Predictive Analytics 3 – Dimension Reduction, Clustering, and Association Rules with R

Predictive Analytics 3 – Dimension Reduction, Clustering, and Association Rules with R

This course, with a focus on R, will teach you key unsupervised learning techniques of association rules - principal components analysis, and clustering - and will include an integration of supervised and unsupervised learning techniques.

This course, with a focus on R, will teach you key unsupervised learning techniques of association rules - principal components analysis, and clustering - and will include an integration of supervised and unsupervised learning techniques.

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Overview

In this course, you will cover key unsupervised learning techniques including association rules, principal components analysis, and clustering. You will also review integration of supervised and unsupervised learning techniques. Participants will apply data mining algorithms to real data, and will interpret the results. A final project will integrate an unsupervised task with supervised methods covered in predictive Analytics 1 and 2. Students will use R, a free software environment with statistical computing and graphics capabilities. Note: If you prefer to work in Excel or Python, this course is offered using Solver (an Excel add-in) or Python.

Learning Outcomes

After completing this course students will understand issues relating to using too many predictors and how to reduce the number of predictors to a smaller number of usable “components.” You will use various clustering techniques and association rules to describe clusters of similar records, and to find patterns in your data. You will learn to use R to implement the models covered in this course, and how to combine supervised and unsupervised models.

  • Use principal coponents analysis and variable selection techniques to reduce dimensionality
  • Cluster records using hierarchical and k-means clustering
  • Discover association rules in transaction databases
  • Specify how collaborative filtering can be used to develop automated recommendations
  • Integrate unsupervised and supervised data mining methods in a case study
  • Use various R packages to implement the models in the course

Who Should Take This Course

Marketers seeking to specify customer segments, identify associations among products purchased and design recommender systems, MBA’s seeking to update their knowledge of quantitative techniques, managers and scientists who want to see what data-mining can do, and anyone who wants a practical hands-on grounding in basic data-mining techniques.

Instructors

dr-inbal-yahav

Dr. Inbal Yahav

Dr. Inbal Yahav is a faculty member at the Graduate School of Business Administration, Bar-Ilan University, Israel.  Her research interests lie in the areas of statistical modeling and social media, with a focus on users' behavior in social networks, interactions and dynamics among users, and statistical modeling of heterogeneous behaviors.  Dr. Yahav's research to-date focuses on two domains. The first domain is cyber security and privacy, and in specific privacy unawareness and unintentional information leakage in social networks. The second domain is statistical modeling of sub-populations in big data. Dr. Yahav has presented her work at multiple Information Systems conf...
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mr-kuber-deokar

Mr. Kuber Deokar

Mr. Kuber Deokar holds a Masters degree in Statistics from University of Pune, India, where he also taught undergraduate statistics. Mr. Deokar holds the position of Instructional Operations Supervisor at Statistics.com. He is responsible for coordination of statistics.com online courses, and ensures seamless interactions between the management team, course instructors, teaching assistants, and students. He also serves as the senior teaching assistant and shares instructional responsibilities for several courses, and handles consultancy assignments, working from our office in Pune, India.
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Course Syllabus

Week 1

Dimension Reduction

  • Detecting information overlap using domain knowledge and data summaries and charts
  • Removing or combining redundant variables and categories
  • Dealing with multi-category variables
  • Automated dimension reduction techniques
    • Principal Components Analysis (PCA)
    • Predictive algorithms with variable selection techniques

Week 2

Cluster Analysis

  • Popular uses of cluster analysis
  • Clustering approaches
  • Hierarchical clustering
    • Distances between records
    • Distances between clusters
    • Dendrograms
    • Validating clusters
    • Strengths and weaknesses
  • K-Means Clustering
    • Initializing the k clusters
    • Distance of a record from a cluster
    • Within-cluster homogeneity
    • Elbow charts

Week 3

Association Rules and Recommender Systems

  • Discovering association rules in transaction databases
    • Support, confidence and lift
    • The apriori algorithm
    • Shortcomings
  • Collaborative filtering
    • Person-based
    • Item-based

Week 4

Integrating Supervised and Unsupervised Methods; Introduction to Network and Text Analytics

  • The role of unsupervised methods in predictive analytics
    • Dimension reduction of predictor space
    • Predictive models on subsets of homogeneous records
  • Advantages and weaknesses of combining unsupervised and supervised methods
  • Network analytics
  • Text analytics
  • Unsupervised methods used in network and text analytics

Class Dates

2019

Sep 6, 2019 to Oct 4, 2019

2020

Jan 3, 2020 to Jan 31, 2020

Apr 10, 2020 to May 8, 2020

Jul 31, 2020 to Aug 28, 2020

2021

No classes scheduled at this time.

