Welcome!

Rock Creek Analytics is a consulting firm that provides services in the areas of data analytics, financial modeling, demand analysis and development of web-based tools.

Data Analytics

We undertake statistical analysis and modeling of large scale data sets, and use modern visualization tools to present results.

Financial Modeling

Financial analysts spend too much time fixing bugs on their Excel based models rather than focusing on inputs and analyzing the outputs. We provide web based models using standardized templates. Users input the details of their model via our web based interface, and leave the modeling details to us. Within seconds the model is run, and the user can focus on reviewing the output.

Check out our work on financial modeling at MyFinModel.com.

Demand Analysis

Demand modeling and forecasting is one of our core competencies. We have worked in this space for over 20 years and have specific expertise in the modeling of transport facilities such as highways, toll roads, ports, transit systems, and railroads.

We utilize the traditional demand modeling techniques (time series analyses, econometric modeling, and four-step transport planning models) as well as artificial intelligence-based techniques such as neural network-based machine learning to forecast demand, prices of stocks, etc.

Neural network-based back-propagation algorithms can be used to forecast the demand for toll facilities. Only the past period data is used to do the forecasts. This obviously creates a few issues.

  • First, it is difficult to describe what is impacting the changes in the data.
  • Second, the process does not take into account the structural changes on the forecasted variable.

Given these constraints, the advantage of neural network-based models are clear – they are inherently nonlinear, fast, and perform quite well when compared to traditional econometric models.

We would caution against using these models for long-term forecasts because in the longer-term one should take into account structural changes in the transport network, the economy, and other social conditions.

Try our demand forecasting application.

Business Planning / Due Diligence Support

Business Planning
We help create business plans for infrastructure assets to determine how the asset will be developed, financed, constructed and operated, and assess the key risks that can cause schedule or cost over-runs.

Due Diligence
We support developers and financiers in their due diligence reviews of demand and cost estimates, permitting required, comprehensive risk analyses, and project schedules.

Representative Projects

  • Private client: PPP expert for a World Bank funded road safety project
  • Private client: Quantitative financial modeling for opportunity zone investments for a real estate investment firm
  • Private client: Data analytics and dashboard development for a commercial real estate start-up
  • Federal Government: Data analytics of insurance policies and claims for DHS/FEMA
    • Typical dataset: ~500+ million records spread over multiple data tables
    • Statistical modeling: descriptive analysis, time series analysis, factor analysis, discriminant analysis and predictive modeling
    • Tools: R, SPSS, PostGres, Netezza, Python, SQL, Tableau, ArcGIS
  • Federal Government: Data analytics for the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council – Office of the Executive Director
  • Private client: Benefit cost analysis in support of BUILD grant application to the U.S. Department of Transportation for a container terminal in Pacific Northwest
  • Private client: Financial modeling for power projects (solar power and conventional power) worldwide
  • Private client: Financial model for a new port in the Caribbean
  • Private client: Quality assurance of a due diligence of acquisition of a construction company in the US
  • Private client: Assistance to the Independent Engineer for two toll roads in Dominican Republic
  • Private client: Demand analysis for a new cruise terminal in Central America
  • Private client: Optimization of financial reporting tool for the Office of the CFO of a private toll road operator in the US

Tech Stack

We use a variety of open source and proprietary tools for our work. These are:

  • Programming and scripting
    • Python
    • PHP
    • VBA
    • C++
    • JS
    • HTML / CSS
  • Statistical analysis
    • R
    • GRETL
  • Mathematical analysis
    • NumPY
    • Pandas
    • Matplotlib
  • Geospatial analysis
    • ArcGIS
    • QGIS
    • Python libraries: ArcPY, Fiona, Shapely, OSGEO
    • R libraries: RGDAL, MAPS
  • Visualization
    • Tableau

 

Technical Papers

Review some of our technical papers that discuss the applications of various techniques and tools commonly used for data analytics, demand modeling and financial analyses.

Our general interest technical blog is on Medium.

 

Public Sites