# Technical Writing

## Technical Articles

In addition to the peer-reviewed papers listed below, I also have written or collaborated on other articles and essays about a variety of topics.

My articles on the Win-Vector Blog
The Win Vector blog (with John Mount) publishes articles approximately once a month on topics in math, statistics, computation, and anything else we think is interesting.

Preparing data for analysis using R
A white paper on data exploration and treatment in R, including a survey of commonly encountered data issues and how to resolve them. I also briefly introduce vtreat, Win-Vector's R package for automated data treatment (CRAN distribution). This paper was generously sponsored by Microsoft Data Science.

### Miscellaneous Technical Articles

Articles that I’ve authored or contributed to that haven’t been formally published. Roughly, in the order most recent first.

Fluid data reshaping with cdata: A discussion of data reshaping, and an introduction to the terminology we use to specify reshaping in the cdata R package (and the data_algebra Python package).

Coordinatized Data: A Fluid Data Specification: In which John Mount and I discuss why data structure (the logical form of records) is separate from data layout (the “physical” layout of data in rows and columns), and the implications of this observation for data reshaping.

vtreat: a data.frame Processor for Predictive Modeling: Describes the theory of data preparation behind vtreat, and demonstrates its use.

Comparing Apples And Oranges: A paper with John Mount on the limits of statistical inference in the Google AdSense market.

"Something out of Something": Improvisational Training for Emergency Managers: A white paper about improvisation, in the context of emergency management.

The vtreat R package: a statistically sound data processor for predictive modeling. J. Mount and N. Zumel. The Journal of Open Source Software, Vol. 3, No. 23, p 584 (2018)

Evaluating the Impact of Improvisation on the Incident Command System: A Modified Single Case Study using the DDD Simulator. Z. E. Franco, N. Zumel, J. Holman, K. Blau, L. Beutler. In J. Landgren, U. Nulden and B. Van de Walle, (Eds.) Proceedings of the 6th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM2009), Gothenburg, Sweden, May 2009.
Winner of Best Paper Award, ISCRAM 2009.

Causality, covariates and consensus in ISCRAM research: towards a more robust study design in a transdisciplinary community. Z. E. Franco, N. Zumel, K. Blau, K. Ayhens-Johnson, L. Beutler.International Journal of Emergency Management, Vol. 5, pp 100-122. (2008)

Improvisation as a Training Framework for Emergency Managers. N. Zumel, Z. Franco, L. Beutler. Presented at the 13th International Command and Control Research and Technology Symposium (ICCRTS 2008), Bellevue, WA June 17-19, 2008.

A Ghost in the System: Integrating Validity and Methodology Considerations from Behavioral Sciences into Disaster Research. Z. Franco, N. Zumel, L. Beutler, In B. Van de Walle, P. Burghardt, & C. Nieuwenhuis (Eds.), Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM2007) (pp. 115-124). Brussels: VUBPRESS.

Buddy: Harnessing the Power of the Internet. D. Boulware, J. Salerno, N. Zumel, M. Manno, International Journal of Intelligent Systems: Forthcoming.

Source Characterization and User Advice to Improve Metasearch, N. Zumel, R. Dourandish, Technical Report, Defense Technology Information Center, ADB307979, 2005

A Computational Model of Information Fusion for Situation Assessment, N. Zumel, R. Dourandish, Technical Report, Defense Technology Information Center, AD Number: ADB292359, 2003

Multi-Robot Team Coordination using Desirabilities. A. Saffiotti, N.B. Zumel, and E.H. Ruspini, The 6th International Conference on Intelligent Autonomous Systems (IAS-6), Venice, Italy, July 25-27, 2000.

Acquiring design rationale automatically. Karen L. Myers, Nina B. Zumel, Pablo Garcia. Artificial Intelligence in Engineering, Design and Manufacturing 14(2): 115-135 (2000)

Automated Capture of Rationale for the Detailed Design Process. Karen L. Myers, Nina B. Zumel, Pablo Garcia. Innovative Applications of Artificial Intelligence, Proc. AAAI/IAAI 1999: 876-883

A Nonprehensile Method for Reliable Parts Orienting. Nina B. Zumel, Doctoral Dissertation, Technical Report CMU-RI-TR-97-13, Robotics Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, January 1997.
abstractpdf summarypdf

Nonprehensile Manipulation for Orienting Parts in the Plane. N. Zumel and M. Erdmann. Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Vol. 3, April, 1997, pp. 2433 - 2439.

Analysis and synthesis of the sounds of impact based on shape-invariant properties of materials. E. Krotkov, R. Klatzky, and N. Zumel. Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Pattern Recognition, Vol. 1, August, 1996, pp. 115 - 119.