Emilia Cheladze

Article series: 5 Clean Coding Tips – 5.Put yourself in somebody else’s shoes

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This is the fifth of the article series “5 tips for clean coding” to follow as soon as you’ve made the first steps into your coding career, in this article series. Read the introduction here, to find out why it is important to write clean code if you missed it.

It might be a bit repetitive to bring up how important the readability of the code is, let’s do it anyway. In the majority of the cases you are writing for others, therefore you need to put yourself in their shoes to be able to assess how good the readability of your code is. For you, it all might be obvious because you wrote it. But it doesn’t have to be easy to read for someone else. If you have a colleague or a friend that has a bit of time for you and is willing to give you feedback, that is great. If, however, you don’t have such a person, having a few imaginary friends might be helpful in this case. It might sound crazy, but don’t close this page just yet. Having a set of imaginary personas at your disposal, to review your work with their eyes, can help you a lot. Imagine that your code met one of those guys. What would they say about it? If you work in a team or collaborate with people, you probably don’t have to imagine them. You’ve met them.

The_PEP8_guy – He has years of experience. He is used to seeing the code in a very particular way. He quotes the style guide during lunch. His fingers make the perfect line splitting and indentation without even his thoughts reaching the conscious state. He knows that lowercase_with_underscore is for variables, UPPER_CASE_NAMES are for constants and the CapitalizedWords are for classes. He will be lost if you do it in any different way. His expectations will not meet what you wrote, and he will not understand anything, because he will be too distracted by the messed up visual. Depending on the character he might start either crying or shouting. Read the style guide and follow it. You might be able to please this guy at least a little bit with the automatic tools like pylint.

The_ grieving _widow – Imagine that something happens to you. Let’s say, that you get hit by a bus[i]. You leave behind sadness and the_ grieving_widow to manage your code, your legacy. Will the future generations be able to make use of it or were you the only one who can understand anything you wrote? That is a bit of an extreme situation, ok. Alternatively, imagine, that you go for a 5-week vacation to a silent retreat with a strict no-phone policy (or that is what you tell your colleagues). Will they be able to carry on if they cannot ask you anything about the code? Review your code and the documentation from the perspective of the poor grieving_widow.

The_not_your_domain_guy – He is from the outside of the world you are currently in and he just does not understand your jargon. He doesn’t have to know that in data science a feature, a predictor and an x probably mean the same thing. SNR might shout signal-to-noise ratio at you, it will only snort at him. You might use abbreviations that are obvious to you but not to everyone. If you think that the majority of people can understand, and it helps with the code readability keep the abbreviations but just in case, document/comment them. There might be abbreviations specific to your company and, someone from the outside, a new guy, a consultant will not get them. Put yourself in the shoes of that guy and maybe make your code a bit more democratic wherever possible.

The_foreigner– You might be working in an environment, where every single person speaks the same language you speak, and it happens not to be English. So, you and your colleagues name variables and write the comments in your language. However, unless you work in a team with rules a strict as Athletic Bilbao, there might be a foreigner joining your team in the future. It is hard to argue that English is the lingua franca in programming (and in the world), these days. So, it might be worth putting yourself in the_foreigner’s shoes, while writing your code, to avoid a huge amount of work in the future, that the translation and explanation will require. And even if you are working on your own, you might want to make your code public one day and want as many people as possible to read it.

The_hurry_up_guy – we all know this guy. Sometimes he doesn’t have a body or a face, but we can feel his presence. You might want to write a perfect solution, comment it in the best possible way and maybe add a bit of glitter on top but sometimes you just need to give in and do it his way. And that’s ok too.

References:

[i] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_factor

Editorial Staff

Deep Learning World – Virtual Edition 2020!

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DEEP LEARNING WORLD 2020

Virtual Edition, May 11-12, 2020

The premier conference covering the
commercial deployment of deep learning

Deep Learning is no longer the cool new discipline. Instead it has become another tool in the toolbox of the data scientist – but a very important one! Without RNN, CNN etc. many applications that make our daily life better or help us to improve our business wouldn’t be possible. Take for example the German Federal State NRW: they are using neural networks to detect child pornography. Other organizations use it to detect cancer, translate text or inspect machines. It’s also important to understand how Deep Learning sits alongside traditional machine learning methods. As an expert you should know when and how to apply different methods for different applications. At the Deep Learning World conference, you will learn from other practitioners why they decided for a deep, transfer or reinforcement learning approach, what the analytical and technical but also organisational and economic challenges were and how they solved them. Take this opportunity and visit the two-day event to broaden your knowledge, deepen your understanding and discuss your questions with other Deep Learning experts – see you virtually in May 2020!

Why should you participate?

