Analyzing Data With A Unique Perspective, Deb Roy Leads Bluefin Labs!
With so many changes coming to the tech sector and the distribution of media, it is understandable that evaluating those changes has often been difficult to assess. While television has mechanisms built in, like the Neilsen Corporation’s statistical analysis, how can industry leaders determine if you are watching their program from your smartphone or tablet computer? When users stream videos from the Cloud is not as easy to chart the impact of your programming. At least, it was not easy to chart before Deb Roy set his mind to the issue!
Deb Roy saw the way social networking was changing the landscape of communication at the same time as technology was advancing to provide users with more instantaneous shared experiences. Deeply interested in the relationship between the distribution of media and news through technology, Deb Roy began an ambitious project to collect the statistics that would inform him – and others – as to the actual effect of the technological changes. That was when he and Michael Fleischman founded Bluefin Labs.
As the head of Bluefin Labs, Deb Roy developed the methodology that tied social media traffic to real-world events. So, for example, if during the Super Bowl, a new commercial aired that involved a flaming dog, Roy’s tools track the influence of the ad by scanning the social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, etc. for perceived references to that new commercial. Roy’s search mechanic was brilliant. Deb Roy and the engineers at Bluefin Labs create instantaneous searches for key elements in the media they wish to study, not just the name. So, a Bluefin Labs engine would not simply look for “flaming dog,” they would correlate terms like “Doberman on fire” or the brand name of the advertised item. Through these spikes in traffic on specific topics, Deb Roy is able to illustrate how a new media piece is spread and just how much of an effect it has!
The idea for the mechanic is one that Deb Roy was uniquely suited to develop. Deb Roy is an expert in cognitive science. His Ph.D. in Cognitive Science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was paired with his B.S. in Computer Engineering from the University of Waterloo when he went to work for MIT’s Cognitive Machines group. Deb Roy, who has studied for years how children learn language , wrote the programs that form the basis of intelligent machines. Roy’s programming helps machines evaluate, learn and grow using the same principles as human learning!
Deb Roy applied the same principles to data collected from social networks in order to create the mechanic for Bluefin Labs. Now, when social scientists, advertisers and companies need to know how much impact specific events have in the lives of people all over the world, Deb Roy and Bluefin Labs have concrete answers. Deb Roy’s interest in how humans learn is now telling us how people react!
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