{"id":54854,"date":"2018-12-05T09:06:16","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T14:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/?p=54854"},"modified":"2018-12-05T09:06:16","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T14:06:16","slug":"brock-statistician-researching-how-to-reduce-bias-in-big-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/2018\/12\/brock-statistician-researching-how-to-reduce-bias-in-big-data\/","title":{"rendered":"Brock statistician researching how to reduce bias in big data"},"content":{"rendered":"

Compiling and processing information was once a relatively straightforward process.<\/span><\/p>\n

A person would gather a certain number of facts and figures based on a particular sample size and use a machine to record the data that were collected.<\/span><\/p>\n

Analyzing the data to better understand any patterns and predict trends emerging from the information was fairly clear-cut, as variables, the number of things that could be measured and counted, were somewhat limited. \u2018<\/span>Small data<\/span><\/a>\u2019 can be processed by a standard software package and easily understood.<\/span><\/p>\n

Enter today\u2019s era of<\/span>\u00a0big data<\/span><\/a>, defined through the basic \u2018three Vs\u2019: volume (lots of it), velocity (pouring in at record speeds), and variety (from traditional databases, documents, e-mails, video, audio and many, many other sources). <\/span><\/p>\n

Professor of Mathematics and Statistics Ejaz Ahmed researches big data, specifically,<\/span> high-dimensional data<\/span><\/a> analysis.<\/span><\/p>\n

Data is said to be \u2018high-dimensional\u2019 when a small or moderate sample size has a large number of variables. Advances in technology mean the types and level of detail of data are increasing at breakneck speed to the point where the amount of data far exceeds the sample size.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ahmed,\u00a0who is also Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics and Science, explains that this makes it difficult to understand patterns or predict future trends from data gathered. What often results is statistical bias, a distortion of the true meaning of the numbers.<\/span><\/p>\n

But cutting down the number of variables to make predictions is also problematic.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou may have selected some variable that may not be important and you may have deleted some variables that are important,\u201d says Ahmed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re trying to pick strong signals and you\u2019re deleting the weak signals; individually they may not be important, but together, they could be useful.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

If done improperly, reducing a large data model to a small one will result in statistical bias, a distortion of the true picture, he says.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn my research, we work with much larger models and we try to find smaller models with the best variables for prediction of the future,\u201d says Ahmed. \u201cMy work is to reduce the bias that results in prediction error.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

And that work has taken Ahmed far. Earlier this year, he led the International Workshop on Perspectives on High-dimensional Data Analysis in Morocco. He regularly participates in worldwide conferences as an organizer, presenter or speaker and is on the boards of a number of statistical journals.<\/span><\/p>\n

The 2017 book that Ahmed edited,<\/span> Big and Complex Data Analysis: Methodologies and Applications<\/span><\/a>, has been received well in the field, according to the publisher. He is set to publish two more volumes in 2019.<\/span><\/p>\n

With funding from the Ontario Centres of Excellence and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC), Ahmed is applying his methods in a partnership with<\/span> Stathletes<\/span><\/a>, a Niagara-based company that collects, records and verifies hockey data.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Brock-Stathletes partnership aims to expand its extensive database of performance measures in hockey through Ahmed\u2019s research.<\/span><\/p>\n

Since joining Brock University in 2012, Ahmed has developed statistical and computational strategies to reduce bias in particular statistical models, especially those used in genetics research.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to be as accurate as possible,\u201d says Ahmed. \u201cThe more you have statistical bias, the more errors come into our models. This could have serious implications for health care, business decisions and many other things.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Compiling and processing information was once a relatively straightforward process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":54870,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,41,1,4,5],"tags":[3549,2156,3106,348,7318,1963,944,7317,2114],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54854"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54854"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54855,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54854\/revisions\/54855"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/brocku.ca\/brock-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}