Elon conference to explore data analytics landscape

The fourth annual Elon Business Analytics Conference will focus on the latest data analytics trends and how organizations can use analytics to optimize opportunities from manufacturing to marketing.

Elon University’s Center for Organizational Analytics and Martha and Spencer Love School of Business will host the 2018 Elon Business Analytics Conference on April 5 at the SAS Executive Briefing Center in Cary, North Carolina.

With the theme “Analytics in Action: Trends you need to know,” the conference focuses on exploring the latest trends in the analytics industry. Participants will hear from experts at SAS, RTI International, General Motors, NodeXL, DataRobot, Elder Research and Apex Data Science.

The one-day program’s morning keynote speaker is John Elder, CEO and founder of Elder Research, Inc. During “The Data Science Revolution in Industry,” Elder will share five of the most interesting fielded solutions from the last two decades, from the diverse worlds of investment timing, credit scoring, drug discovery, medical diagnosis, and gas exploration. Elder leads America’s most experienced data science consultancy, Elder Research. He is the co-author of books on data mining, ensembles and text mining — two of which won book-of-the-year awards. Elder is an occasional adjunct professor of engineering at the University of Virginia and was named by former President Bush to serve five years on a panel to guide technology for national security.

The afternoon keynote session will focus on opportunities for interdisciplinary innovation. Often, solutions to the most challenging problems require the invention and combination of many new techniques and algorithms which span multiple analytical disciplines, such as forecasting, estimation, predictive modeling, data mining and optimization. Radhika Kulkarni, vice president, Advanced Analytics R&D at SAS Institute Inc., will provide several examples that describe some of these innovations in various industries, as well as discuss trends and upcoming challenges for future research.

Other conference sessions include:

“Charting Collections of Connections in Social Media: Creating Maps and Measures with NodeXL”
Presenter: Marc Smith, Founder, NodeXL

“From Statistics to Data Science Startup: Transformation Within a Large Research Organization”
Presenter: Gayle S. Bieler, Director, Center for Data Science, RTI International

"Analytics at GM"
Tom Capotosto, Director, Advanced Analytics, General Motors

“Automating Machine Learning: A practical guide to AI adoption”
Presenter: Jeff Holoman, Director of Sales for the Southeast, DataRobot

“Transforming Your Business with AI”
Presenter: Scott Langfeldt, Founder and CEO, Apex Data Science

“The data analytics landscape has changed in key ways in the past few years,” said Haya Ajjan, associate professor of management information systems and director of the Center for Organizational Analytics. “The most significant trends have been the increasing use of machine learning, voice and image recognition, and social network analysis. Data analytics is playing a central role in enabling organizations to optimize opportunities from manufacturing to marketing. We are delighted this year to put forth an exceptional program of speakers to provide our attendees with applicable knowledge to support their growth opportunities.”

The conference is open to anyone interested in improving their knowledge of organizational analytics. For more information, visit www.elon.edu/analyticscon.