Bayes Like This

Details of a great talk on Bayes' rule: http://galweejit.wordpress.com/2011/12/18/ignite-notes-nobody-told-me-thered-be-bayes-like-this/

Probability & Statistical Inference, Back Where it Started

The Probability & Statistical Inference class tonight (Tuesday 13th December) will return to the lecture room in GA-028 in Kevin St (down the little corridor beside the shop).

Accenture Talk Rescheduled

Hello folks,

The talk by Accenture consulting has been rescheduled to Monday the 12th of December at 18:30 in KE4-008. Speaking will be Jacques Bellac, a member of Accenture's Global Analytics Innovation Centre here in Dublin, and Patrick Quinn, a former DIT graduate and current Accenture consultant.

Jacques and Patrick will be speaking about the work that they do in the Analytics Innovation Centre in Dublin and careers at Accenture so this promises to be a very interesting and useful session. Last year Accenture opened their Analytics Innovation Centre in Dublin and are actively recruiting at all levels.

See you there,

Brian.

MSc in Computing (Data Analytics) Exam Timetable

The MSc in Computing (Data Analytics) exam timetable has been released.

W285/W286/010C	Data Mining	Monday-09-January	1.00 - 3.00
W285/W286/1112C	Data and Database Design for Data Analysis	Tuesday-10-January	1.00 - 3.00
W285/W286/020C	Probability and Statiscal Inference	Wednesday-11-January	1.00 - 3.00
W286/1117C	Data Management	Thursday-12-January	1.00 - 3.00
W286/1115C	Systems Architectures	Friday-13-January	1.00 - 3.00
W286P/1102C	Ubiquitous Computing	Monday-16-January	1.00 - 3.00
W285/W286/012C	Security	Tuesday-17-January	1.00 - 3.00
W286A/1113C	Knowledge Management Tools and Techniques	Tuesday-17-January	1.00 - 3.00

5th December Data Mining

In the absence of the Accenture talk this evening (5th December) there will be no Data Mining class.

DT285/DT286 Probability & Statistical Inference Assignment Extension

The submission date for the Probability & Statistical Inference assignment has been extended until midnight on the 14th of December, 2011. The class on Tuesday the 6th will be held in the Aungier St. labs and be devoted to working on the assignment.

See you there.

Accenture Recruitment Talk Rescheduled

The Accenture recruitment talk has been rescheduled from Monday the 5th of December to Monday the 12th of December. It will still take place during the Data Mining class in KE 4-008 at 18:30.

Moneyball

If you haven't heard of it already (from such fabulous blog posts as Damian's), Moneyball is a great film that does a really nice job of showing off what we can do with analytics. It really showed off some of the key steps in an analytics projects:

Business question: win more games with cheap players

Analytics question: which players are most effective at wining games / what are the factors that most influence winning games

Insight: particular metrics (e.g. "getting on base") that baseball scouts etc typically aren't interested in are most effective at predicting wins

Decision: when buying players look for those with good on-base ratings and ignore other distracting factors (e.g. looking good in a uniform)

I also really liked the way they showed that while analytics gave an edge, the team still had to do all of the things that baseball teams do really well in order to be successful. Analytics just gave them an edge. Analytics is amazing, but it is not a silver bullet.

Also, there is a nice article on npr.org that discusses what can be done with data analytics:

http://www.npr.org/2011/11/29/142521910/the-digital-breadcrumbs-that-lead-to-big-data