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Prerequisites

Introductory Statistics

We assume you are versed in statistics or have the equivalent understanding of topics covered in our Statistics 1 and Statistics 2 courses. but do not require them as eligibility to enroll in this course. Please review the course description for each of our introductory statistics courses, estimate which best matches your level of understanding of the material covered in these courses, then take the short assessment test for that course. If you can not answer more than half of the questions correctly, we suggest you take our Statistics 1 and Statistics 2 courses prior to taking this course.

In addition, there is a lesson in the course where supervised and unsupervised learning techniques are used in combination, so, unless you do not need this portion, you should be familiar with supervised learning methods, such as those presented in Predictive Analytics 1 with R.

 

Recommended

We recommended, but do not require as eligibility to enroll in this course, an understanding of the material covered in these following courses.

Predictive Analytics 1 – Machine Learning Tools with R

This course introduces to the basic concepts in predictive analytics, with a focus on R, to visualize and explore data that account for most business applications of predictive modeling: classification and prediction.
Topic: Data Science, Analytics, Prediction/Forecasting, Using R | Skill: Introductory, Intermediate | Credit Options: ACE, CAP, CEU
Class Start Dates: Jan 10, 2020, May 15, 2020, Sep 11, 2020

What Our Students Say​

Instructor gave good, understandable answers on the board, and several nice summaries of topics we were covering.

Alisa Boehme
Statistical Analyst at Walmart Labs

The professor was extremely helpful in the course and always willing to go above and beyond to answer questions.

Angela Saquibal

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I transfer or withdraw from a course?

We have a flexible transfer and withdrawal policy that recognizes circumstances may arise to prevent you from taking a course as planned. You may transfer or withdraw from a course under certain conditions.

  • Students are entitled to a full refund if a course they are registered for is canceled.
  • You can transfer your tuition to another course at any time prior to the course start date or the drop date, however a transfer is not permitted after the drop date.
  • Withdrawals on or after the first day of class are entitled to a percentage refund of tuition.

Please see this page for more information.

Who are the instructors at the Institute?

The Institute has more than 60 instructors who are recruited based on their expertise in various areas in statistics. Our faculty members are:

  • Authors of well-regarded texts in their area;
  • Advisory board members;
  • Senior faculty; and
  • Educators who have made important contributions to the field of statistics or online education in statistics.

The majority of our instructors have more than five years of teaching experience online at the Institute.

Please visit our faculty page for more information on each instructor at The Institute for Statistics Education.

Please see our knowledge center for more information.

What type of courses does the Institute offer?

The Institute offers approximately 80 courses each year. Topics include basic survey courses for novices, a full sequence of introductory statistics courses, bridge courses to more advanced topics. Our courses cover a range of topics including biostatistics, research statistics, data mining, business analytics, survey statistics, and environmental statistics.

Please see our course search or knowledge center for more information.

Do your courses have for-credit options?

Our courses have several for-credit options:

  • Continuing education units (CEU)
  • College credit through The American Council on Education (ACE CREDIT)
  • Course credits that are transferable to the INFORMS Certified Analytics Professional (CAP®)

Please see our knowledge center for more information.

Is the Institute for Statistics Education certified?

The Institute for Statistics Education is certified to operate by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia (SCHEV). For more information visit: http://www.schev.edu

Please see our knowledge center for more information.

Visit our knowledge base and learn more.

