Ep. 115 – [Northeastern Lecture Series] Mastering Analytics with Uwe Hohgrawe, Lead Faculty in Analytics, MPS at Northeastern University

As you’ve heard in episode 112 with Todd Barr and 114 with David Mahoney, Analytics becomes an ever powerful technology to save the world.

Yet the subject is pretty dense and hard to grasp. In most cases, it requires coding.

I bring Uwe Hohgrawe on the show to talk a bit more about analytics and his answers surprised me.

It’s actually better to be a subject matter expert first and then dive into the analytics more than anything else.

So this interview is much more about why Analytics is something you might need to invest in the future, especially if you want to make big changes in the food industry.

About Uwe, PhD (Social Sciences), University Wuppertal, Germany

Uwe Hohgrawe is an assistant teaching professor and lead faculty in the Master’s in Professional Studies in Analytics program, which he (co-)designed. Previously, Dr. Hohgrawe was a part-time lecturer in the program and lectured at other universities in the United States and Germany.  

Dr. Hohgrawe is an analytics professional in the health and pharmaceutical markets, with more than 25 years of global experience in data analytics, competitive intelligence, forecasting, and market research. Most recently, he was Vice President of global business intelligence for EMD Serono. Earlier in his career, Dr. Hohgrawe led Johnson & Johnson’s global pharmaceutical market research team for nearly a decade, and also led business intelligence teams for GfK, one of the world’s largest market research organizations.

Dr. Hohgrawe is a former president of the European Pharmaceutical Market Research Association and has published numerous articles on business intelligence. He lives in Stoughton, Mass. and teaches in Boston and online.


Sponsor – BAKERpedia

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Shownotes

What do you tell people in a sentence or less?: I’m working for one of the most prestigious universities in the united states and I lead analytics
The history of analytics
Florence Nightengale was a Nurse/ first female statistician. Identified areas where soliders died more than other areas. It was more from diseases than wounds.
Who else sues big data: Jeff Bezos. Sold books online but used Big Data to beautifully shape amazon’s philosophy
“What is good for the customer is in the end, good for amazon”
Different parts of analytics are outsourced: for example, you can buy data and buy visualization services.
Analytics tools:
Dope
Sequel
R
Python
Spark
Is there anything that you’d like to dispel today?: I completely understand that people are scared of data. Even though we gather a ton of data, it’s for artificial intelligence. We use this to find new knowledge.
Clean Meat – Paul Sharpiro’s book
The best professionals in analytics are those who have the best knowledge about the domain. I started in the pharmaceutical business. I then became a social scientist and got into analytics, which helped me in the pharmaceutical industry. I was in charge of global analytics from Johnson and Johnson.
What appealed you about North Eastern?: We incorporate real world data in NorthEastern. The students are also all around the world and I love it.
Why do you love what you do?: I get feedback from students that are impactful. I love it when students get it.
How can what you do, feed the world?: If we are able to have people buy stuff and control traffic, we should be able to identify hunger and find ways to feed people using analytics.
How has science evolved?: When I started college, I used a dial telephone. We’re going faster and faster but the core remains the same. We have to deliver quality and answer the question
What are your thoughts on Artificial Intelligence?: If it saves time and makes you more innovative, it’s worth it.
Any advice for anyone in the food industry?: Know what you like to do. Talk to experts and get informed. For analytics, know math, statistics, some tools. Machine learning, predictive elements
Where can we find you for advice?: Northeastern website

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