BUS 212f (2) ANALYZING BIG DATA II
Spring 2014—Thursdays 6:30–9:15 pm
Location TBA
Prof. Robert Carver
781-775-5493 (mobile)
rcarver@brandeis.edu
Office: Sachar 11 (lower level, near vending machines)
Hours: Tuesdays, 4:00 – 5:30 and by appointment
TA:
TBA
Overview
This is a two credit module that is a continuation of BUS 211f (1). This
module provides theoretical and hands-on instruction in three major elements
of Big Data analytics: management-oriented visualizations, data mining, and
predictive modeling. Through the use of widely adopted software tools,
students will build models and execute analyses to address current needs of
selected Brandeis administrative offices as well as solve problems presented in
cases. Assignments and classroom time will be devoted both to analysis of
current developments in business analytics and to gaining experience with
current tools.
Required Readings
Provost, Foster & Fawcett, Tom. Data Science for Business: What You Need to
Know about Data Mining and Data-Analytic Thinking. (2013, Sebastopol, CA:
O’Reilly Media) Purchase at Bookstore or on-line.
There is a required on-line course pack available for purchase at the Harvard
Business Publishing website. A direct link is available on LATTE . See last
page of Syllabus for course pack contents.
Other readings as posted on LATTE site.
Recommended
Readings
Berry, M. and Linoff, G. Data Mining Techniques for Marketing, Sales, and
Customer Relationship Management. 3rd ed. (2011, Wiley) available on-line
through LTS. Ebook ISBN9781118087459.
Hastie, T., Tibshirani, R. and Friedman, J.H. The Elements of Statistical Learning:
Data Mining, Inference, and Prediction. (2001, Springer). Available in library
main stacks; pdf of new edition available for download at http://wwwstat.stanford.edu/~tibs/ElemStatLearn/printings/ESLII_print10.pdf
Prerequisites
BUS 211f or permission of instructor.
BUS 212 f(2) Spring 2014
Learning Goals and
Objectives
Course Approach
2
Upon successful completion of this module, students will:

Understand the challenges of performing a business needs assessment to
determine how analytics and visual displays can provide business value

Be able to use training, validation, and test datasets to carry out data
mining analyses

Use common techniques such as multiple regression, partition trees, kmeans clustering to develop predictive models

Apply best practices of predictive modeling to real and realistic business
problems

Design informational graphics and displays grounded in concepts of
business needs and principles of human cognitive processes
Analysis of massive, real-time data is rapidly gaining prominence in
numerous industries, with applications ranging from fraud detection to
consumer behavior. As in the predecessor course (BUS 211f), BUS212f uses
theory, cases, and hands-on analysis to approach course topics. In six short
weeks, we can only dive so deep; we aim for depth in a carefully selected list of
topics rather than breadth. Students should expect to grapple with complex
software-based analyses that do not lend themselves to quick, easy solutions.
Communications
We’ll make regular use of LATTE. All lecture notes, handouts, assignments,
and supporting materials will be available via LATTE, and any late-breaking
news will reach you via email. Please check your Brandeis email and the LATTE
site regularly to keep apprised of important course-related announcements.
Other Course
Technology
All of the software we will use in this course can be accessed on the public
computer clusters at IBS and/or on your personal laptops. If you do use a
laptop, the class schedule below indicates dates when it will be useful to have it
with you.
As in BUS 211f, we will make use of proprietary and public-use databases
accessible through the World Wide Web. We’ll continue to use some of the tools
we adopted in that course, and make two important cloud-based additions:

SAS On-Demand: SAS is one of the leading platforms for data analytics and
statistical modeling. Brandeis has a site license for SAS, with software
installed on campus computer clusters. The advantage of the SAS OnDemand platform is that it is cloud-based, so that students will have access
regardless of operating system (Windows vs. Mac-OS) or of location. We’ll
use two SAS tools:
o
o

Enterprise Guide
Enterprise Miner
MicroStrategy Express: Less widely-adopted than SAS, MicroStrategy is a
highly visual and interactive environment for creating dashboards and other
visualizations, as well as automated queries (without SQL code). Brandeis
has a license for MicroStrategy and LTS and some administrative offices use
it for their own analyses.
MicroStrategy is also a sponsor of the Teradata University Network.
BUS 212 f(2) Spring 2014
Student Classroom
Contributions
3
Class participation is important in this course both as a means of
developing understanding and as an indicator of student progress.
Participation can take many forms, and each student is expected to contribute
actively, freely, and effectively to the classroom experience by raising
questions, demonstrating preparedness and proficiency in the analysis of
problems and cases, and explaining the implications of particular analyses in
context. Homework-based discussion and presentations are an important part
of participation. To this end, regular class attendance is required, and
students should use name cards. We meet only six times, so absence can
become a serious problem. Even if you must arrive late or leave early, be here.
With assistance from the TA, I will evaluate the quality of your
contributions in class each evening, as well as the quality of your contributions
via email, LATTE discussion, etc. These will all be factored together in
determining your ultimate Contributions grade (see below). In general, absence
from class reduces your contribution grade.
Written
Assignments and
Projects
Students will complete five analytic assignments during the course. Three
of these will be brief analyses, requiring both computer modeling and writing.
These may be completed with one or two partners, and each student should
expect to briefly discuss one of their work products in class.
Two other written assignments will be “Projects” requiring more
significant time and analysis. The projects will be prepared in teams of four
students, and will include written and computer-based elements. Owing to the
size of the class this term, students will have only limited opportunities to
present parts of their projects orally in the course.
All assignments should be submitted via LATTE upload prior to the start of
class. Papers should be professional in appearance and use clear,
grammatically correct business English. Analytical work (graphs, tables, and
other output) should be incorporated seamlessly into the written document,
showing readers exactly and only what you want them to see.
Evaluation
Your final grade in the course will be computed using these weights:
Contributions to Class Discussions
Brief analyses (3)
Projects (2 parts)
TOTAL
20%
40%
40%
please note!
100%
Academic Integrity
You are expected to follow the University’s policies on academic integrity
(see http://www.brandeis.edu/studentaffairs/srcs/ai/index.html). Instances
of alleged dishonesty will be forwarded to the Office of Campus Life for possible
referral to the Student Judicial System. Potential sanctions include failure in the
course and suspension from the University.
Disabilities
If you are a student with a documented disability on record at Brandeis
and wish to have a reasonable accommodation made for you in this class,
please see me immediately.
BUS 212 f(2) Spring 2014
4
Working with one or two partners is an excellent way to gain understanding of
this subject. I encourage small groups to work on assignments, with a few
caveats:
Study Groups



