Grab a copy of The Elements of Statistical Learning ("the machine learning bible") and you might be a little overwhelmed by the mathematics. For example, this equation (p.34), for a cubic smoothing spline, might send shivers down your spine if math isn't your forte:…

How Did I Get Here?

I'm a female mathematician, statistician, and data scientist. How did I get to be all of those things? I wish I could say "I did well in school" or "I always loved computers." But the reality is, in middle/high school, I was bored stiff. I excelled in art, skipping classes, and bombing exams. At 16, I dropped out of school to begin an illustrious career in office cleaning. 

The odds were stacked against me entering the computing industry for many…

Logistic regression (LR) models estimate the probability of a binary response, based on one or more predictor variables. Unlike linear regression models, the dependent variables are categorical. LR has become very popular, perhaps because of the wide availability of the procedure in software. Although LR is a good choice for many situations, it doesn't work well for all situations. For example:

• In propensity score analysis where there are many…