Applied Predictive Analytics

Learn the art and science of predictive analytics — techniques that get results Predictive analytics is what translates big data into meaningful, usable business information. Written by a leading expert in the field, this guide examines the science of the underlying algorithms as well as the principles and best practices that govern the art of predictive analytics. It clearly explains the theory behind predictive analytics, teaches the methods, principles, and techniques for conducting predictive analytics projects, and offers tips and tricks that are essential for successful predictive modeling. Hands-on examples and case studies are included. The ability to successfully apply predictive analytics enables businesses to effectively interpret big data; essential for competition today This guide teaches not only the principles of predictive analytics, but also how to apply them to achieve real, pragmatic solutions Explains methods, principles, and techniques for conducting predictive analytics projects from start to finish Illustrates each technique with hands-on examples and includes as series of in-depth case studies that apply predictive analytics to common business scenarios A companion website provides all the data sets used to generate the examples as well as a free trial version of software Applied Predictive Analytics arms data and business analysts and business managers with the tools they need to interpret and capitalize on big data.

Applied Predictive Modeling covers the overall predictive modeling process, beginning with the crucial steps of data preprocessing, data splitting and foundations of model tuning. The text then provides intuitive explanations of numerous common and modern regression and classification techniques, always with an emphasis on illustrating and solving real data problems. The text illustrates all parts of the modeling process through many hands-on, real-life examples, and every chapter contains extensive R code for each step of the process. This multi-purpose text can be used as an introduction to predictive models and the overall modeling process, a practitioner’s reference handbook, or as a text for advanced undergraduate or graduate level predictive modeling courses. To that end, each chapter contains problem sets to help solidify the covered concepts and uses data available in the book’s R package. This text is intended for a broad audience as both an introduction to predictive models as well as a guide to applying them. Non-mathematical readers will appreciate the intuitive explanations of the techniques while an emphasis on problem-solving with real data across a wide variety of applications will aid practitioners who wish to extend their expertise. Readers should have knowledge of basic statistical ideas, such as correlation and linear regression analysis. While the text is biased against complex equations, a mathematical background is needed for advanced topics.

This textbook presents a practical approach to predictive analytics for classroom learning. It focuses on using analytics to solve business problems and compares several different modeling techniques, all explained from examples using the SAS Enterprise Miner software. The authors demystify complex algorithms to show how they can be utilized and explained within the context of enhancing business opportunities. Each chapter includes an opening vignette that provides real-life example of how business analytics have been used in various aspects of organizations to solve issue or improve their results. A running case provides an example of a how to build and analyze a complex analytics model and utilize it to predict future outcomes.

Use Product Analytics to Understand Consumer Behavior and Change It at Scale Product Analytics is a complete, hands-on guide to generating actionable business insights from customer data. Experienced data scientist and enterprise manager Joanne Rodrigues introduces practical statistical techniques for determining why things happen and how to change what people do at scale. She complements these with powerful social science techniques for creating better theories, designing better metrics, and driving more rapid and sustained behavior change. Writing for entrepreneurs, product managers/marketers, and other business practitioners, Rodrigues teaches through intuitive examples from both web and offline environments. Avoiding math-heavy explanations, she guides you step by step through choosing the right techniques and algorithms for each application, running analyses in R, and getting answers you can trust. Develop core metrics and effective KPIs for user analytics in any web product Truly understand statistical inference, and the differences between correlation and causation Conduct more effective A/B tests Build intuitive predictive models to capture user behavior in products Use modern, quasi-experimental designs and statistical matching to tease out causal effects from observational data Improve response through uplift modeling and other sophisticated targeting methods Project business costs/subgroup population changes via advanced demographic projection Whatever your product or service, this guide can help you create precision-targeted marketing campaigns, improve consumer satisfaction and engagement, and grow revenue and profits. Register your book for convenient access to downloads, updates, and/or corrections as they become available. See inside book for details.

The emergence of huge amounts of data which require analysis and in some cases real-time processing has forced exploration into fast algorithms for handling very lage data sizes. Analysis of x-ray images in medical applications, cyber security data, crime data, telecommunications and stock market data, health records and business analytics data are but a few areas of interest. Applications and platforms including R, RapidMiner and Weka provide the basis for analysis, often used by practitioners who pay little to no attention to the underlying mathematics and processes impacting the data. This often leads to an inability to explain results or correct mistakes, or to spot errors. Applied Data Analytics - Principles and Applications seeks to bridge this missing gap by providing some of the most sought after techniques in big data analytics. Establishing strong foundations in these topics provides practical ease when big data analyses are undertaken using the widely available open source and commercially orientated computation platforms, languages and visualisation systems. The book, when combined with such platforms, provides a complete set of tools required to handle big data and can lead to fast implementations and applications. The book contains a mixture of machine learning foundations, deep learning, artificial intelligence, statistics and evolutionary learning mathematics written from the usage point of view with rich explanations on what the concepts mean. The author has thus avoided the complexities often associated with these concepts when found in research papers. The tutorial nature of the book and the applications provided are some of the reasons why the book is suitable for undergraduate, postgraduate and big data analytics enthusiasts. This text should ease the fear of mathematics often associated with practical data analytics and support rapid applications in artificial intelligence, environmental sensor data modelling and analysis, health informatics, business data analytics, data from Internet of Things and deep learning applications.