Be sure that you are neither carrying nor being carried by the group; each
member of the group is entitled to learn.
Except for the group project, each student is responsible for turning in
original memos and problem sets.
Each group member retains the right to “go it alone.” Joining a group is not
a marriage. Similarly, teams are encouraged to dismiss underperforming
members.
Course Outline
Note: for each session, you should complete the assigned reading before coming to class. See list of
deliverables on next page; detailed assignments will be distributed in class each week, and all
assignments and handouts will also be available on our LATTE site. The abbreviation “P&F” refers
to the Provost and Fawcett book.
Session
Date
Topics and Readings
Deliverable Due
by class time
Starting at the End: Visualizations to Support Business
Intelligence
Session 1
March 13
READINGS: Russom, Big Data Analytics (2013, on LATTE)
P&F, Chapter 1
Watson, “All about Analytics”
MicroStrategy document on LATTE
a.
b.
c.
d.
Course introduction and objectives
Review of Cognitive Foundations
The Balanced Scorecard and Dashboards
Introduction to MicroStrategy
(none)
Guest Speaker: JAAP VAN REIJENDAM
Data Warehouse Architect, LTS, Brandeis University
Laptops helpful tonight
Understanding User Needs/Introduction to Data Mining
READINGS: P&F, Chaps 2 & 3
Few, Dashboard Design
Session 2
March 20
CASE READING: A Game of Two Halves: In-Play Betting in Football
a.
b.
c.
d.
Client Interviews with key Brandeis staff
Connections between Data Mining, Statistics and Econometrics
Supervised and Unsupervised Methods
The Data Mining Process
Guest Speakers: TBA
Analysis I
(MicroStrategy)
BUS 212 f(2) Spring 2014
Session
Date
5
Topics and Readings
Deliverable Due
by class time
Data Mining 2
READINGS: P&F, Chaps 4–5
SAS Market Basket Analysis (on LATTE)
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Session 3
March 27
SAS Enterprise Miner on demand
Tree induction
Logistic Regression
Classification and Scoring
Over-fitting and strategies to avoid it
Analysis 2
(Game of Two
Halves)
Laptops helpful tonight
Predictive Analytics 1
READINGS: P&F, Chaps 6–7
CASE READING: Predicting Customer Churn at QWE
Session 4
April 3
a.
b.
c.
Prediction vs. Forecasting
Basic predictive models
SAS churn example – class workshop
Project 1
(Phase 1 design
for Dashboards)
Laptops helpful tonight
Predictive Analytics 2
READINGS: P&F, Chaps 8, 11
Individual assignments from Chap. 12
Session 5
April 10
CASE READING: Predicting Customer Churn at QWE
a.
b.
c.
Analysis 2
(Churn at QWE)
Applications
Visualization and evaluating model performance
Measurement and prediction error
Laptops helpful tonight
Passover
Break
April 17
NO CLASS MEETING THIS WEEK
Visualizations – Team Presentations of Dashboards
Session 6
April 24
In this final full meeting, student teams will present working versions of their
interactive dashboards to our Brandeis administrative clients and to the entire
class.
Dashboard
Presentations
Following the presentations, our clients will provide feedback and we will have
a “continuous improvement” discussion aimed at improving final projects.
No Class Session this week
Tuesday

May 7

Final project due before this date, with revisions & modifications in
response to April 24 discussions.
Graduating students are encouraged to submit early 
Project 2
(Final
Dashboard
models +
documentation)
BUS 212 f(2) Spring 2014
6
Brief Description of Assignments (complete assignment details to be distributed in class):
Creating an interactive Business Intelligence report (MicroStrategy)
Analysis 1
Analysis 2
Build a model to support In-Game Betting in Football (soccer)
Analysis 3
Predictive model for Customer Churn at QWE
Project 1
Project 2
Needs assessment report and interactive dashboard model design with BI
and Predictive elements
Final working model of dashboard and brief supporting documentation
Supplementary Readings and Cases (chronologically during course):
Russom P., (2011) “Big Data Analytics”, TDWI Best Practices Report
Watson, H. (2013) “All about Analytics” International Journal of Business Intelligence Research,
January-March, Vol. 4, No. 1.
Few, S. (2005). “Dashboard Design: Beyond Meters, Gauges, and Traffic Lights” Business Intelligence
Journal
Kumar, U., Sandeep, V. and Satyabala (2013) “A Game of Two Halves: In-Play Betting in Football”
(IMB-401). Indian Institute of Management–Bangalore.
Ovchinnikov, A. (2013) “Predicting Customer Churn at QWE, Inc.” (UV6694) Darden Business
Publishing
Rev. 10/2013