We will provide a live-streamed virtual version of deep learning on 11-12 May, 2020: you will be able to attend sessions and to interact and connect with the speakers and fellow members of the data science community including sponsors and exhibitors from your home or your office.

What about the workshops?

The workshops will also be held virtually on the planned date:
13 May, 2020.

Don’t have a ticket yet?

It‘s not too late to join the data science community.
Register by 10 May to receive access to the livestream and recordings.

REGISTER HERE

We’re looking forward to see you – virtually!

This year the Deep Learning World runs alongside with the Predictive Analytics World for Healthcare and Predictive Analytics World for Industry 4.0.

Image Source: Pixabay (https://pixabay.com/photos/classroom-school-education-learning-2093744/)
Luke Smith

The Data Surrounding Higher Education and COVID-19

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Just a few short weeks ago, it would have seemed impossible for some microscopic pathogen to upend our lives as we knew it, but the novel Coronavirus has proven us breathtakingly wrong.

It has suddenly and unexpectedly changed everything we had thought was most stable and predictable in our lives, from the ways that we work to the ways we interact with one another. It’s even changed the way we learn, as colleges and universities across the nation shutter their doors.

But what is the real impact of COVID-19 on higher education? How are college students really faring in the face of the pandemic, and what can we do to support them now and in the post-pandemic life to come?

The Scramble is On

Probably the most significant challenge that schools, educators, and students alike are facing is that no one really saw this coming, so now we’re trying to figure out how to protect students’ education while also protecting their physical health. We’re having to make decisions that impact millions of students and faculty and do that with no preparation whatsoever.

To make matters worse, faculties are having to convert their classes to a forum the majority have never even used before. Before the lockdown, more than 70% of faculty in higher education had zero experience with online teaching. Now they’re being asked to convert their entire semester’s course schedule from an in-class to an online format, and they’re having to do it in a matter of weeks if not days.

For students who’ve never taken a distance learning course before, these impromptu, online, cobbled-together courses are hardly the recipe for academic success. The challenge is even greater for lab-based courses, where content mastery depends on hands-on work and laboratory applications. To solve this problem, some of the newly-minted distance ed instructors are turning to online lab simulations to help students make do until the real thing is open to them again.

Making Do

It’s not just the schools and the faculty that have been caught off guard by the sudden need to learn while under lockdown. Students are also having to hustle to make sure they have the technology they need to move their college experience online. Unfortunately, for many students, that’s not always easy, and for some, it’s downright impossible.

Studies show that large swaths of the student population: first-generation college students, community college students, immigrants, and lower-income students, typically rely on on-campus facilities to access the technology they need to do their work. When physical campuses close and the community libraries and hotspots with them, so too does the chance for many students to take their learning online.

Students in urban environments face particular risks. Even if they are able to access the technology they need to engage in distance learning, they may find it impossible to socially isolate. The need to access a hotspot or wi-fi connection might put them in unsafe proximity to other students, not to mention the millions of workers now forced to telecommute.

The Good News

America’s millions of new online learners and teachers may have a tough row to hoe, but the news isn’t all bad. Online education is by no means a new thing. By 2017, nearly 7 million students were enrolled in at least one distance education course according to a recent survey by the National Center for Education Statistics.

It isn’t as though the technology to provide a secure, user-friendly learning experience doesn’t exist. The financial industry, for example, has played a leading role in developing private, responsive, and highly-customizable technology solutions to meet practically any need a client or stakeholder may have.

The solutions used for the financial sector can be built on and modified for the online learning experience to ensure the privacy of students, educators, and institutions while providing real-time access to learning tools and content to classmates and teachers.

A New Path?

As challenging as it may be, transitioning to online learning not only offers opportunities for the present, but it may well open up new paths for the future. While our world may finally be approaching the downward slope of the curve and while we may be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, until there’s a vaccine, we haven’t likely seen the last of COVID-19.

And even when we lay the COVID beast to rest, infectious disease, unfortunately, is a fact of human life. For students just starting to think about their career paths, this lockdown may well be the push they need to find a career that’s well-suited to this “new normal.”

For instance, careers in data science transition perfectly from onsite to at-home work, and as epidemiological superheroes like Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx have shown, they are often involved in important, life-saving work. These are also careers that can be pursued largely, if not exclusively, online. Whether you’re a complete newbie or a veteran to the field, there is a large range of degree and certification programs available online to launch or advance your data science career.

It might be that your college-with-corona experience is pointing your life in a different direction, toward education rather than data science. With a doctorate in education, your future career path is virtually unlimited. You might find yourself teaching, researching, leading universities or developing education policy.

