Data Science

Data Science is a combination of multiple disciplines that uses statistics, data analysis, and machine learning to analyze data and to extract knowledge and insights from it.

What is Data Science? Data Science is about data gathering, analysis and decision-making.

Data Science is about finding patterns in data, through analysis, and make future predictions.

By using Data Science, companies are able to make:

Better decisions (should we choose A or B) Predictive analysis (what will happen next?) Pattern discoveries (find pattern, or maybe hidden information in the data) Where is Data Science Needed? Data Science is used in many industries in the world today, e.g. banking, consultancy, healthcare, and manufacturing.

Examples of where Data Science is needed:

For route planning: To discover the best routes to ship To foresee delays for flight/ship/train etc. (through predictive analysis) To create promotional offers To find the best suited time to deliver goods To forecast the next years revenue for a company To analyze health benefit of training To predict who will win elections

How Does a Data Scientist Work?

A Data Scientist requires expertise in several backgrounds:

  • Machine Learning
  • Statistics
  • Programming (Python or R)
  • Mathematics
  • Databases

A Data Scientist must find patterns within the data. Before he/she can find the patterns, he/she must organize the data in a standard format.

Here is how a Data Scientist works:

  1. Ask the right questions – To understand the business problem.
  2. Explore and collect data – From database, web logs, customer feedback, etc.
  3. Extract the data – Transform the data to a standardized format.
  4. Clean the data – Remove erroneous values from the data.
  5. Find and replace missing values – Check for missing values and replace them with a suitable value (e.g. an average value).
  6. Normalize data – Scale the values in a practical range (e.g. 140 cm is smaller than 1,8 m. However, the number 140 is larger than 1,8. – so scaling is important).
  7. Analyze data, find patterns and make future predictions.
  8. Represent the result – Present the result with useful insights in a way the “company” can understand.

What is Data?

Data is a collection of information.

One purpose of Data Science is to structure data, making it interpretable and easy to work with.

Data can be categorized into two groups:

  • Structured data
  • Unstructured data
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