TODAY IN ROTARY Jeff Humphreys from the BYU Math
Department spoke on the “Art and Science of Predictive Analytics,” a
combination of creativity and skill to determine patterns and future trends and
outcomes using analytical data.
According to the professor, the recent boom in data processing has many
causes including computers which have doubled in performance every two years;
new algorithms which work really well; and the doubling every two years of
data. Said the professor, “our ability
to collect data vastly exceeds our ability to analyze it” when such data giants
as Google, the NSA (which by itself has more than 5000 mathematicians on their
payroll), imaging technology needs, telecommunications, Amazon, Wal-Mart and
NASDAQ have huge demands in the 21st century (aka “Age of
Information).
Using the black box model, the art is in the question.
With the gray box model (used for such things as predicting weather and deciphering
handwriting), the art is in both the question and the solution. He then spoke of the data analyzing educational capability of BYU noting “the feds have thrown an obscene amount of money at us to create duplicable models” through tightly integrated studies.
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