ISYE 6501 Lecture Transcripts Introduction to Analytics Modeling

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Week 1 Time to get started! This week, you’ll get introduced to the course and its organization, and then we’ll jump right into classification models, including a couple of basic machine learni... ng algorithms. We’ll also cover some cross-cutting concepts about data, scaling, and model validation. 1. Introduction 1.1 (C): Introduction to Analytics Modeling Hi, welcome to Introduction to Analytics Modeling, Georgia Tech's course ISYE6501. I'm Joel Sokol, director of the Master of Science in Analytics degree at Georgia Tech and a professor in Georgia Tech's Stewart School of ISyE. In my research and consulting, I've used analytics in a lot of different ways to help a lot of different people. I've worked with medical doctors and airline pilots, newspaper recyclers and investors, human resource specialists and lab managers. My analytics solutions have been used by professional sports teams, major manufacturers, and the world's busiest airport, and they've provided insights to the United States military and the largest energy company in the world. In almost all of that work, a critical key to success has been analytics modeling, selecting and specifying the right analytics model or models to combine into a solution, compiling, building, and/or forecasting the necessary data sets, and then interpreting the model's output to make suggestions that match the organization's needs, priorities, and structure. And that's what this course is about. As the name says, it's an introduction to analytics modeling. Analytics can help answer lots of important types of questions. It can answer descriptive questions , questions that ask for explanations of what happened, like: ● How much effect did a new system for scanning carry-on luggage have on airport security wait times? ● When did the reliability of a critical component of a piece of manufacturing equipment drop below an acceptable level? 8 ● Which sets of customers are most alike in their buying patterns? And what factors are most important in determining customer similarity? ● Is a new medical treatment better than what's currently being used? Analytics can also answer predictive questions , questions that ask what's going to happen in the future: ● How much worldwide demand will there be for crude oil next year, or five or ten years from now? ● What will Google's stock price be a year from now, and how much uncertainty is there in that estimate? ● How likely is it that a person with certain characteristics will eat in my restaurant chain if I send him a coupon or vote for the political candidate I support or click on a specific banner ad on a website? And analytics can also answer prescriptive questions , questions that ask what action or actions would be best: ● How should traffic lights be timed and synchronized to minimize delays downtown when there's a major sporting event? ● When and where should giant oil tankers make pickups and deliveries all around the world? ● What strategies can an airline use to get passengers to their destinations quickly before, during, and after a big snow storm? Finally, sometimes analytics is useful for answering even more general questions, like: we just installed technology to track all kinds of detailed information that we never had before so how do we monetize it? How can we use that data to create value for our company? We'll talk about all of these types of questions as we go through the course in both discussions of when analytics can help you answer them and in lessons on how to use analytics models and methods to help find the answers you're looking for. In addition to viewing lessons from me, you'll have a chance to contribute your own thoughts and ideas too as part of the discussion forums, the team-based homework assignments, and the peer grading process. As we go through the course, if you get confused or you're not sure you understand what I am saying, please ask. Asking questions is one of the best ways to really learn something, and the discussion forums are a great place both to ask questions and to 9 discuss answers with your fellow learners. So please take advantage of the 1 opportunity. 1 As is the student-run Slack! 10 1.2 (C): Introduction to the Course In the first part of the course, the largest part will be focused on knowledge building: what you need to know, to be succ [Show More]

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