Modeling Techniques in Predictive Analytics

Book excerpt: Now fully updated, this uniquely accessible book will help you use predictive analytics to solve real business problems and drive real competitive advantage. If you're new to the discipline, it will give you the strong foundation you need to get accurate, actionable results. If you're already a modeler, programmer, or manager, it will teach you crucial skills you don't yet have. This guide illuminates the discipline through realistic vignettes and intuitive data visualizations-not complex math. Thomas W. Miller, leader of Northwestern University's pioneering program in predictive analytics, guides you through defining problems, identifying data, crafting and optimizing models, writing effective R code, interpreting results, and more. Every chapter focuses on one of today's key applications for predictive analytics, delivering skills and knowledge to put models to work-and maximize their value. Reflecting extensive student and instructor feedback, this edition adds five classroom-tested case studies, updates all code for new versions of R, explains code behavior more clearly and completely, and covers modern data science methods even more effectively.