[R] R helps win competitions

[Bert Gunter]

Ravi/others:

With all due respect, this seems off topic for this list. I believe
there are machine learning lists for which such discussion might be
better suited.

-- Bert

On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 9:55 AM, Ravi Varadhan <rvaradhan at jhmi.edu> wrote:
> Ruben,
>
> Thanks for bringing attention to this very interesting article.
>
> The Kaggle competition model is aimed at identifying a "single" best
> prediction machine.  I am curious as to whether the Kaggle model described
> in the article can be extended to an ensemble "uber-learner", where one can
> combine the individual prediction models in Kaggle to obtain a more powerful
> predictor.  I know that Chris Volinsky and others have used this ensemble
> learner idea in winning their Netflix competition.  Is this a practically
> feasible idea that can be implemented within the Kaggle system so that at
> the end of the competition an uber-learner (that is better than the best
> individual prediction) is automatically developed?  Also, would there be
> challenges associated with the interpretability and portability of the
> resulting uber-learner?
>
> I would love to hear thoughts from the R prediction experts.
>
> Thanks & Best,
> Ravi.
>
> -------------------------------------------------------
> Ravi Varadhan, Ph.D.
> Assistant Professor,
> Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology School of Medicine Johns
> Hopkins University
>
> Ph. (410) 502-2619
> email: rvaradhan at jhmi.edu
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-project.org] On
> Behalf Of Rubén Roa
> Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 12:10 PM
> To: r-help at r-project.org
> Subject: [R] R helps win competitions
>
>
> DeaR ComRades,
>
> This is a quote from a News article in Science's 11-February issue, about
> competitions to model data:
>
> "For Chris Raimondi, a search-engine expert based in Baltimore, Maryland,
> and winner of the HIV-treatment competition, the Kaggle contest motivated
> him to hone his skills in a newly learned computer language called R, which
> he used to encode the winning data model. Raimondi also enjoys the
> competitive aspect of Kaggle challenges: "It was nice to be able to compare
> yourself with others; ... it became kind of addictive. ... I spent more time
> on this than I should."
>
> If you are interested read the full article here:
>
> http://www.sciencemag.org/content/331/6018/698.full
>
>
> Rubén
>
> ____________________________________________________________________________
> ________
>
> Dr. Rubén Roa-Ureta
> AZTI - Tecnalia / Marine Research Unit
> Txatxarramendi Ugartea z/g
> 48395 Sukarrieta (Bizkaia)
> SPAIN
>
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>



-- 
Bert Gunter
Genentech Nonclinical Biostatistics