What matters most is that with an EdD, you can make a difference in the lives of students and teachers, just as your teachers and administrators are making a difference in your life. You can be the guiding and comforting force for students in a time of crisis and you can use your experiences today to pay it forward tomorrow.

True Tamplin

Conversion Rate Optimization: Understanding the Sales Funnel

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Are you capturing the attention of consumers or prospects with your content? Do they trust you enough to give you their contact information? Will they come back and buy from you again? Knowing how the sales funnel works and what you can do to improve it will take you down the road of success.

Business 101

As a business owner, your goal is to turn a prospect (meaning a prospective buyer) into a loyal customer. Nobody wants to lose a possible customer after putting a lot of effort into the attempt of establishing a relationship. Once you understand the different stages of the sales funnel, it will be easier to find cracks and holes within. The following sections unpack how sales funnel management can help you optimize your conversion rate and build a successful long-term relationship with your customers and website users.

The Sales Funnel

The sales funnel describes the path a customer takes on the way to buying a product or service. It visualizes the typical journey they go through and in which stage of the buying decision prospects are at the moment. As one of the core concepts in digital marketing, sales funnel management can help you to understand your audience and prevent them from dropping out before a sale is made. It is about giving every potential customer the treatment they are looking for. If you don’t understand your sales funnel, you can’t optimize it. What matters most when it comes to a sales funnel is website optimization.

Prospects move from the top of the funnel to the bottom as they become more familiar with what you have to offer. The sales funnel narrows as visitors move through it, and the number of people in your funnel will continue to decrease the closer you get to sealing the deal. It starts at the top with all the prospects who landed on your website one way or another, while the narrow bottom represents loyal customers.

The 4 Stages of the Sales Funnel

Moving people through the funnel can be a challenge. A stratagem to keep in mind is that your goal should be to solve the “problems” of your customers, or potentially make them aware of a problem they didn’t even know existed. Start by creating content that attracts your prospect’s attention, followed by offering an irresistible solution to the problem. All you have to do then is watch the magic happen.

Truthfully, that is easier said than done, but if you follow the four stages of a prospective customer’s mindset, you will reach your goal sooner than later. The different stages can be easily explained using the AIDA (Awareness, Interest, Decision, Action) strategy. To understand what moves a buying decision, we have to take a closer look at each stage and the approach it requires.

Awareness

To end up with a strong bond with your prospect, you have to gain attention first. Depending on how they found you (organic search results, recommendations, advertisements, or just pure luck), people will put different amounts of trust in your business. If you are lucky and all circumstances fall perfectly into place, a prospect turns into a customer immediately. More often though, the awareness stage does exactly what it sounds like; it creates awareness of your business and your products or services. At this point, all you are trying to do is lead prospects into the next stage, which will make them return for more.

Interest

Once a potential customer is aware of you, you need to build their interest. In this stage potential customers are interested in what you have to offer and are doing research or comparison. It is the perfect time to show off authority in your field and support them with helpful content that does not yet try to sell to them. Make sure your message stays consistent throughout the whole process and do not try to push too hard from the beginning. The interest stage should only lead them to be able to make an informed decision.

Decision

For the most part, the majority of people do not like making decisions and, therefore, getting a prospect to make a buying decision is not an easy feat. At this stage, you have to bring on your A-game and make them an offer they can’t refuse. Whether this means offering free premium shipping, a discount code, or a free month of your services is totally up to you; you just have to make sure that your potential customer wants to take advantage of it. Showcasing positive reviews or social proof is another powerful way that you can get people to take action.

 Action

Now your prospect turns into a customer. When he or she purchases your product or takes advantage of your service, that customer becomes part of your business’s ecosystem. But just because they reached the final stage of the sales funnel and the AIDA principle doesn’t mean your work is all said and done. Starting to build a long-term relationship with someone who already trusts your company is easier than starting the sales funnel all over again with a new prospect.

Sales Funnel Management

At this point, you should understand why sales funnel management is so important. Even the best prospects can get lost along the way if expectations aren’t met. It takes time to build a sales funnel that represents what your audience is looking for. The best way to optimize a sales funnel is to start with the results and work your way up. Another point of interest is the timing when people move from one point to the next within the funnel. This can help you find out where, when, and why you’re losing potential customers.

Too slow: New leads are nine times more likely to convert if someone follows up within the first five minutes. On the other hand, a lead is 21 times less likely to turn into a sale after 30 minutes have passed. To react within tight response times like that, you need to implement sales funnel management automation.

Too impatient: It can be tempting to dump a lead that isn’t converting right away and move on to the next. You should ask yourself the question if you are patient enough and if you are following up as much as you should. A marketing automation funnel also helps to stay in touch with the prospect over time.

