red Button Solver Self-service big data analytics - Dec 2, 2013.
  RedButtonSolver shows how to get insight from your data without a PhD in Statistics, by following 3 simple steps and giving you answers, including great visualizations, to 5 key business questions.
• Yahoo SAMOA, Open Source Platform for Mining Big Data Streams - Nov 30, 2013.
  Yahoo SAMOA (Scalable Advanced Massive Online Analysis) is a framework for mining big data streams and applying distributed machine learning algorithms. You can think of SAMOA as Mahout for streaming.

Webcasts

• Webinar: Data Mining: Failure to Launch [Dec 18] - Dec 10, 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 Dec 18.

Courses, Events

• Discover the power of business analytics - Dec 10, 2013.
  SAS Business Knowledge Series offers courses by top industry experts on latest business practices, concepts, and techniques.
• TMA Courses in Data Analytics [Mar: Orlando; Apr: LA] - Dec 10, 2013.
  Get up to speed in data mining faster and more effectively than with any other training program available. Next courses in Orlando and LA.
• Online MS in Predictive Analytics at DePaul: 4 concentrations - Dec 9, 2013.
  The MS in Predictive Analytics at DePaul University addresses the growing demand for data scientists with 4 timely and in-demand concentrations: Marketing, Computational Methods, Hospitality, and Health-Care Analytics.
• UDelaware Certificate in Analytics: Optimizing Big Data, Feb 13 - May 22 - Dec 3, 2013.
  This certificate program brings together the computational, analytical and communication skills necessary to discover and implement data-supported solutions to business questions. Classes run Feb 13-May 22.
• Open Source Data Science Masters Curriculum ( comments) - Dec 1, 2013.
  A good collection of open source resources for Data Science Masters Curriculum, covering Math, Algorithms, Databases, Data Mining, Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Data Analysis and Visualization, and Python.

Meetings

• Dec-Mar Meetings in Analytics, Big Data, Data Mining, and Data Science - Dec 1, 2013.
  27 upcoming meetings in Dec 2013 - Mar 2014, including Text Analytics Summit West, ICDM 13, Oracle BIWA, PAW San Francisco, and INFORMS in Boston.

Jobs

• Multiple Data Science, Data Mining jobs at Bosch, Palo Alto, CA - Dec 9, 2013.
  From power tools to automobiles, health monitoring machines to wind turbines, our Big Data group is focused on using expertise in data mining and machine learning to improve lives through our products.
• Data Scientist at Catasys, Los Angeles - Dec 7, 2013.
  Work on analyzing and mining large amount of healthcare data, designing studies, developing models and addressing corporate reporting needs.
• Data Scientist at NYTimes, New York, NY - Dec 2, 2013.
  Working on high impact, real world problems using huge (and somewhat messy) data sets, including billions of transactions, to unlock valuable insights and power new products for the New York Times.
• Scientist, Advanced Computing for Development at QCRI, Qatar Computing Research Institute, Doha, Qatar - Nov 26, 2013.
  Work on our Data for Development and Resilience projects with the UN, Rockefeller Foundation and the World bank.
• Senior Machine Learning Developer at Rifiniti, Boston, MA - Nov 26, 2013.
  Work with the founders and a growing ecosystem of business partners and customers to build cutting edge technologies in big data, machine learning, and real time intelligence.

Academic/Research positions

• Assistant Professor, Business Analytics at UIowa, Iowa City, IA - Dec 6, 2013.
  Candidates should have a Ph.D. in Information Systems, Informatics, Information Science, Computer Science, Management Science or a related field and exhibit exceptional research and teaching promise.

Competitions

• Web Science 2014 Data Visualization Challenge - Dec 9, 2013.
  The goal of this challenge is to encourage innovative visualizations of web data, especially interdisciplinary approaches. Use any of 4 huge datasets: web traffic, Twitter data, social bookmarking, or academic co-authorship.

