I was visiting New York a couple of weeks ago, transferring from Amtrak to the PATH trains at Newark. PATH takes you to Wall Street – the #1 financial center in the world – and yet the process of paying for my $2.75 PATH ticket was excruciating. When I arrived at Newark, my colleague, whoContinue reading “Small Ball: Calling all thinkers!”
Yearly Archives: 2019
Aug 9: Statistics in Practice
We continue Monday’s discussion of “people analytics’ with a look from the customer’s side and a call for all thinkers! (see below) Our course spotlight is on: Sep 6 – Oct 4: Predictive Analytics 1 – Machine Learning Tools Sep 6 – Oct 4: Programming 1 (R or Python) See you in class! – Peter Bruce, Chief AcademicContinue reading “Aug 9: Statistics in Practice”
Industry Spotlight: HR (People Analytics)
Analytics has come to HR. It’s partly Orwellian, tracking what employees do on the computer, and partly warm and fuzzy, leveraging the true informal organizational structure via network analysis (jump into Friday’s Network Analysis course to learn the basics). One dimension assumes the worst about employees, and gives bosses extra powers to keep tabs onContinue reading “Industry Spotlight: HR (People Analytics)”
Aug 5: Statistics in Practice
In this week’s Brief, analytics comes to the HR department (“people analytics”), and our course spotlight is on: Sep 6 – Oct 4: Predictive Analytics 1 Sep 6 – Oct 4: Programming 1 (R or Python) These courses are excellent entry points into our data science certificate programs: Analytics for Data Science (focuses on offContinue reading “Aug 5: Statistics in Practice”
Aug 2: Statistics in Practice
In part 1 of this week’s brief, we looked at political analytics; in Part 2 we extend that look to commercial domains. Our course spotlight is Persuasion Analytics, taught by Ken Strasma, who pioneered the use of statistical modeling to microtarget voters in the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign. Aug 23 – Sep 20: Persuasion Analytics SeeContinue reading “Aug 2: Statistics in Practice”
Probability
You might be wondering why such a basic word as probability appears here. It turns out that the term has deep tendrils in formal mathematics and philosophy, but is somewhat hard to pin down
Social Network Analysis (SNA) in Medicine
In hospitals, “sentinel events” are events that carry with them a significant risk of unexpected death or harm. It is estimated that ⅔ of such sentinel events result from communications failures during the handoff of a patient from one provider to another (e.g. during a nursing shift change). In a recent paper, a team ofContinue reading “Social Network Analysis (SNA) in Medicine”
Density
Density is a metric that describes how well-connected a network is
Algorithms
We have an extensive statistical glossary and have been sending out a “word of the week” newsfeed for a number of years. Take a look at the results
Gittens Index
Consider the multi-arm bandit problem where each arm has an unknown probability of paying either 0 or 1, and a specified payoff discount factor of x (i.e. for two successive payoffs, the second is valued at x% of the first, where x < 100%). The Gittens index is […]
Cold Start Problem
There are various ways to recommend additional products to an online purchaser, and the most effective ones rely on prior purchase or rating history –
Autoregressive
Autoregressive refers to time series forecasting models (AR models) in which the independent variables (predictors) are prior values of the time series itself.
Industry Spotlight: Hospitals
Hospitals are a major employer of statisticians and analytics professionals, both in support of clinical research like the retinopathy study described earlier, and to improve hospital operations (outcomes, cost management, etc.). Here are a few quick facts about the hospital industry: US hospital revenue totals over $1 trillion – about 5% of GDP. This isContinue reading “Industry Spotlight: Hospitals”
Healthcare Analytics: Exploration versus Confirmation
Perhaps the most active application of analytics and data mining is healthcare. This week we look at one success story, the use of machine learning to predict diabetic retinopathy, one story of disappointment, the use of genetic testing in a puzzling disease, and a basic dichotomy in statistical analysis. In his famous 1977 book thatContinue reading “Healthcare Analytics: Exploration versus Confirmation”
Problem of the Week: Simpson’s Paradox – baseball
Question: A baseball team is comparing two of its hitters, Hernandez and Dimock. Hernandez hit .250 in 2017 and .275 in 2018. Dimock did worse in both years – .245 in 2017 and .270 in 2018. Overall, though, Dimock hit better across the two years, .263 versus .258 for Hernandez. How can this be? Answer:Continue reading “Problem of the Week: Simpson’s Paradox – baseball”
Matching Algorithms
Some applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence are recognizably impressive – predicting future hospital readmission of discharged patients, for example, or diagnosing retinopathy. Others – self-driving cars, for example – seem almost magical. The matching problem, though, is one where your first reaction might be “What’s so hard about that?” For example, to takeContinue reading “Matching Algorithms”
Instructor Spotlight: Cliff Ragsdale
Cliff T. Ragsdale teaches several courses for the Institute in the area of operations research, based on his best selling text “Spreadsheet Modeling and Decision Analysis.” One of Cliff’s special talents is making his subject, which can be quite challenging technically, widely accessible. His courses do not have flashy bells and whistles, but are consistently ratedContinue reading “Instructor Spotlight: Cliff Ragsdale”
Industry Spotlight: Consulting
When a new technology arrives, consulting companies can quickly add staff and expertise to build institutional capacity centered around the technology in ways companies focused on delivering their own products and services cannot. Large consulting companies like Booz Allen and McKinsey, as well as smaller analytics-centric firms like Elder Research, thus constitute a significant jobContinue reading “Industry Spotlight: Consulting”
Industry Spotlight: Baseball (Sports) Statistics
The U.S. baseball season opens Thursday, March 28, and celebrates the 48th season of analytics in baseball, beginning with the founding of the Sabermetric Society in 1971 (the same year that Satchel Paige entered the Hall of Fame). Analytics has come a long way in sports, and now has its own conference, the MIT SportsContinue reading “Industry Spotlight: Baseball (Sports) Statistics”
Industry Spotlight: Package Delivery Business
Nothing better illustrates the encroachment of data science and analytics on the older “economy of tangible things” than the business of delivering packages. The use of analytics in package delivery is not new. Companies like UPS and Fedex are longtime users of operations research methods like optimization and simulation to route inter-city shipments, site newContinue reading “Industry Spotlight: Package Delivery Business”