Too fast: Instead of asking people to buy from you right away, you should cultivate them over time. If you adjust your sales approach to the different stages, you don’t just avoid chasing them away; you also find out what is working and what is a waste of your time.

How can you optimize your conversion rate?

There are countless ways you can improve your conversion rate and turn a “no, thank you” into a “yes, please.” In sales, a no often simply means “not until later” or “try again, I’m just not totally convinced yet.” Any time you encounter problems like that, you can use one or multiple of the following, mostly automated sales techniques, to reach your goals.

Target your Audience

To lead people into your sales funnel, you have to put the right content in front of your prospects. How and where you do that depends on your target audience. Be creative with your content, but make sure it mimics your offer and the call-to-action you are using. Customer relationship management (CRM) can help you track interactions with current and future customers.

Build a Landing Page

A landing page offers content that addresses a specific problem, ideally with a single call-to-action, and should steer your visitor towards becoming a customer. A/B testing your landing pages will help you figure out what your audience responds to best and what language, imagery, or layouts can help you improve conversion rates. Experienced hosting companies like 101domain can help you along the way. Additionally, you can use pay-per-click campaigns to drive traffic to your landing page and contact forms to gain subscribers to a mailing list.

Targeting Soft Conversions

When considering which page to use as a landing page, you can increase your conversion rate by bringing leads to an on-site resource to gain a “soft conversion.”

 To illustrate the importance of a good landing page and soft conversions, consider the following data:

RED: Cost per conversion BLUE: Number of conversions X-AXIS: Time (Screenshot supplied by Howard Ahmanson)

The initial strategy represented in this graph was to take visitors directly to a sales page. This resulted in a very low number of conversions, about a rate of 1%,, which in turn drove the cost per conversion way up. Later, the landing page was switched to an on-site resource, such as  a form fill of “get the free retirement planning guide.” This prompted a few soft conversions, or in other words email addresses. Upon doing this, the average number of conversions per month increased from about 10 to between 30 and 45, which in turn dropped the total cost per conversion from a median of about $400 to about $100. This is an approximately 300% increase in conversions at 50% of the cost.

But how does increased conversions translate in terms of sales numbers? To see an example of this, consider the data from the Ken Tamplin Vocal Academy:

RED: Total conversion, including soft conversions
BLUE: Sales conversions
X-AXIS: Time

When running ads for Ken, the initial strategy was to bring prospects directly to a sales page. Later, this was switched out for a “Yes! I want Ken’s free lessons!” page.

This led to an increase in the number of soft conversions, which led to a tightly correlated increase in sales. There was an increase from around 30 conversions per month up to over 225, which is an increase of 750%.

Create an Email Drip Campaign

Email drip campaigns are used to send a pre-written set of emails to subscribers or customers over time. You can use those campaigns to educate the receiver as well as make them aware of sales or offers. Last but not least, don’t forget about existing customers. This technique is ideal for building up loyalty and making them feel like part of the family.

Ashish Parmar

Business Data is changing the world’s view towards Green Energy

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Energy conservation is one of the main stressed points all around the globe. In the past 30 years, researches in the field of energy conservation and especially green energy have risen to another level. The positive outcomes of these researches have given us a gamut of technologies that can aid in preserving and utilize green energy. It has also reduced the over-dependency of companies on fossil fuels such as oil, coal, and natural gas.

Business data and analytics have all the power and the potential to take the business organizations forward in the future and conquer new frontiers. Seizing the opportunities presented by Green energy, market leaders such as Intel and Google have already implemented it, and now they enjoy the rich benefits of green energy sources.

Business data enables the organizations to keep an eye on measuring the positive outcomes by adopting the green energies. According to a report done by the World energy outlook, the global wind energy capacity will increase by 85% by the year 2020, reaching 1400 TWh. Moreover, in the Paris Summit, more than 170 countries around the world agreed on reducing the impact of global warming by harnessing energy from green energy sources. And for this to work, Big Data Analytics will play a pivotal role.

Overview of Green energy

In simpler terms, Green Energy is the energy coming from natural sources such as wind, sun, plants, tides, and geothermal heat. In contrast to fossil fuels, green energy resources can be replenished in a short period, and one can use them for longer periods. Green energy sources have a minimal ill effect on the environment as compared to fossil fuels. In addition to this, fossil fuels can be replaced by green energy sources in many areas like providing electricity, fuel for motor vehicles, etc..

With the help of business data, organizations throughout the world can change the view of green energy. Big Data can show how different types of green energy sources can help businesses and accelerate sustainable expansion.

Below are the different types of green energy sources:

  • Wind Power
  • Solar Power
  • Geothermal Energy
  • Hydropower
  • Biofuels
  • Bio-mass

Now we present before you a list of advantages that green energy or renewable energy sources have brought to the new age businesses.

