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Data Analytics Newsletter #16
March 2020
Contents
1. Working remotely
2. Actuaries Digital narrows in on COVID-19 pandemic
3. Model resilience in data analytics
4. Folding@Home blog
5. Technical Corner: five lesser-known Pandas tricks
Working remotely
As many organisations move to working from home due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be worthwhile to take a step back and think about how to do it effectively. This article covers some key points for data science teams and generally.
Taking the time to set up a productive workspace at home, to keep up human connections and to communicate expectations can make working remotely successful. Finally, it is important to block out time for breaks and switch off properly at the day’s close. Read more here.
Actuaries Digital narrows in on COVID-19 pandemic
COVID-19 has far reaching impacts across industries. Actuaries and data analytics practitioners have a critical role to play in advising the response with data, but context is important. For those considering the impacts on their businesses, Actuaries Digital has produced a number of articles on the pandemic, with updates and discussion on the consequences for health, general insurance and financial services.
Check out the articles below!
Finding positivity and opportunity under COVID-19 - report from Hong Kong
Iris Lun shares her experience about what it’s really like to be living in Hong Kong during the Coronavirus outbreak and if any positives can be found during this time of uncertainty.
Read more here.
Status update of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak
Three weeks ago, Zeming Yu explored the development of confirmed cases and death rates across the globe using the data visualisation software Tableau. What has changed over the last three weeks?
Read more here.
The Effects of COVID-19 on the Australian health system and PHI
From our improving understanding of how the SARS-COV-2 virus is spread and how it emerges in different segments of the population as the COVID-19 disease, Brent Walker explores the likely
effect on different sectors of the health system.
Read more here.
Thoughts for General Insurance actuaries
As alert levels for COVID-19 heighten and risk management strategies are put in place, there is an uneasy level of uncertainty which actuaries and businesses are facing. Estelle Pearson writes about what this pandemic situation means for General Insurance actuaries.
Read more here.
COVID-19 BLOG #1 - Author: Alex Stitt
As the nation steps up in tackling the COVID-19 situation, Alex Stitt has dedicated a blog series to provide updates of the pandemic, as well as related issues that may impact our industries.
Read more here.
Coronavirus – What every actuary advising an Australian financial services organisation should know
Furthermore, Alex
Stitt provides an overview of what is currently known about the COVID-19 outbreak and what actuaries advising financial services organisations (FSO's) should be thinking about.
Read more here.
Model resilience in data analytics
All models are wrong, but some are useful. Sometimes you have to fall back to manual guesswork when black swan events occur. Hugh Miller has a few suggestions – to use simpler models, to exclude unusual data and to maintain sensible fallbacks – for building models for better resilience in these uncertain times. Read more here.
Folding@Home blog
For individuals or organisations with spare capacity – especially in data science hardware – there is an interesting project from Washington University and a consortium of labs applying distributed computing and machine learning models for protein research. It is currently directing resources for COVID-19 protein simulations, enabling anyone to donate computing capacity towards the cause. Read more here.
Technical Corner: five lesser-known Pandas tricks
Meanwhile, for those with an unexpected increase in spare time, this could be a good opportunity to brush up on technical skills, and automate some manual tasks. Did you know you can generate an Excel file using Pandas – and then add charts and other adjustments to build it up to a full report? Read more here.
Editor's note
I hope everyone stays safe (and stays home) this month. If you read any interesting data analytics articles, we are always on the lookout for things to include in the next Newsletter – please do not hesitate to contact me.
Past editions of this Newsletter are now available here.
Jacky Poon
Editor, Data Analytics Newsletter
Disclaimer: The Institute wishes it to be understood that any opinions put forward in this publication are not necessarily those of the Institute.
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