Eric D. Brown - Technology, Strategy, People & Projects - Latest Comments

Re: A tale of two employees

Ines — Tue, 07 Nov 2017 09:38:33 -0000

This is a very interesting discussion, Eric!
I think that when you work for a company, if you are treated well, you should find a way to connect your passion to it and consider your second home. We all know that most of our time in life we spend at work. So, Joe's response would make me reconsider his employment, as he seems not to care when the company is in trouble. I don't think there is another way to look at this situation :)

Re: Technology can be a band-aid rather than a solution

Naseem Kaloo — Fri, 06 Oct 2017 06:36:35 -0000

Welcome :)

Re: Technology can be a band-aid rather than a solution

Eric D. Brown — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 08:51:55 -0000

I agree. Thanks for stopping by.

Re: Technology can be a band-aid rather than a solution

Naseem Kaloo — Fri, 28 Jul 2017 08:51:01 -0000

Technology has made our tasks easier but somewhere it has ruined our social life. There is a need to limit love for technology by making its proper use.

Re: I am now a doctoral student

Abel — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 21:10:43 -0000

I am mostly interested in using data science for information assurance (security). I can choose one as the specialization and then take as many courses from the other one as an elective. That is one option, another way I can approach this is to focus on one specialization and then try to use the other while doing the research.

Re: I am now a doctoral student

Eric D. Brown — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 17:34:23 -0000

I chose DSS because that's what I was (and still am) interested in.

I can't really recommend any of the specialties over another unless I know what your interests are. If you are more interested in Cyber Security, DSU has a top-notch program. They have some partnerships with the NSA and other large organizations.

Re: I am now a doctoral student

Abel — Tue, 11 Jul 2017 17:31:43 -0000

Hello,

Why did you choose the DSS specialization instead of the Healthcare Information Systems or the Information Assurance and Computer Security? Which one do you recommend now after going through the DSc program? What is your take on the Cyber Security program?

Re: You (probably) don’t need Machine Learning

Eric D. Brown — Thu, 18 May 2017 09:54:44 -0000

Thanks Brian. Well said. Hopes aren't high for me either, but all we can do is keep trying educate and inform.

Re: You (probably) don’t need Machine Learning

Brian Forbes — Thu, 18 May 2017 04:17:33 -0000

Great article. Many corporations don't seem to want to hear this message, thinking that more and more data scientists should be hired while there is still no usable data or database.
There is still confusion in differentiating problems that can be solved with basic programming from those that might benefit from ML. An unfortunate corollary is that the same people believe ML will magically turn piles of manually maintained Excel and PDF files into insight.
I do hope for increased awareness across industries, but given my own failure to convince management of these basic ideas, I don't have high hopes.

Re: Competitive Advantage and the Resource Based View of the Firm

himmel cai — Sun, 07 May 2017 11:50:03 -0000

thank you very much , i am a chinese student, and i feel this is very helpful for me !

Re: You (probably) don’t need Machine Learning

Eric D. Brown — Thu, 13 Apr 2017 23:07:58 -0000

Well said Heidi. Love the analogy as well.

Re: You (probably) don’t need Machine Learning

Heidi Huber — Thu, 13 Apr 2017 22:25:22 -0000

It's about time I saw someone write about common sense data management.You can only build the Giza Pyramids if you have a sturdy foundation. Throw a couple of cool, latest technology terms at a company and you are guaranteed to get to the top of the most intelligent list. But it all boils down to a basic understanding of what data is needed, what needs to be cleaned and what is missing. As someone who has been doing this for over 30 years, I wish more companies would recognize the value of experience versus the value of the latest university degrees.

Someone who has re-built a 67 mustang may not have the tech specs for a new Ferrari, but someone with the knowledge of a new Ferrari may have no idea how a basic engine works. It's about time companies understand how important experience can be when compared to the knowledge of a newly college graduate. There are benefits of both, but it takes true understanding to know which is needed.

Re: You (probably) don’t need Machine Learning

Eric D. Brown — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 12:38:40 -0000

Thanks Eric.

This is a good description of the requirements needed before you get to ML. Lots of data cleaning, management, etc needed.

Re: You (probably) don’t need Machine Learning

Eric Kraemer — Tue, 11 Apr 2017 11:52:50 -0000

Concise and pragmatic. Well said. Particularly in industrial machine data scenarios I see a lot of ML hype that glosses over the real-world data acquisition challenges in that space. Algorithms don't sample sensors, normalize data types, assign timestamps, speak machine protocols, etc etc. As usual, 80% of the work and cost is in the data acquisition layer - yet this is the least sexy aspect to discuss. Thanks for pointing out the "table stakes".

Re: Don’t forget the “Science” in Data Science

Div — Tue, 21 Mar 2017 06:21:32 -0000

Thanks for sharing......worth reading

Re: You (probably) don’t need Machine Learning

Eric D. Brown — Sun, 15 Jan 2017 09:52:16 -0000

Exactly Thomas.

Now...if they have their data cleaned, organized and ready to go AND they've tried everything else (or their use case is one of the ones that really fits ML), then maybe - just maybe - they can try out ML.

Re: You (probably) don’t need Machine Learning

Thomas Speidel — Sat, 14 Jan 2017 22:57:51 -0000

What?! You mean organizations cannot brag about fancy ML, and they have to instead focus on the un-sexy task of organizing, cleaning, cataloguing data just to use a 100 years old technique? Of course, I wholeheartedly agree.

Re: You (probably) don’t need Machine Learning

Eric D. Brown — Fri, 06 Jan 2017 08:34:07 -0000

correct.

Re: You (probably) don’t need Machine Learning

Anindya Sankar Chattopadhyay — Thu, 05 Jan 2017 19:29:03 -0000

Thanks Eric. So if I got it right, you actually mean regression is a Statistical modelling rather than a ML modeling.

Thanks

Re: You (probably) don’t need Machine Learning

Eric D. Brown — Thu, 05 Jan 2017 07:41:28 -0000

Good old fashioned regression modeling is a statistical method that has been around much longer than machine learning. Regression is now used within machine learning methods and processes but is wholly separate from machine learning as a modeling technique (in its purest form).

Thanks for the question.

Re: You (probably) don’t need Machine Learning

Anindya Sankar Chattopadhyay — Thu, 05 Jan 2017 01:58:23 -0000

Isn't regression (be it linear or non-linear) a form of supevised ML? Am not an expert in ML. But just curious.

Thanks

Re: You (probably) don’t need Machine Learning

Eric D. Brown — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 15:30:18 -0000

Well said Bill.

Re: You (probably) don’t need Machine Learning

Bill Schneider — Wed, 04 Jan 2017 15:29:10 -0000

Interesting point. Sounds like yet another instance of "start with the simplest thing that could work".

Re: Five things the CEO wants to know about Big Data

Eric D. Brown — Mon, 13 Jun 2016 08:29:24 -0000

Well said Ethan

Re: Five things the CEO wants to know about Big Data

Ethan Stewart — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 11:35:53 -0000

Interesting article, it's good seeing the other side! I guess every new technology at one point were confronted to this kind of questions. I believe, it highlights the importance for companies to work on their communication and how they sell their product.

As much as the Cloud seems to "makes sense" now I guess it faced the same questions. That would be interesting to see if company answer those five questions when selling a product!