Hi, I’m Robert Blanchard for The SAS Academy for Data Science. Welcome to the Text Analytics, Time Series, Experimentation and Optimization learning module.

The Walking Dead is one of my favorite series. In part, because of the authors use of words and images to tell a story. Text, images and even sounds are considered unstructured data because the information is typically not housed in a database, and even when it is, the number of distinct levels is practically infinite. The majority of the information in the world exists in an unstructured form, so its important to have the skills to capture and use unstructured data. I also like the Walking Dead because of how the characters develop as we move through the story. That is, the character structure evolves over time. This is in some sense, a transcription of the real world environment where associations, correlations, and even relationships change over time. Modeling data that changes over time takes special care and you’ll learn the techniques needed to handle this kind of data.

In this module, you’ll learn how to: Gain insights from unstructured data using document clustering and topic identification. Evaluate the impact of a marketing campaign. Build forecast models for time-indexed data, and build and solve optimization problems using linear and nonlinear programming techniques. The courses in this module prepare you to take the last of three exams that are required to earn the SAS Certified Advanced Analytics Using SAS 9 credential.

As you study, be sure to take advantage of all of the features of the Academy! Access all the SAS software you need for these courses by using the Virtual Lab Reservation System. Join the SAS Academy for Data Science online community to ask questions and share tips with your peers. SAS Certification practice exams are available through Pearson Vue. Information on how to purchase these exams is in the Virtual Learning Environment. Best of luck to you on this part of your journey towards earning the SAS Certified Advanced Analytics Using SAS 9 credential!