Andrew Francis Zarrilli

The most important thing I took away from this course is how important data is in the world today. From Facebook to the stock market to cars and beyond, data is everywhere. Excel and Tableau help us compile, clean, and analyze data. This makes data meaningful to all people.

For Draft Express (NBA Mock Draft Website)
The rows would represent each draft pick
The columns would represent the team, projected prospect, prospect physical attributes, and stats.

Source: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/nba-teams-are-resting-players-earlier-and-earlier/

This article from FiveThirtyEight talks about the recent increase in resting players in the NBA. Data shows that from 2005 through this year, players have been rested more and more each year. The increase in rest for NBA players dilutes the product…[Read more]

One different type of KPI I thought of is the overall rating of my Madden ultimate team.

S – The rating is specific to the players in my lineup.
M – The game uses a formula to measure team overall.
A – I can acquire different players and put them into my team to achieve the overall I want.
R – Team overall is relevant to the level of…[Read more]

Most of my experience with Excel has come this semester, and I have yet to have any major issues with data corruption. I believe the most important mistake to avoid is clicking “yes” without reading the “do you want to remove this from the server.” This can lead to the deleting of metadata and configurations, as well as data.

Source: http://www.rdmag.com/article/2017/02/sports-equipment-sensors-send-data-directly-coachs-smartphones

This article about the installment of sensors into sports equipment interests me because of the direct effect it can have on sports at all levels. These low cost sensors can help athletes improve their skills by measuring things like…[Read more]

I believe the most important principle is to “ask why.” You can create as many graphics as you want to visualize data, but if you don’t understand what is happening with data or why the data looks like it does, it is useless. It is important to be able trace the data back to its source so you can take action and use the data in a meaningful way.

The most important takeaway for me from Maurice’s talk was that data is all around us. I never really considered how data is a part of most aspects of my life. Something as simple as buying a pair of sneakers online (as Professor Miller talked about in class) provides a website with much more information about a person/customer than I had first t…[Read more]

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170130083414.htm
This article from Science Daily discusses how researchers at Penn are using big data to predict which of their cancer patients are likely to require a trip to the hospital. By compiling data from things like recent lab tests, radiology visits, and patient-reported symptoms, data…[Read more]

Conventional Wisdom: Most drug dealers are wealthy.
In this classic example from Freakonomics, pop culture leads us to believe drug dealers have it made. This could be tested by calculating how a particular gang’s profits from drug sales is split among its members, including making note of who takes the biggest cuts and how much the average lower…[Read more]