Triangle SQL Server User Group

This talk will use the spatial tools of the data science software, Alteryx, to explore challenges and easy but imperfect solutions for performing demographics analyses using ZIP codes.

A ZCTA (zip code tabulation area) maps to census blocks whereas a ZIP (zone improvement plan) code expresses less geographically predictable mail delivery routes. A business such as a hospital or prison can receive enough mail to have its own zip code. This presents a problem in demographic analyses because the population in such cases will be zero even though there may be analyzed incidents such as diseases that are counted in that zip.

ZIP codes, also unlike ZCTAs, can overlap state and county boundaries, which presents challenges to aggregating zip-code level data. A ZIP code can also correspond to a PO Box and therefore not be associated with a population.

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Rick Pack is a Data Scientist in Raleigh / Durham, NC who uses R, SAS, SQL, and Alteryx to perform a variety of business and population health analyses. He has a Master’s of Applied Statistics from Penn State University and over 10 years of professional data science experience. For fun, he runs in master's (adult) track meets, and most enjoys the 400m sprint.

Do you want to be a Data Engineer in the next step on your career path? Maybe you're just getting started in the rapidly-growing Data Science and Analytics space? Or perhaps you're already doing on-premises analytics and want to take things to the cloud? Then come to this introductory session and see what Azure Databricks can do for you!

Azure Databricks provides a cloud-based Apache Spark environment that can be scaled up and out to tackle your big data analytics needs. We'll look at how to set up your first Azure Databricks cluster, how to use shared notebooks in a collaborative environment, and how to leverage the integrated Azure Machine Learning capabilities. We'll also discuss where Azure Databricks fits in the modern cloud data warehouse.

Chris Hyde is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP based in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He works as an independent SQL Server BI and DBA consultant, and is the leader of the Albuquerque PASS local user group. He is also part of the Friends of Redgate program and was a member of the Idera ACE class of 2018. He loves loud music and cricket, but usually not at the same time.

Azure Synapse Analytics is a cloud hosted analytics service in Azure that unifies data ingestion, data warehousing and data analytics at extreme scale. Basically, it’s a one-stop shop for all your data and analytics needs no matter how much data! It offers ways to consume data in dedicated SQL resources or serverless SQL resources in data lakes as well as analyze data in Apache Spark.

Using demos, we will learn how to setup and start using Azure Synapse Analytics and understand why you want to use Azure Synapse Analytics. We will see how to take data and bring it in to Synapse and consume it in Synapse and in tools like Power BI and Apache Spark.

Jamey is a Senior Data Scientist/Engineer for a large O&G company. For 30 years, he has worked for Fortune 500 companies architecting successful platforms in the cloud, on the edge and on-premises for BI reporting, statistical analysis, ML and AI in Azure, Python, R, Power BI, MS SQL and SAS JMP. He holds a BS in Spatial Analysis from LSU and a Masters of Science in Analytics from Texas A&M. He is a professor at Texas A&M in the MS Analytics program. He is a Microsoft Data Platform MVP.

How about a fun quiz night or lightning talks just to get everyone back together again?