Data is more than just a record of events. It is a record of destiny, connecting natural patterns with human understanding.
“By following the data, we learn to see the data as it is,” said statistical modeling expert Prof. Drs. Nur Iriawan, MIKomp., Ph.D. from the Institut Teknologi 10 November (ITS) Surabaya, when presenting at a guest lecture on Quantitative Research Methodology to students of the Master of Science in Management (MSM) program at SBM ITB on Tuesday (10/22).
Prof. Iriawan started the class by discussing the philosophy of data. According to Iriawan, a data-based approach has changed the world of business and research. Through statistical modeling techniques, Prof. Iriawan shared his knowledge with students about how to use data for optimal decision-making.
According to Prof. Iriawan, data first becomes information, which then develops into knowledge, understanding, and wisdom. Millions of data can be processed by utilizing popular software such as Excel, Minitab, and SPSS.
“While Excel can handle over a million rows of data, more advanced tools like SPSS allow for data analysis with virtually unlimited frequency, constrained only by the computer’s specifications,” said Prof. Iriawan.
He encouraged students to understand data distribution as the foundation of any data-driven analysis. Various types of regression, such as binomial and Bernoulli, are commonly used in binary classification tasks, like predicting customer behavior—whether they will make a purchase or not.
Prof. Iriawan also revisited the fundamental concepts of descriptive statistics, refreshing students’ knowledge of measures of central tendency—mean, median, and mode. He explained that each measure responds differently to extreme values, with the median often preferred when data contains outliers, while extreme values can significantly influence the mean. Prof. Iriawan concluded the lecture by discussing formulating and testing hypotheses using data.