The Role of a Data Scientist in 2016

Already crowned as the best job in America for 2016, the definition and skill set required to be a data scientist is in a constant state of flux. Advancements in technology and business demand drive its evolution in an ever-changing industry. In this article, we take a closer look at the role of a Data Scientist in 2016.

Dave Holtz writes that the title 'data scientist' is often used as a blanket title to describe a set of jobs that are drastically different. He attributes this to the fact that the field of data science is still in its infancy and so is ill-defined. Adopting the all-encompassing sub-title of being part of an ‘interdisciplinary field’, a data scientist works to extract knowledge or insights from large volumes of data in various forms.

The age of big data is upon us, and it’s here to stay. With more data being collected than ever before, extracting value from this data is only going to become more intricate and demanding as time goes on. The logic behind the big data economy is shaping our personal lives in ways that we probably can’t even conceive or predict; every electronic move that we make produces a statistic and insight into our life.

As participants in the consumer economy, we are mined for data when we connect to any website or electronic service, and a data scientist is there to collect, clean, analyse and predict the data that we provide by using a combination of computer science, statistical analysis and intricate business knowledge.

The following diagram shows the skillsets required for a Data Scientist. As we can see, this responsibility is a combination of multiple skillsets and expertise compared to a typical Big Data Developer or Business Analyst.

Figure 1. Data Scientist Skillsets

What sets aside a data scientist from other, seemingly similar, data jobs?

Rivera and Haverson suggest that, whilst previous data professionals were concerned with focusing on past movements and interpretation of data, a data scientist tends to be more mathematically focused- concentrating on providing an insight into future patterns identified from past and current data. If one takes the two words literally – ‘science’ implying knowledge gained through systematic study; ‘data’ being an information set of qualitative or quantitative variables – a data scientist can therefore be defined literally as one who systematically studies the organisation and property of information.

Notwithstanding the crucial role of statisticians and others who study data analytics, the role of a data scientist, described by Anjul Bhambari as part analyst, part artist, is set to revolutionise the way that traditional data is analysed and used.

The growing demand for data scientists

The success of business networking site LinkedIn is a prime example of the crucial benefit that data scientists are bringing to business intelligence. As an enterprise that relies almost solely on the data transferred by its 380,000,000 users making connections with each other, LinkedIn is utilising those professionals with the training and curiosity to make discoveries in the world of big data.

LinkedIn, alongside other large knowledge industries such as Facebook and Google, is utilising the role of data scientists to bring structure to large quantities of formless data and to determine significance in its value, and systematic relationships between the variables.

A recent survey of C-suite executives by KPMG found 99% of respondents thought analysis of big data was important to their strategy next year. In an age where enterprise data is expected to exceed 240 exabytes per day by 2020, the need for data scientists with the skills to extract valuable insights from this data is more important than ever. . However, an article by Travis Wright for Venture Beat suggests that demand for data scientists is very much outstripping supply and that companies in the United States alone will need to hire between 140,000 – 190,000 data scientists if they are to keep up with the new data economy.

Ironically, there is a great deal of conflicting data on the average salary for a data scientist, however, what is clear is that the average salary does tend to be inherently concurrent with the high demand level for data scientists. Not surprisingly, if employers are asking candidates to be experienced with data mining algorithms, able to work comprehensively in languages like R and Python, experienced in working with large databases (SQL or similar), implementing Java applications, manipulating NoSQL databases (to quote about 10% of a job specification) – all with the ability to communicate all of this to a non-technical audience, an average salary of about $120,000 doesn’t seem too far fetched.

The role of a Data Scientist

Whilst the role of a data scientist crosses over with more conventional data analysis positions, there are some stark differences.

A data analyst or architect can extract information from large sets of data. Yet they are bound by the SQL queries and analytics packages used to slice these datasets. Through an advanced knowledge of machine learning and programming/engineering, data scientists can manipulate data at their own will uncovering deeper insight. They are not bound by these programmes.