Profits on the rise

If the energy produced is more than the energy used, the organizations can sell it back to the grids and earn profit out of it. Green energy sources are renewable sources of energy, and with precise data, the companies will get an overall estimation of the requirement of energy.

With Big Data, the organizations can know the history of the demographical location before setting up the factory. For example, if your company is planning to setup a factory in the coastal region, tidal and wind energy would be more beneficial as compared to solar power. Business data will give the complete analysis of the flow of the wind so that the companies can ascertain the best location of the windmill; this will allow them to store the energy in advance and use it as per their requirement. It not only saves money but also provides an extra source of income to the companies. With green energy sources, the production in the company can increase to an unprecedented level and have sustainable growth over the years.

Synchronizing the maintenance process

If there is a rapid inflow of solar and wind energy sources, the amount of power produced will be huge. Many solar panels and windmills are operating in a solar power plant or in a wind energy source, and with many types of equipment, it becomestoo complex to manage. Big Data analytics will assist the companies in streamlining all the operations to a large extent for their everyday work without any hassle.

Moreover, the analytics tool will convey the performance of renewable energy sources under different weather conditions. Thus, the companies will get the perfect idea about the performance of the green energy sources, thus enabling them to take necessary actions as and when required.

Lowering the attrition rate

Researchers have found that more number of employees want to be associated with companies that support green energies. By opting for green energy sources and investing in them, companies are indirectly investing in keeping the workforce intact and lowering the attrition rate. Stats also show the same track as nearly 50% of the working professionals, and almost 2/3rd of the millennial population want to be associated with the companies who are opting for the green energy sources and have a positive impact on environmental conservation.

The employees will not only wish to stay with the organizations for a long time but will also work hard for the betterment of the organization. Therefore, you can concentrate on expanding the business rather than thinking about the replacement of the employees.

Lowering the risk due to Power Outage

The Business Data Analytics will continuously keep updating the requirements of power needed to run the company. Thus the organizations can cut down the risk of the power outage and also the expenses related to it. The companies will know when to halt the energy transmission as they would know if the grid is under some strain or not.

Business analytics and green energy provide a planned power outage to the companies, which is cost-efficient and thus can decrease the product development cost.  Apart from this, companies can store energy for later usage. Practicing this process will help save a lot of money in the long run, proving that investment in green energy sources is a smart investment.

Reducing the maintenance cost

An increasing number of organizations are using renewable sources of energy as it plays a vital role in decreasing production and maintenance costs. The predictive analysis technology helps renewable energy sources to produce more energy at less cost, thus reducing the cost of infrastructure.

Moreover, data analytics will make green energy sources more bankable for companies. As organizations will have a concrete amount of data related to the energy sources, they can use it wisely on a more productive basis

Escalating Energy Storage

Green energy sources can be stored in bulk and used as per requirement by the business organizations. Using green energy on a larger basis will even allow companies to completely get rid of fossil fuels and thus work towards the betterment of the environment. Big Data analytics with AI and cloud-enabled systems help organizations store renewable energies such as Wind and Solar.

Moreover, it gathers information for the businesses and gives the complete analysis of the exact amount of energy required to complete a particular task. The data will also automate cost savings as it can predict the client’s needs. Based on business data, companies can store renewable energy sources in a better manner.

With Business data analytics, the companies can store energy when it is cheap and use it according to the needs when the energy rates go higher. Although predicting the requirement of storage is a complicated process, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) at work, you can analyze the data efficiently.

Bundling Up

Green energy sources will play a pivotal role in deciding the future of the businesses as fossil fuels are available in a certain limit. Moreover, astute business data analysts will assist the organizations to not only use renewable energy sources in a better manner but also to form a formidable workforce. The data support in the green energy sector will also provide sustainable growth to the companies, monitor their efforts, and assist them in the long run.

Emilia Cheladze

Article series: 5 Clean Coding Tips – 4. Stop commenting the obvious

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This is the fourth of the article series “5 tips for clean coding” to follow as soon as you’ve made the first steps into your coding career, in this article series. Read the introduction here, to find out why it is important to write clean code if you missed it.

Everyone will tell you that you need to comment your code. You do it for yourself, for others, it might help you to put down a structure of your code before you get down to coding properly. Writing a lot of comments might give you a false sense of confidence, that you are doing a good job. While in reality, you are commenting your code a lot with obvious, redundant statements that are not bringing any value. The role of a comment it to explain, not to describe. You need to realize that any piece of comment has to add information to the code you already have, not to double it.

