In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Keith Allen to trace his journey from U.S. Army Infantry officer to data science consultant! Dr. Allen and I also chat in-depth about his passion for sports analytics, and how that drove him to focus his PhD dissertation on the question "Should we go for it on fourth down?"

FEATURED GUEST:

Name: Dr. Keith Allen

Email: getallenkl@gmail.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rainbowmountaindatascience/

About: Dr. Keith Allen is a Specialist Master Senior Data Scientist for Deloitte in Huntsville, AL.  He has over 20 years of experience in simulation modeling, quantitative research, multi-variate statistics and test and evaluation.  Dr. Allen began his career as an Infantry officer in the U.S. Army and then became a senior test officer and team lead as an Army civilian leading developmental flight test projects for as a civilian.  In recent years, Dr. Allen has worked as a technical consultant serving DoD, NASA and other public and private entities as a senior data scientist focused on stochastic modeling, predictive analytics and mathematical optimization.  Dr. Allen holds a bachelors and master’s in engineering fields, and successfully completed his PhD in data science in 2021.  Dr. Allen also holds several professional certifications in the field of project management, modeling and simulation and test and evaluation.

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EPISODE LINKS:

Dr. Keith Allen's Dissertation Website: https://www.bridgetheparadox.org/

Northcentral University's PhD in Data Science: https://www.ncu.edu/programs-degrees/doctoral/doctor-philosophy-data-science

Karl Popper (author): https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/popper/

Thomas Khun (author): https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/thomas-kuhn/

Nvidia Deep Learning Institute: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/training/

INFORMS Certified Analytics Professional (CAP) Certification: https://bit.ly/2MIOxqP

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Host: Ted Hallum

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About: Veterans in Data Science and Machine Learning (VDSML) is a valuable and supportive community for current and aspiring data professionals with U.S. Military experience. Our aim is to further the careers of fellow Veterans through intentional sharing of collective knowledge and experience.

OUTLINE:

00:00:07 ​ - Introduction

00:01:28 - Where Dr. Allen earned his PhD in data science

00:06:34 - Journey from the U.S. Army to data science

00:39:01 - Dr. Allen's data science PhD dissertation

01:05:14 - Dr. Allen answers the question "Who should pursue a PhD in data science?"

01:08:54 - Insights from the world of data science consulting

01:26:10 - Dr. Allen's next 50 and 100 meter data science learning targets

01:27:56 - Two excellent authors for your data science reading list

01:30:09 - The best ways to contact Dr. Allen