FiveThirtyEight is publishing forecasts for the 2015 UK general election. The site was founded by Nate Silver who made a name for himself creating models that were successful in forecasting the results of recent US elections. Current predictions are for even closer parity between the Conservatives and Labour, with the SNP comfortably in third place (but not fully in control of the balance of … [Read more...]
Politicians and statistics
An article in today's Guardian claims that 220 potential MPs have pledged to attend a workshop on how to interpret statistics in public life. Makes a lot of sense. Politicians' misunderstanding of statistics is illustrated by reference to a test conducted by the Royal Statistical Society, reported (article has since been updated) as: ...97 MPs were asked the maths question: "If you spin a … [Read more...]
Microsoft hiring R developers
Subsequent to their recent purchase of Revolution Analytics, Mircosoft seem to be expanding their investment in R. They are currently hiring for a new team that, amongst other things, will further accelerate & scale R analytics workloads by integrating with modern big data processing frameworks. … [Read more...]
Emotion analytics
Affectiva have an SDK for smartphones that, via the camera, can determine your emotional state from your facial expression. A free trial period is available for those who wish to try the SDK for themselves. … [Read more...]
Big data helps to prevent students from dropping out of college
Marist College, in Poughkeepsie, NY, is using predictive analytics to determine whether students are likely to drop out of their courses. The college has developed an early warning system for students attending online and hybrid (traditional lecturing with homework completed online) courses. This system identifies students at risk based on factors such as: reading patterns (clickstream … [Read more...]