Fall Semester Module A

Fall Semester Module A

Applied Predictive Analytics I
Professor: Richard Briesch, Professor of Marketing, Corrigan Research Professor, Research Fellow, National Center for Arts Research. http://www.smu.edu/Cox/Departments/FacultyDirectory/BrieschRichard
Textbook: Econometric Analysis (7th Edition) by Greene; The Little SAS Book: A Primer, Fifth Edition by Delwiche and Slaughter.
Software: SAS.
Contents: Endogeneity/Simultaneous Equations, Sample Selection Correction/Tobit, Information Criteria/Model selection, Likelihoods.
Tips: This is a basically Econometrics class with SAS application. You’d better to be familiar with basic SAS coding skills, because the Professor won’t go through every detail in SAS coding, especially the basic data manipulation skills. For the theory part, the textbook is too heavy and mathematical for the class contents. So just use it as a reference book.

Business Metrics
Professor: Jacquelyn Thomas, Associate Professor of Marketing, Frank and Susan Dunlevy Faculty Fellow
http://www.smu.edu/Cox/Departments/FacultyDirectory/ThomasJacquelyn
Textbook: Marketing Metrics, Paul Farris, Neil Bendle, Philip Pfeifer, and David Reibstein
Software: Excel
Contents: Through the use of problem sets and business cases, the course focuses on the calculation of financial, marketing and operational metrics and demonstrate contexts in which managers would rely upon such metrics for decision-making.
Tips: You have to remember a lot of calculations for different kind of metrics. It is not that hard, but keep to the slides and the book.

Introduction to Business Process Analytics
Professor: Ulrike Schultze, Associate Professor 2012-2013 Dunlevy
http://www.smu.edu/Cox/Departments/FacultyDirectory/SchultzeUlrike
Textbook: No required.
Software: No.
Contents: In this class, students will learn the conceptual frameworks, tools and skills needed to develop a blueprint for analytics. This entails successfully analyzing the high-level requirements for business analytics, prioritizing and outlining solutions, proposing business process improvements to generate the requisite data, and making the business case.
Tips: This is a totally case-based class, without any programming skills requirement. But the course load will be very heavy and you have to read a lot of case before class and discuss in class. The conceptual framework is very important. Participation means a lot in this course.

Decision Models
Professor: Amy Puelz, Clinical Professor
http://www.smu.edu/Cox/Departments/FacultyDirectory/PuelzAmy
Textbook: Practical Management Science, Fourth edition by Winston and Albright.
Software: Excel and Palisade’s Decision Tool Suite software.
Contents: linear, integer, binary and nonlinear optimization models in Excel; decision trees for business decisions given uncertainty, simulation models for business decision given uncertainty.
Tips: It basically teaches operation research models with Excel applications. The Professor keeps a perfect pace of presenting how to build decision models in Excel at class. You will learn the most in class. Follow every examples in class and finish the corresponding homework, and you will get a good result.