Exploratory Data Analysis with MATLAB (Chapman & Hall/CRC Computer Science & Data Analysis) [Hardcover]

Wendy L. Martinez (Author), Angel Martinez (Author), Jeffrey Solka (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1584883669 | ISBN-13: 978-1584883661 | Publication Date: November 29, 2004 | Edition: 1

Exploratory data analysis (EDA) was conceived at a time when computers were not widely used, and thus computational ability was rather limited. As computational sophistication has increased, EDA has become an even more powerful process for visualizing and summarizing data before making model assumptions to generate hypotheses, encompassing larger and more complex data sets. There are many resources for those interested in the theory of EDA, but this is the first book to use MATLAB to illustrate the computational aspects of this discipline.

Exploratory Data Analysis with MATLAB presents the methods of EDA from a computational perspective. The authors extensively use MATLAB code and algorithm descriptions to provide state-of-the-art techniques for finding patterns and structure in data. Addressing theory, they also incorporate many annotated references to direct readers to the more theoretical aspects of the methods. The book presents an approach using the basic functions from MATLAB and the MATLAB Statistics Toolbox, in order to be more accessible and enduring. It also contains pseudo-code to enable users of other software packages to implement the algorithms.

This text places the tools needed to implement EDA theory at the fingertips of researchers, applied mathematicians, computer scientists, engineers, and statisticians by using a practical/computational approach.

Editorial Reviews

Review

This book … has a good introduction to EDA, and then illustrates several applications where MATLAB provides the analysis of data to produce unexpected results.
- Books-on-Line

This is a book for those who have a good grounding in linear algebra and statistics who wish to use MATLAB for statistical investigations.
-Short Book Reviews of the International Statistical Institute

The aim of this book, as stated by the authors, is to 'make exploratory data analysis (EDA) techniques available to a wide range of users.' They have succeeded to a commendable extent in achieving this goal. The audience for the book is a wide one and includes statisticians, computer scientists, and others who may be interested in or use EDA. …I found the book to be engagingly written, and successful in its defined task of teaching the reader to use EDA with MATLAB. I liked the graphics and thought that they fully illustrated the techniques used.
-Journal of the American Statistical Association, Brian Jersky, Sonoma State University

The book can also be useful in a classroom setting at the senior undergraduate and graduate level, valuable exercises being included in each chapter.
-Zentralblatt MATH, Neculai Curteanu

About the Author

Wendy L. Martinez has been in government service for over 20 years, working with leading researchers from academia, industry, and government labs. During this time, she has conducted and published research in text data mining, probability density estimation, signal processing, scientific visualization, and statistical pattern recognition. A fellow of the American Statistical Association, she earned an M.S. in aerospace engineering from George Washington University and a Ph.D. in computational sciences and informatics from George Mason University.

Angel R. Martinez teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in statistics and mathematics at Strayer University. Before retiring from government service, he worked for the U.S. Navy as an operations research analyst and a computer scientist. He earned an M.S. in systems engineering from the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and a Ph.D. in computational sciences and informatics from George Mason University.

Since 1984, Jeffrey L. Solka has been working in statistical pattern recognition for the Department of the Navy. He has published over 120 journal, conference, and technical papers; has won numerous awards; and holds 4 patents. He earned an M.S. in mathematics from James Madison University, an M.S. in physics from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, and a Ph.D. in computational sciences and informatics from George Mason University.

--This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 424 pages
• Publisher: Chapman and Hall/CRC; 1 edition (November 29, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1584883669
• ISBN-13: 978-1584883661
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,321,789 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars excellent book, May 7, 2009

By 

John Weatherwax - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Exploratory Data Analysis with MATLAB (Chapman & Hall/CRC Computer Science & Data Analysis) (Hardcover)

As an avid reader of many mathematical books I found this to be an excellent addition to the exploratory data
analysis (EDA) literature. This book is very enjoyable to read in part because of the many hands on examples
and problems presented. The data sets are interesting and allow the easy demonstration of the techniques
discussed in the book. This book is valuable because the topic of EDA is often not included or emphasized in
much detail in traditional statistics courses. This is a shame because for the practicing statistician
obtaining an understanding of ones data set must precede any further analysis. The way in which one obtains
hypothesis for further study is by using EDA. Thus EDA is really the precursor to all other ``more standard''
techniques. I've found that often simply reading a text is not sufficient for mastery of the presented
material. To ensure that I received the maximal benefit from this excellent book I worked and implemented a
great number of the computational problems and exercises. Notes and code developed as I worked through the
book can be found here:

[...]

It is hoped that these notes may provide insight and or directions for further study for other students.
Working them has certainly provided me with a much larger arsenal of tools that can be brought to bear on data
intensive projects.

5 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Joins the Technologies of EDA with MATLAB, March 25, 2005

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Exploratory Data Analysis with MATLAB (Chapman & Hall/CRC Computer Science & Data Analysis) (Hardcover)

Searching available data to determine insights and information is fundamental to EDA. When EDA was first being developed in the 1970's the avaialble computers were small and weak. As a result techniques to utilize small data sets with pencil and paper were developed. These proved that the concept had value in certain situations where the investigator did not have a preconceived notion of what he was seeking.

MATLAB is a high-level technical computing language and interactive environment for algorithm development, data visualization, data analysis, and numerical computation. Using MATLAB, you can solve technical computing problems faster than with traditional programming languages, such as C, C++, and Fortran.

It's a natural then to tie EDA to MATLAB. With the interactive and visualiztion capabilities of MATLAB large amounts of data can be analyzed rapidly in many ways. This book ties the concept to the software. It has a good introduction to EDA, and then illustrates several applications where MATLAB provides the analysis of data to produce unexpected results.