Applied Statistical Modeling and Data Analytics: A Practical Guide for the Petroleum Geosciences provides a practical guide to many of the classical and modern statistical techniques that have become established for oil and gas professionals in recent years. It serves as a "how to" reference volume for the practicing petroleum engineer or geoscientist interested in applying statistical methods in formation evaluation, reservoir characterization, reservoir modeling and management, and uncertainty quantification. Beginning with a foundational discussion of exploratory data analysis, probability distributions and linear regression modeling, the book focuses on fundamentals and practical examples of such key topics as multivariate analysis, uncertainty quantification, data-driven modeling, and experimental design and response surface analysis. Data sets from the petroleum geosciences are extensively used to demonstrate the applicability of these techniques. The book will also be useful for professionals dealing with subsurface flow problems in hydrogeology, geologic carbon sequestration, and nuclear waste disposal. Authored by internationally renowned experts in developing and applying statistical methods for oil & gas and other subsurface problem domains Written by practitioners for practitioners Presents an easy to follow narrative which progresses from simple concepts to more challenging ones Includes online resources with software applications and practical examples for the most relevant and popular statistical methods, using data sets from the petroleum geosciences Addresses the theory and practice of statistical modeling and data analytics from the perspective of petroleum geoscience applications

"Mesmerizing & fascinating..." —The Seattle Post-Intelligencer "The Freakonomics of big data." —Stein Kretsinger, founding executive of Advertising.com Award-winning | Used by over 30 universities | Translated into 9 languages An introduction for everyone. In this rich, fascinating — surprisingly accessible — introduction, leading expert Eric Siegel reveals how predictive analytics (aka machine learning) works, and how it affects everyone every day. Rather than a “how to” for hands-on techies, the book serves lay readers and experts alike by covering new case studies and the latest state-of-the-art techniques. Prediction is booming. It reinvents industries and runs the world. Companies, governments, law enforcement, hospitals, and universities are seizing upon the power. These institutions predict whether you're going to click, buy, lie, or die. Why? For good reason: predicting human behavior combats risk, boosts sales, fortifies healthcare, streamlines manufacturing, conquers spam, optimizes social networks, toughens crime fighting, and wins elections. How? Prediction is powered by the world's most potent, flourishing unnatural resource: data. Accumulated in large part as the by-product of routine tasks, data is the unsalted, flavorless residue deposited en masse as organizations churn away. Surprise! This heap of refuse is a gold mine. Big data embodies an extraordinary wealth of experience from which to learn. Predictive analytics (aka machine learning) unleashes the power of data. With this technology, the computer literally learns from data how to predict the future behavior of individuals. Perfect prediction is not possible, but putting odds on the future drives millions of decisions more effectively, determining whom to call, mail, investigate, incarcerate, set up on a date, or medicate. In this lucid, captivating introduction — now in its Revised and Updated edition — former Columbia University professor and Predictive Analytics World founder Eric Siegel reveals the power and perils of prediction: What type of mortgage risk Chase Bank predicted before the recession. Predicting which people will drop out of school, cancel a subscription, or get divorced before they even know it themselves. Why early retirement predicts a shorter life expectancy and vegetarians miss fewer flights. Five reasons why organizations predict death — including one health insurance company. How U.S. Bank and Obama for America calculated the way to most strongly persuade each individual. Why the NSA wants all your data: machine learning supercomputers to fight terrorism. How IBM's Watson computer used predictive modeling to answer questions and beat the human champs on TV's Jeopardy! How companies ascertain untold, private truths — how Target figures out you're pregnant and Hewlett-Packard deduces you're about to quit your job. How judges and parole boards rely on crime-predicting computers to decide how long convicts remain in prison. 182 examples from Airbnb, the BBC, Citibank, ConEd, Facebook, Ford, Google, the IRS, LinkedIn, Match.com, MTV, Netflix, PayPal, Pfizer, Spotify, Uber, UPS, Wikipedia, and more. How does predictive analytics work? This jam-packed book satisfies by demystifying the intriguing science under the hood. For future hands-on practitioners pursuing a career in the field, it sets a strong foundation, delivers the prerequisite knowledge, and whets your appetite for more. A truly omnipresent science, predictive analytics constantly affects our daily lives. Whether you are a consumer of it — or consumed by it — get a handle on the power of Predictive Analytics.

This book has two main goals: to define data science through the work of data scientists and their results, namely data products, while simultaneously providing the reader with relevant lessons learned from applied data science projects at the intersection of academia and industry. As such, it is not a replacement for a classical textbook (i.e., it does not elaborate on fundamentals of methods and principles described elsewhere), but systematically highlights the connection between theory, on the one hand, and its application in specific use cases, on the other. With these goals in mind, the book is divided into three parts: Part I pays tribute to the interdisciplinary nature of data science and provides a common understanding of data science terminology for readers with different backgrounds. These six chapters are geared towards drawing a consistent picture of data science and were predominantly written by the editors themselves. Part II then broadens the spectrum by presenting views and insights from diverse authors – some from academia and some from industry, ranging from financial to health and from manufacturing to e-commerce. Each of these chapters describes a fundamental principle, method or tool in data science by analyzing specific use cases and drawing concrete conclusions from them. The case studies presented, and the methods and tools applied, represent the nuts and bolts of data science. Finally, Part III was again written from the perspective of the editors and summarizes the lessons learned that have been distilled from the case studies in Part II. The section can be viewed as a meta-study on data science across a broad range of domains, viewpoints and fields. Moreover, it provides answers to the question of what the mission-critical factors for success in different data science undertakings are. The book targets professionals as well as students of data science: first, practicing data scientists in industry and academia who want to broaden their scope and expand their knowledge by drawing on the authors’ combined experience. Second, decision makers in businesses who face the challenge of creating or implementing a data-driven strategy and who want to learn from success stories spanning a range of industries. Third, students of data science who want to understand both the theoretical and practical aspects of data science, vetted by real-world case studies at the intersection of academia and industry.