Authors: Richard Hathaway, Rufei (Lilian) Wu, Ruidi (Rachel) Zhao, Qingyang (Jojo) Zhou Executive Summary This project attempts to predict weekly total room nights for hotel bookings up to four weeks into the future, using previous hotel bookings, air passenger traffic volume, air shopping data, holidays, and seasonality. Three different model types, Prophet, SARIMAX, and…
Prediction of demand elasticity for different markets based on average airfare change
Yiyue Xu, Anthony Yang, Ke Xu, Wencheng Zhang, Yuwen Meng, Hao Liang Problem Description The ability to accurately predict changes in demand in response to fare alterations is of paramount importance in the travel industry. It allows airlines to optimize their pricing strategies and revenue management systems. Historically, the demand estimation was solely considering passenger…
Determining NHL player salaries and assessing General Manager effectiveness with Machine Learning
| By Louis-Charles Généreux and Allen Xu | Problem definition As avid sports fans, we have always been intrigued by the opaque world of player evaluation. In sports like ice-hockey, where teams’ salary spending is capped, signing the right players, at the right price is essential to attaining team success. With most National Hockey League…
Making of a Sole Survivor
| By Uygar Sozer | Motivation As I was winding down after the finals week watching Survivor: Africa, which marked the 22nd season I have seen of the reality TV competition series Survivor, I was once again theorizing about who among the cast was going to make it to the top this time around.…
Everybody Eats! Understanding COVID-19 & Food Insecurity in the Evanston Community
| By Aditya “Adi” Tyagi, Xiaohan (Aria) Wang, Mengyang (Doris) Cao | 1. Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a drastic increase in food insecurity. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) defines food Insecurity as “a lack of consistent access to enough food for an active, healthy life.” It is measured via the following…
Navigating the Ranking Forest: How Analytics Helps Understand University Ranking Outcomes
|by Aditya “Adi” Tyagi and Aditya Gudal| 1. Introduction When you first considered going to graduate school or undergraduate school, you were no doubt quickly made aware of the ranking of the school. Every school is competing to be ranked higher in all ranking systems (QS world rankings, Times Higher Education and U.S. News) by…
What Skills Do Data Scientists Need? — A Text Analysis of Job Postings
|By Yanmeng Song and Lang Qin| Introduction Either in the past or at present, when you try to find your way into the data science world, you might have this question in mind: what skills should I equip myself with and put on my resume to increase the chance of getting an interview and being…
Disrupted: Losing Focus & Productivity in the Digital Age
|By Aditya Tyagi| Even before COVID-19 and the ensuing work from home, smartphone interruptions were wreaking havoc on our productivity and peace of mind. However, when we fully migrated into the digital world with the advent of COVID-19, the endless notification barrage became a full-scale tsunami. The recent Netflix-hit “Social Dilemma”, among other pop culture…
Finding Harmonic Connections in My DJ Music Library
|By Brian Cai| Overview DJing has been a passion of mine since college. As a fervent follower of electronic and hip-hop music, I love the process of discovering new tracks, mixing them into a cohesive DJ set, and, if I’m lucky, connecting with an audience through my musical interpretations. Throughout the years, I have observed…
NASA JPL Magnetosphere Project
|By Greesham Simon, Rui Ju, Aditya Gudal, and Zach Zhu| I. Introduction Human beings have accomplished countless milestones of exploring Earth and space. However, our knowledge about the Universe is still like a speck of dust. Have you ever wondered what causes the spectacular northern lights? Have you ever been curious about the invisible electrons…