Larry Rafsky | |
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Born |
Lawrence C. Rafsky New Jersey, United States |
Alma mater | Princeton University (A.B.), Yale University (P.h.D.) |
Occupation | Data Scientist, Entrepreneur |
Known for | Friedman-Rafsky Test, FAME_(database) |
Website | www.acquiremedia.com |
Dr. Lawrence C. Rafsky (Larry Rafsky), is an American Data Scientist, Inventor and Entrepreneur. Rafsky is best known for creating new search algorithms and methodologies for financial and news information industries. He invented the Friedman-Rafsky Test, now a fundamental statistical procedure. Dr. Rafsky founded and serves as the Chief Scientist for Acquire Media, a news and information syndication company.
Dr. Rafsky invented the Friedman-Rafsky Test, along with Jerome Friedman, now a fundamental procedure in multivariate data. This Multivariate normality test checks a given set of data for similarity to the multivariate normal distribution. The null hypothesis is that the data set is similar to the normal distribution, therefore a sufficiently small p-value indicates non-normal data. In 1981, Dr. Rafsky outlined this algorithm in a study published by the Journal of the American Statistical Association. Rafsky and Friedman qualified their test in a 1983 publication in collaboration with Stanford University and Gemnet Software. The two asserted that Interpoint-distance-based graphs are capable of being used to define measures of association that extend Kendall's notion of a correlized co-efficient. For this research, Rafsky was granted the Theory and Methods Award from the American Statistical Association. In 1981 Dr. Rafsky also holds seven US Patents, focused on the syndication and aggregation of web content. He has a scholar h-index of 15, a g-index of 37, and an Erdos number of 4.
In 1982, Rafsky founded Gemnet, the creator of the FAME (Forecasting Analysis and Modeling Environment) time series database. Rafsky established Gemnet's operations initially in Ann Arbor, Michigan, but was later moved following Citicorp's acquisition of the company. The first version of the software was delivered to Harris Bank in 1983, with a focus on creating a time series-oriented database engine and the 4GL scripting language. This would eventually become known as the FAME model, or Forecasting Analysis and Modeling Environment. In 1984, the company was bought by Citicorp, which led a series of new developments with the FAME program until selling off the unit to private equity firm, Warburg Pincus in 1994.