Publications

• New Book: RapidMiner: Data Mining Use Cases and Business Analytics Applications - Dec 10, 2013.
  This book provides an in-depth introduction to the application of data mining and analytics techniques in science, medicine, industry, commerce, and other sectors.
• Top 10 Big Ideas in Harvard Statistics 110 Class - Dec 6, 2013.
  The Big Ideas in Statistics include: Conditioning (the soul of statistics), Random variables and random vectors, Stories, Symmetry, Linearity of expectation, LOTUS, Variance, covariance, and correlation.
• Statistical Golden Rule ( comments) - Dec 5, 2013.
  Bruce Ratner examines how to combine skills acquired by experience (art) and a technique that reflects a precise application of fact or principle (science).
• Lecture: Business Process Analytics in Practice - Dec 3, 2013.
  A presentation about current research in the areas of process analytics, intelligence, and process mining.
• Yahoo Lecture: Big Data, Global Diplomacy and Digital Heartbeat, by Kalev Leetaru - Dec 2, 2013.
  The 2013 Yahoo! Fellow Kalev Leetaru talks about Big Data, Global Diplomacy and Digital Heartbeat and application of Big Data to understanding international relationships.
• CIO Review 20 Most Promising Data Analytics Companies - Dec 1, 2013.
  CIO Review special report on 20 Most Promising Data Analytics Companies, which cover Big Data, real-time insights, enterprise analytics, employee analytics, health care, and even neuroscience based data analytics.
• LIONbook Chapter 15: Dimensionality reduction - Nov 28, 2013.
  The LIONbook on machine learning and optimization, written by co-founders of LionSolver software, is provided free for personal and non-profit usage. Chapter 15 looks at Dimensionality reduction by linear transformations (projections).
• LIONbook Chapter 14: Self-organizing maps - Nov 28, 2013.
  The LIONbook on machine learning and optimization, written by co-founders of LionSolver software, is provided free for personal and non-profit usage. Chapter 14 looks at Self-organizing maps.
• IJBDI-International Journal of Big Data Intelligence - Nov 26, 2013.
  International Journal of Big Data Intelligence (IJBDI) is a peer reviewed multidisciplinary international journal publishing original and high-quality articles covering a wide range of topics in big data intelligence.
• Big Data Jobs Index from icrunchdata - Nov 26, 2013.
  icrunchdata compiled an interesting index to help visualize the present state and future job growth trends in Analytics, Big Data, Business Intelligence, Data Science, Software Development and Statistics.

Top Tweets

• Top KDnuggets tweets, Dec 6-8: A public list of R freelancers; Top 10 Big Ideas in Harvard Statistics Class - Dec 9, 2013.
  A public list of R #rstats freelancers - great resource; Top 10 Big Ideas in Harvard Statistics Class; 3 stages of Big Data to help clarify the confusion; Trifacta, maker of #BigData platform for machine-learning powered data visualization
• Top KDnuggets tweets, Dec 4-5: R is great for stats, Python for more complex tasks; How Facebook own algorithm is killing it - Dec 6, 2013.
  R is great for stats on one file, but for more complex data analysis use Python; How Facebook own Edgerank algorithm is killing it; Gates Foundation awards grants for using Big Data for Social Good; Preview of book Data Mining Applications with R
• Top KDnuggets tweets, Dec 2-3: Google Deep Learning is outsmarting humans; Udacity Online Degree program for Data Science - Dec 4, 2013.
  Google "Deep Learning" is outsmarting its human employees; Udacity Creates Online Degree Program For Data Science; JSON and #BigData will Shape the Internet of Things: RESTful APIs a key component; The Case Against #BigData In Sports
• Top KDnuggets tweets, Nov 27 - Dec 1: Open Source Data Science MS Curriculum; 5 ways to handle #BigData in R - Dec 2, 2013.
  Open Source Data Science MS Curriculum; 5 ways to handle #BigData in R; Yahoo SAMOA, Open Source Platform Mining Big Data Streams; 3 Levels of Data: fits in Excel; fits in RAM; a world of pain
• Top KDnuggets tweets, Nov 25-26: Python displacing R in Data Science; This #BigData application will grow! - Nov 27, 2013.
  Python displacing R as The Language for Data Science; This #BigData application will grow! What distinguishes data science from statistics? Bottom-up (data-driven) vs top-down ; Rifiniti: Sr. Machine Learning Developer, cutting edge tech

News Briefs

• November Analytics, Big Data, Data Mining companies and startups activity - Dec 4, 2013.
  The November 2013 acquisitions, startups, and company activity in Analytics, Big Data, Data Mining, and Data Science: KPMG $100M fund, Jut, Alpine Data, RapidMiner, BIME Analytics
• Gates Foundation Grants: Big Data for Social Good - Dec 4, 2013.
  The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded six $100,000 grants to help improve everything from disaster response to municipal services.
• Project Tycho digitized 125 years of Public Health and Disease Data - Nov 29, 2013.
  Project Tycho: UPitt researchers have collected and digitized all weekly surveillance reports for reportable diseases in the United States going back more than 125 years.

CFP - Calls for Papers

• UMAP 2014 Workshop Proposals: User Modelling, Adaptation and Personalization (UMAP 2014), due Dec 10
• DBKDA 2014: Advances in Databases, Knowledge, and Data Applications , due Dec 20
• WEBIST 2014: Web Information Systems and Technologies , due Jan 3
• AI-Canada: 27th Canadian AI Graduate Student Symposium, due Jan 9
• BioNLP-ST'13 : Special issue of BMC Bioinformatics on BioNLP Shared Task 2013, due Feb 3
• DS-IS: DISCOVERY SCIENCE, Special Issue of Information Sciences, due Mar 1
• UMAP 2014 DC: UMAP 2014 Doctoral Consortium, Call for Papers, due Mar 7

Quote

It always seems impossible until its done.
Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

Nelson Mandela, 1918-2013.