Katherine Braccio

Alex Freeman, Alice Nguyen, Matt Major, and I will be working together for Assignment #4. We found a dataset from opendataphilly.org which includes information about employees of the city of Philadelphia and their annual salary and overtime pay. We will use this data to answer questions about relationships found within the data.

The most important takeaway from this course is how much you learn about data and not necessarily how much you learn how to work with data. The weekly readings provided very real-world, practical examples of how data interacts with all of us in multifaceted ways every day. I never realized how much data I personally interacted with, especially in…[Read more]

I work part-time at J.Crew, and part of my job is fulfilling online orders. Through our intranet, I can see the items ordered, the customer name, and whether the order was accepted or if it is pending pick from inventory. In spreadsheet format, the field names could be customer name, number of items ordered, full price or markdown, mens or womens,…[Read more]

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/syracuse-men-in-final-four/

Admittedly, I’m not much of a sports fan, but March Madness is an exception as I have a stake in the outcome, via my bracket and how it measures up to those of my friends. This article about Syracuse’s success in this years March Madness bracket caught my eye, as my bracket is…[Read more]

I use KPI to see how much time it takes me to complete a given assignment. By this point in the semester, I know which types of assignments take longer for me to complete than others. This KPI is specific as I can apply it to a specific set of coursework. It is measurable by noting the amount of time it takes for me to complete my homework. It is…[Read more]

Personally, I have never made any of the mistakes listed in the article, or at least I have not worked with data enough to make such an egregious mistake. I think the problem that is the most important to avoid, and easiest to avoid, is #3, or working on the database without doing a full backup. I think this mistake is applicable to the world…[Read more]

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/to-kill-a-mockingbird-author-harper-lee-dies/
This article notes the permanence of Harper Lee’s posthumous influence on American culture. “Mockingbird” is taught by more high school teachers (35%) than any other fiction book. “Mockingbird” is also widely taught on college campuses as well, ranking 255 on a list…[Read more]

In my opinion, the most important core principles are the ability for a graphic to be viewed diversely as well as its simplicity. This principle lends itself to multiple interpretations by the same viewer, deepening an understanding in what the graphic is really trying to communicate. It’s as if different people are looking at the graph in…[Read more]

Personally, I think that bias within data is much more harmful in the long run, especially considering that a bias in data isn’t considered in everyday activities. Recently, I’ve been looking for a pair of boots with very specific qualities: short, flat heel, and a light brown suede. I always use the same browser, and stick to the same few retail…[Read more]

I found an International Data Base through data.gov. This particular database provides “demographic data, including estimates and projections of: birth, death, and growth rates, migration rates, infant mortality, life expectancy, fertility rates, total population, and population by age and sex.” After following the link, the webpage prompted you…[Read more]

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/us-markets-china/

This article, titled “US Markets Won’t Necessarily Follow China into the Abyss”, commented on the mini market meltdown of US Stock Markets the morning of January 20, 2016. It asked the question whether China’s volatile markets and economy caused the mini meltdown, and if this pattern would…[Read more]

A piece of conventional wisdom I often hear from my parents is “don’t go outside with wet hair, or you will get sick.” To test this statement, one could find a number of students who habitually shower in the morning before class, as well as students who do not go to class with wet hair. Data would be collected over a specified amount of time,…[Read more]