Data Science

Data science is also known as data-driven science. It is nothing but a data collected in various forms, either structured or unstructured. Different methods used are machine learning, data mining, analysis of a data, visualization of a data etc.

It is an umbrella that contains many other fields like Machine learning, Data Mining, Big Data, statistics, Data visualization, data analytics etc. It is a “concept to unify statistics, data analysis and their related methods” in order to “understand and analyze actual phenomena” with data.

Everything from Data Mining to Data cleansing and even visualizing and ideating over the usage of a data set is the genre of a Data Scientist.

Data Science
Data Science [Source: https://www.stoodnt.com/blog/top-universities-for-ms-in-data-science-in-usa/]
In a nutshell, Data Science has an ability to extract knowledge and insights from large and complex data sets. Data science work often requires knowledge of both statistics and software engineering.

However, you would be surprised to see where all we used it and in which forms!!

Applications / Uses of Data Science

Below are the most common applications of data science that we use in our daily lives.

  • Internet Search

    • When we think of search, we go to only ‘Google’! Isn’t it? But in reality, there are many other search engines available.
    • All available search engines make use of data science algorithms to deliver the best result for the searched query in a fraction of seconds.
  • Digital Advertisements (Targeted Advertising and re-targeting)

    • The entire digital marketing spectrum starting from the display banners on various websites to the digital billboards at the airports – almost all of them are decided by using data science algorithms.
  • Recommender Systems (e.g. Similar products/apps)

    • Recommended products / Similar apps / Apps you may like / Suggestions
    • A lot of companies have fervidly used this engine/system to promote their products/suggestions in accordance with user’s interest and relevance of information. Internet giants like Amazon, Twitter, Google Play, LinkedIn and many more companies use this system to improve the user experience. The recommendations are made based on previous search results for a user.
  • Image Recognition

    • It uses “Machine Learning” from a data science to recognize an image.
    • Image upload with friends on Facebook and you start getting suggestions to tag your friends. This automatic tag suggestion feature uses face recognition algorithm
    • Similarly, while using WhatsApp web, you scan a barcode in your web browser using your mobile phone.
  • Speech Recognition

    • Some of the best examples of speech recognition products are Google Voice, Siri (Apple), Cortana (Microsoft) etc.
    • If you aren’t in a position to type a message, simply speak out the message and it will be converted to text.
  • Gaming

    • EA Sports, Zynga, Sony, Nintendo, Activision-Blizzard have led gaming experience to the next level using data science. Games are now designed using machine learning algorithms which improve/upgrade themselves as the player moves up to a higher level.
  • Price Comparison Websites

    • At a basic level, these websites are being driven by lots and lots of data which is fetched using APIs and RSS Feeds. E.g. Trivago, Google Shopping, Bing Shopping…there are many more!

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Related Keywords

Machine Learning, Statistics, Analytics, Speech Recognition

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