Keep in mind, you are not narrating the code, adding ‘subtitles’ to python’s performance. The comments are there to clarify what is not explicit in the code itself. Adding a comment saying what the line of code does is completely redundant most of the time:

# importing pandas
import pandas as pd

# loading the data
csv_file = csv.reader(open'data.csv’)

# creating an empty data frame
data = pd.DataFrame()

A good rule of thumb would be: if it starts to sound like an instastory, rethink it. ‘So, I am having my breakfast, with a chai latte and my friend, the cat is here as well’. No.

It is also a good thing to learn to always update necessary comments before you modify the code. It is incredibly easy to modify a line of code, move on and forget the comment. There are people who claim that there are very few crimes in the world worse than comments that contradict the code itself.

Of course, there are situations, where you might be preparing a tutorial for others and you want to narrate what the code is doing. Then writing that load function will load the data is good. It does not have to be obvious for the listener. When teaching, repetitions, and overly explicit explanations are more than welcome. Always have in mind who your reader will be.

Michael Lyamm

Optimize AI Talent: Perception from Across the Globe

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Despite the AI hype, the AI skill gap is turning into some pariah while businesses are accelerating to become demigods.

Reports from the “Global Talent Competitiveness Index (GTCI) 2020” cover multiple parameters both national and organizational to generate insight for further action. This report compiles 70 variables including 132 national economies across the globe – based on all groups of income and at every developmental level.

The sole purpose of the GTCI report is to narrow down the skill gap by delivering the right data inputs. The figures mentioned in the report could be of value to private and public organizations.

GTCI report covered multiple themes that need to be addressed: –

As the race to embrace AI spurs, it is evident to address the challenges faced due to AI and how best these problems can be solved.

The pace at which AI is developing is transforming the way we work, forcing a technology shift, change in the corporate structure, changing the innovation system for AI professionals in every possible way.

There’s more that is needed to be done as AI and automation continue to affect the way we work.

  • Reskilling in workplaces to eliminate dearth of talent

As the role in AI keeps evolving, organizations need a larger workforce, especially to play technology roles such as AI engineers and AI specialists. Looking closely at the statistics you may not fail to notice that the number of AI job roles is on the rise, but there’s scarce talent.

Employers must take on reskilling as a critical measure. Else how will the technology market keep up with changing trends? Reskilling in the form of training or AI certifications should be emphasized. Having an in-house AI talent is an added advantage to the company.

  • Skill gap between growing countries (low performing and high performing) are widening

Based on the GTCI report, it is seen there is a skill gap happening not only across industries but between nations. The report also highlights which country lacks basic digital skills, and this highly gets contributed toward a digital divide between nations.

  • High-level of cooperation needed to embrace AI benefits

As much as the world shows concern toward embracing AI, not much has been done to achieve these transformations. And AI has huge potential to transform society and make it a better place to live. However, to embrace these benefits, corporations must engage in AI regulation.

From a talent acquisition perspective, this simply means employers will need more training and reskilling opportunities.

  • AI to allow nations to skip generations

On a technological front, AI makes it possible to skip generations in developed nations. Although, not common due to structural obstruction.

  • Cities are now competing to become talent magnets and AI hubs

As AI continues to hit the market, organizations are aggressively coming up with newer policies to attract and retain AI professionals.

No doubt, cities are striving to attract the right kind of talent as competition keeps increasing. As such many cities are competing in becoming core AI engines in transforming energy grids, transportation, and many other multiple segments. Cities are now becoming the main test beds for AI-based tools i.e. self-driven vehicles, tele-surveillance, and facial recognition.

  • Sustainable AI comes when the society is equally up for it

With certain communities not adopting and accepting the advent of AI, it is difficult to say whether these communities will not try to distort AI narratives. As a result, it is crucial for multiple stakeholders to embrace AI and developed the AI workforce in parallel.

Not to forget, regulators and policy-makers have an equal role to play to ensure there’s a smooth transition in jobs. As AI-induced transformation skyrockets, educators and leaders need to move quickly as the new generations’ complete focus is entirely based on doing their bit to the society.

Two decades passed ever since McKinsey declared the war for talent – particularly for high-performing employees. As organizations are extensively looking to hire the right talent, it is imperative to retain and attract talent at large.

Despite the unprecedented growth in AI technologies, it is near to being unanimous regarding having hold of organizations to master in AI, forget about retaining talent. They’re not even getting better at it.

Even top tech companies such as Google and Amazon, the demand for top talent outstrips the supply. Although you may find thousands of candidates applying for the same job role, the competition just gets tougher since such employers are tough nuts and pleasing them is not an easy task.

If these tech giants are finding it difficult to hire the right talent, you could imagine the plight of other companies.

Given the optimistic view regarding the technology future, it is much more challenging to convince that the war for talent truly resembles the war on talent.

