"To Explain or To Predict?" accepted to Statistical Science

My paper "To Explain or To Predict?" has just been accepted to the journal Statistical Science. The working paper with the most recent version is available on SSRN.

Upcoming invited talk at New England Stat Symposium (May 19)

I will be giving an invited talk on "To Explain or To Predict?" (an abridged version of the 1-hour talk) at the 2010 New England Statistics Symposium, to be held this year at Harvard. Although my talk is within the "business" invited session, it definitely extends to all sciences using statistics, and especially to statisticians who are mostly concerned with descriptive modeling (which is neither explanatory, nor predictive).

To Explain or To Predict? Talk @ Georgetown University

The talk is part of the Math (and Stat) Department's seminar series, and will take place on Friday Nov 30. For details click here.

"To Explain or To Predict?" @ Columbia University

I'll be presenting my work on the difference between explanatory and predictive modeling at Columbia University's Stat department PhD colloquim on Thursday Sept 17. This event is open to visitors, so feel free to drop in. A lively conversation is guaranteed. More details are available here.

"The Challenge of Prediction in IS Research" -- Talk at Tel Aviv Univ's Recanati School of Management

This week I will be presenting a talk, based on our paper "The Challenge of Prediction in Information Systems Research", at the Recanati School of Management, Tel Aviv University. The talk will take place on Wednesday, Aug 12, at 12:30 in room 403. This talk is of interest to researchers in the social sciences who emply statistical modeling. For more information click here.

Visit to IIMC (Kolkata)

IIMC is the first residential business school that I have seen: all grad students live on campus! My gracious host Dean (cum statistician!) Saibal Chattopadhyay gave me a tour on campus and a "tour" of their different programs.

Talks at the Melbourne Business School and RMIT

"To Explain or To Predict?", presented at MBS and RMIT, was followed by lively discussions with audiences that included researchers from a wide range of academia: political science, behavioral science, medicine, ecology, economics, information systems, and statistics. I've learned more about the status of predictive research in these different areas, and indeed it is alarming.

"To Explain or To Predict?" presented at Monash U's Econometrics & Business Statistics group

Prof Shmueli presented her work on "Explanatory Modeling vs. Predictive Modeling in Scientific Research" at the seminar series of the Econometrics & Business Economics group at Monash University, Melbourne, Australia. The talk was followed by a lively discussion of the differences and meaning of explanatory modeling and statistical modeling.

Seminar @ U of Auckland: "Explanatory vs. Predictive Modeling in Scientific Research"

Prof. Shmueli gave a seminar on "Explanatory vs. Predictive Modeling in Scientific Research" at the Statistics department, University of Auckland, New Zealand. This is the largest statistics department in New Zealand.

Statistics Week @ ASU

Prof Shmueli will present two talks as the guest of Statistics Week at ASU, March 20-21. The topics of the talks are:
1. Statistical Challenges in Modern Biosurveillance,
2. Explanatory vs. Predictive Modeling in Scientific Research.

Explain-Predict