FAQs + Knowledge Base

Related Courses

Predictive Analytics 3 – Dimension Reduction, Clustering, and Association Rules

This course will teach you key unsupervised learning techniques of association rules – principal components analysis, and clustering – and will include an integration of supervised and unsupervised learning techniques.
Topic: Analytics, Prediction/Forecasting | Skill: Introductory, Intermediate | Credit Options: ACE, CAP, CEU
Class Start Dates: Jan 3, 2020, Apr 10, 2020, Jul 31, 2020

Predictive Analytics 3 – Dimension Reduction, Clustering, and Association Rules with Python

This course, with a focus on Python, will teach you key unsupervised learning techniques of association rules – principal components analysis, and clustering – and will include an integration of supervised and unsupervised learning techniques.
Topic: Data Science, Analytics, Prediction/Forecasting, Using Python | Skill: Introductory, Intermediate | Credit Options: CEU
Class Start Dates: Jan 3, 2020, Apr 10, 2020, Jul 31, 2020

Additional Course Information

Organization of Course

This course takes place online at The Institute for 4 weeks. During each course week, you participate at times of your own choosing – there are no set times when you must be online. Course participants will be given access to a private discussion board. In class discussions led by the instructor, you can post questions, seek clarification, and interact with your fellow students and the instructor.

At the beginning of each week, you receive the relevant material, in addition to answers to exercises from the previous session. During the week, you are expected to go over the course materials, work through exercises, and submit answers. Discussion among participants is encouraged. The instructor will provide answers and comments, and at the end of the week, you will receive individual feedback on your homework answers.

Time Requirements

This is a 4-week course requiring 10-15 hours per week of review and study, at times of your choosing.

Homework

Homework in this course consists of short answer questions to test concepts, and guided data analysis problems using software.

In addition to assigned readings, this course also has supplemental video lectures and an end of course data modeling project.

Course Text

The required text for this course is Data Mining for Business Analytics: Concepts, Techniques, and Applications in R, by Shmueli, Patel, Yahav, Bruce and Lichtendahl. This same text is also used in the previous courses: “Predictive Analytics 1 – Machine Learning Tools – with R” and “Predictive Analytics 2 – Neural Nets and Regression – with R”.

Please order a copy of your course textbook prior to course start date.

Software

This is a hands-on course, and participants will apply data mining algorithms to real data. The course will use R, a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics. It compiles and runs on a wide variety of UNIX platforms, Windows and MacOS.

Software Uses and Descriptions | Available Free Versions
To learn more about the software used in this course, or how to obtain free versions of software used in our courses, please read our knowledge base article “What software is used in courses?” 

Course Fee & Information

Enrollment
Courses may fill up at any time and registrations are processed in the order in which they are received. Your registration will be confirmed for the first available course date unless you specify otherwise.

Transfers and Withdrawals
We have flexible policies to transfer to another course or withdraw if necessary.

Group Rates
Contact us to get information on group rates.

Discounts
Academic affiliation?  In most courses you are eligible for a discount at checkout.

New to Statistics.com?  Click here for a special introductory discount code.  

Invoice or Purchase Order
Add $50 service fee if you require a prior invoice, or if you need to submit a purchase order or voucher, pay by wire transfer or EFT, or refund and reprocess a prior payment.

Options for Credit and Recognition

This course is eligible for the following credit and recognition options:

No Credit
You may take this course without pursuing credit or a record of completion.

Mastery or Certificate Program Credit
If you are enrolled in mastery or certificate program that requires demonstration of proficiency in this subject, your course work may be assessed for a grade.

CEUs and Proof of Completion
If you require a “Record of Course Completion” along with professional development credit in the form of Continuing Education Units (CEU’s), upon successfully completing the course, CEU’s and a record of course completion will be issued by The Institute upon your request.

ACE CREDIT | College Credit
This course has been evaluated by the American Council on Education (ACE) and is recommended for the the upper division baccalaureate degree, 3 semester hours in data mining, statistics, or computer science. Please note that the decision to accept specific credit recommendations is up to the academic institution accepting the credit.

ACE Digital Badge
Courses evaluated by the American Council on Education (ACE) have a digital badge available for successful completion of the course.

INFORMS-CAP
This course is recognized by the Institute for Operations Research and the Management Sciences (INFORMS) as helpful preparation for the Certified Analytics Professional (CAP®) exam and can help CAP® analysts accrue Professional Development Units to maintain their certification.

Supplemental Information

There is no supplemental content for this course.

Miscellaneous

There is no additional information for this course.

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Predictive Analytics 3 – Dimension Reduction, Clustering, and Association Rules with R
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