The good news is organizations that look forward to adopting new technology and reskill their employees will most likely thrive in the competitive edge.

Editorial Staff

Predictive Analytics World for Industry 4.0

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Difficult times call for creative measures

Predictive Analytics World for Industry 4.0 will go virtual and you still have time to join us!

What do you have in store for me?

We will provide a live-streamed virtual version of PAW Industry 4.0 Munich 2020 on 11-12 May, 2020: you will be able to attend sessions and to interact and connect with the speakers and fellow members of the data science community including sponsors and exhibitors from your home or your office.

What about the workshops?

The workshops will also be held virtually on the planned date:
13 May, 2020.

Get a complimentary virtual sneak preview!

If you would like to join us for a virtual sneak preview of the workshop „Data Thinking“ on Thursday, April 16, so you can familiarise yourself with the quality of the virtual edition of both conference and workshops and how the interaction with speakers and attendees works, please send a request to registration@risingmedia.com.

Don’t have a ticket yet?

It‘s not too late to join the data science community.
Register by 10 May to receive access to the livestream and recordings.

REGISTER HERE

We’re looking forward to see you – virtually!

This year Predictive Analytics World for Industry 4.0 runs alongside Deep Learning World and Predictive Analytics World for Healthcare.

Emilia Cheladze

Article series: 5 Clean Coding Tips – 3. Take Advantage of the Formatting Tools.

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This is the third of the article series “5 tips for clean coding” to follow as soon as you’ve made the first steps into your coding career, in this article series. Read the introduction here, to find out why it is important to write clean code if you missed it.

Unfortunately, no automatic formatting tool will correct the logic in your code, suggest meaningful names of your variables or comment the code for you. Yet. Gmail has lately started suggesting email titles based on email content. AI-powered variable naming can be next, who knows. Anyway, the visual level of the code is much easier to correct and there are tools that will do some of the code formatting on the visual level job for you. Some of them might be already existing in your IDE, you just need to look for them a bit, others need to be installed. One of the most popular formatting tools is pylint[i]. It is worth checking it out and learning to use it in an efficient way.

Beware that as convenient as it may seem to copy and paste your code into a quick online ‘beautifier’ it is not always a good idea. The online tools might store your code. If you are working on something that shouldn’t just freely float in the world wide web, stick to reliable tools like pylint, that will store the data within your working directory.

These tools can become very good friends of yours but also very annoying ones. They will not miss single whitespace and will not keep their mouth shut when your line length jumps from 79 to 80 characters. They will be shouting with an underscoring of some worrying color and/or exclamation marks. You will need to find your way to coexist and retain your sanity. It can be very distracting when you are in a working flow and warnings pop up all the time about formatting details that have nothing to do with what you are trying to solve. Sometimes, it might be better to turn those warnings off while you are in your most concentrated/creative phase of writing and turn them back on while the dust of your genius settles down a little bit. Usually the offer a lot of flexibility, regarding which warnings you want to be ignored and other features. The good thing is, they also teach you what are mistakes that you are making and after some time you will just stop making them in the first place.

References:

[i] https://www.pylint.org/

Abhyank Srinet

Top 7 MBA Programs to Target for Business Analytics 

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Business Analytics refers to the science of collecting, analysing, sorting, processing and compiling various available data pertaining to different areas and facets of business. It also includes studying and scrutinising the information for useful and deep insights into the functioning of a business which can be used smartly for making important business-related decisions and changes to the existing system of operations. This is especially helpful in identifying all loopholes and correcting them.

The job of a business analyst is spread across every domain and industry. It is one of the highest paying jobs in the present world due to the sheer shortage of people with great analytical minds and abilities. According to a report published by Ernst & Young in 2019, there is a 50% rise in how firms and enterprises use analytics to drive decision making at a broad level. Another reason behind the high demand is the fact that nowadays a huge amount of data is generated by all companies, large or small and it usually requires a big team of analysts to reach any successful conclusion. Also, the nature and high importance of the role compels every organisation and firm to look for highly qualified and educated professionals whose prestigious degrees usually speak for them.

An MBA in Business Analytics, which happens to be a branch of Business Intelligence, also prepares one for a successful career as a management, data or market research analyst among many others. Below, we list the top 7 graduate school programs in Business Analytics in the world that would make any candidate ideal for this high paying job.

1 New York University – Stern School of Business

Location: New York City, United States

Tuition Fees: $74,184 per year

Duration:  2 years (full time)

With a graduate acceptance rate of 23%, the NYU Stern School makes it to this list due to the diversity of the course structure that it offers in its MBA program in Business Analytics. One can specialise and learn the science behind econometrics, data mining, forecasting, risk management and trading strategies by being a part of this program. The School prepares its students and offers employability in fields of investment banking, marketing, consulting, public finance and strategic planning. Along with opportunities to study abroad for small durations, the school also offers its students ample chances to network with industry leaders by means of summer internships and career workshops. It is a STEM designated two-year, full time degree program.

