An Example Using SETI@home Data

Joseph Breeden

The greatest challenge for any researcher with the subjects addressed in this book is a lack of data. The author, working at a company that interacts with many banks, has been fortunate to analyse hundreds of data sets, but none are public and only a rare few can have some of the results publicly disclosed such as those shown in Chapter 6.

SETI@home is not a banking example, but, as the following analysis shows, the application is very similar to modelling attrition rates (see Table 5.3) and purchase volumes (see Table 5.11) for a credit card portfolio. Because of the richness of this data set, we are able to illustrate a detailed use of the techniques described within this book in a context that requires only a little imagination to apply to banking.

INTRODUCTION

SETI@home, an offshoot of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), is a scientific non-profit organisation housed at the University of California (UC) Berkeley Space Sciences Laboratory. This utilises donated computing cycles from over three million users worldwide in the search for evidence of extraterrestrial life by combing massive amounts of radio telescope data for signs of structured communication.

S