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March 23, 2010
Statistics seminar by Netflix prize winner
This is going to be a really unique seminar. If you have not heard about the Netflix prize, you can read about it here:
http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/09/bellkors-pragmatic-chaos-wins-1-million-netflix-prize/
The winning team adopted a primarily statistical approach. One of the statisticians on the team will be giving our department seminar on Friday. Undergrads are always welcome at the seminar, but this one should be particularly interesting.
Here are some specifics on the seminar:
University of Michigan
Department of Statistics Seminar
Robert M. Bell
AT&T
Lessons from the Netflix Prize
In October 2006, the DVD rental company Netflix released more than 100 million user ratings of movies for a competition to predict users' ratings based on prior ratings. One allure to data analysts around the world was a $1,000,000 prize for a team achieving a ten percent reduction in root mean squared prediction error relative to Netflix's current algorithm. The size of the data (over 17,000 movies and 480,000 users) and the nature of human-movie interactions produced many modeling challenges. After describing some of the techniques in use and advances spurred by the competition, I will offer lessons and raise some questions about building massive prediction models, the role of statistics versus computer science in such endeavors, and prizes as a way to advance science. This is joint work with Chris Volinsky and Yehuda Koren, current and former colleagues at AT&T Labs-Research.
Friday, March 26, 2010 at 11:30 am
340 West Hall
Please note room change
Coffee and Cookies will be served at 11:15 am in the Statistics Lounge, 450
West Hall
Posted by kshedden at March 23, 2010 12:58 AM