2 University of Pennsylvania – Wharton School Business 

Location: Philadelphia, United States

Tuition fees: $81,378 per year

Duration: 20 months (full time, including internship)

The only Ivy-League school in the list with one of the best Business Analytics MBA programs in the world, Wharton has an acceptance rate of 19% only. The tough competition here is also characterised by the high range of GMAT scores that most successful applicants have – it lies between 540 and 790, averaging at a very high threshold of 732. Most of Wharton’s graduating class finds employment in a wide range of sectors including consulting, financial services, technology, real estate and health care among many others. The long list of Wharton’s alumni includes some of the biggest business entities in the world, them being – Warren Buffet, Elon Musk, Sundar Pichai, Ronald Perelman and John Scully.

The best part about Wharton’s program structure is its focus on building leadership and a strong sense of teamwork in every student.

3 Carnegie Mellon University – Tepper School of Business

Location: Pittsburgh, United States

Tuition Fees: $67,575

Duration: 18 months (online)

The Tepper School of Business in Carnegie Mellon University is the only graduate school in the list that offers an online Master of Science program in Business Analytics. The primary objectives of the program is to equip students with creative problem solving expertise and deep analytic skills. The highlights of the program include machine learning, programming in Python and R, corporate communication and the knowledge of various business domains like marketing, finance, accounting and operations.

The various sub courses offered within the program include statistics, data management, data analytics in finance, data exploration and optimization for prescriptive analytics. There are several special topics offered too, like Ethics in Artificial Intelligence and People Analytics among many others.

4 Massachusetts Institute of Technology – Sloan School of Management

Location: Cambridge, United States

Tuition Fees: $136,480

Duration: 12 months

The Master of Business Analytics program at MIT Sloan is a relatively new program but has made it to this list due to MIT’s promise and commitment of academic and all-rounder excellence. The program is offered in association with MIT’s Operations Research Centre and is customised for students who wish to pursue a career in the industry of data sciences. The program is easily comprehensible for students from any educational background. It is a STEM designated program and the curriculum includes several modules like machine learning, usage of analytics software tools like Python, R, SQL and Julia. It also includes courses on ethics, data privacy and a capstone project.

5 University of Chicago – Graham School

Location: Chicago, United States

Tuition Fees: $4,640 per course

Duration: 12 months (full time) or 4 years (part time)

The Graham School in the University of Chicago is mainly interested in candidates who show love and passion for analytics. An incoming class at Graham usually consists of graduates in science or social science, professionals in an early career who wish to climb higher in the job ladder and mid-career professionals who wish to better their analytical skills and enhance their decision-making prowess.

The curriculum at Graham includes introduction to statistics, basic levels of programming in analytics, linear and matrix algebra, machine learning, time series analysis and a compulsory core course in leadership skills. The acceptance rate of the program is relatively higher than the previous listed universities at 34%.

6 University of Warwick – Warwick Business School

Location: Coventry, United Kingdom

Tuition Fees: $34,500

Duration: 12 months (full time)

The only school to make it to this list from the United Kingdom and the only one outside of the United States, the Warwick Business School is ranked 7th in the world by the QS World Rankings for their Master of Science degree in Business Analytics. The course aims to build strong and impeccable quantitative consultancy skills in its candidates. One can also look forward to improving their business acumen, communication skills and commercial research experience after graduating out of this program.

The school has links with big corporates like British Airways, IBM, Proctor and Gamble, Tesco, Virgin Media and Capgemini among others where it offers employment for its students.

7 Columbia University – School of Professional Studies

Location: New York City, United States 

Tuition Fees: $2,182 per point

Duration: 1.5 years full time (three terms)

The Master of Sciences program in Applied Analytics at Columbia University is aimed for all decision makers and also favours candidates with strong critical thinking and logical reasoning abilities. The curriculum is not very heavy on pure stats and data sciences but it allows students to learn from extremely practical and real-life experiences and examples. The program is a blend of several online and on-campus classes with several week-long courses also. A large number of industry experts and guest lectures take regular classes, conduct workshops and seminars for exposing the students to the real-world scenario of Business Analytics. This also gives the students a solid platform to network and broaden their perspective.

Several interesting courses within the paradigm of the program includes storytelling with data, research design, data management and a capstone project.

The admission to every school listed above is extremely competitive and with very limited intake. However, as it is rightly said, hard work is the key to success, one can rest guaranteed that their career will never be the same if they make it into any of these programs.