Whilst your typical data analyst looks to the past and what’s happened, a data scientist must go beyond this and look to the future. Through application of advanced statistics and complex data modelling they must uncover patterns and make future predictions.

The skills required of a Data Scientist

Successful data analytics rely on one being able to clean, integrate and transform the data – and this is the crucial combination of skills all data scientists must possess. By combining a scientific background with computational and analytical skills, you can put yourself a ‘cut above the rest’.

Figure 3 below shows the several areas of focus for typical data science discipline.

Figure 2. Data Science Focus Areas

But let’s dig deeper into the actual skills required to become a data scientist. Mark van Rijmenam, CEO at Data Floq, recommends that data scientists possess the following skills: statistical, mathematical and ethical, as well as a high degree of predictive modelling experience in order to build the algorithms necessary to ask the right questions and find the right answers.

Ferris Jumah from LinkedIn goes further to neatly group the skills required, despite the huge array of skills and different job roles a data scientist might perform.

A data scientist must:

Look at data with a mathematical mind-set. Learning skills such as machine learning, data mining, data analysis and statistics are crucial. A data scientist will need to interpret and represent data mathematically.

Use a common language to access, explore and model data. Knowledge of a statistical programming language will be critical. Languages like R, Python or MATLAB, and a database querying language like SQL are some of the most popular skills in demand. Data extraction, exploration and hypothesis testing are central to the data science practice.

Develop strong computer science and software engineering backgrounds. This involves developing a skill set which could include Java, C++ or knowledge of algorithms and Hadoop. These skills will be used to leverage data to architect systems.

Tools of a data scientist

Unlike your typical programmer, who may use a standardised set of tools, data scientists tend to use a wide array of ever changing tools. This is because the data science landscape is evolving rapidly, with many new tools still far from maturity. That being said, below we’ve compiled a series of popular tools for data scientists aligned to specific practices:

Data Analysis:

Here, the tools are really just the programming languages a data scientist uses to extract and analyse data. This is typically Python, R and SQL.

Data Warehousing:

A data scientist may choose to have their own database to which they can extract and analyse data. MySQL is among the most popular to handle reasonable size datasets. Moving in to the realms of big data, they would typically turn to programs like Hive or Redshift. You’d also be surprised how far most data scientists can go utilising the average .CSV file before it falls over.

Data Visualisation:

Among the most commonly mentioned tools for data visualisation are D3.js and Tableau. For D3.js, if you can imagine a data visualisation, a data scientist can achieve it using the software. Tableau is the most popular data visualisation tool out there at the moment allowing the compiling data from hundreds of inputs and then easily transforming the data into visualisations.

Machine Learning:

This is perhaps the area most in flux with new tools emerging daily. Most established and widely used is perhaps Scikit-learn which utilises Python for machine learning. Then of course there is Spark MLlib which is Apache’s own machine learning library for Spark and Hadoop.

Source from :

http://www.techgig.com/readnews.php

15 Chrome tricks you didn't know about

Use Google Chrome as your daily browser? Here are some tricks that would come handy in making your user experience with Chrome more fun, productive and intuitive. Let's get started.

Use Omnibar as a calculator

You can just type in the numbers you want to calculate, for example if you want to multiply 5 by 10, just enter ‘5*10=’ you’ll see a dropdown where the calculation is already made. Same can be used for various conversions such as Pounds to Kilograms, currency conversions etc.

Get your bookmarks saved on cloud

While shifting to a new computer, we always miss the comfort of the bookmarks on the Chrome of the previous machine. Well, simply Sign in to Chrome with your Gmail account, and voila! It saves your bookmarks, settings and passwords if you’ve saved any on the cloud.

So if you just sign in to chrome using your Gmail account, all your settings would come directly on to Chrome, just as it was on your previous PC. This will also save bookmarks on the Chrome browser on your Android device if you’re using the same account.

Pin websites to Desktop

If you have a certain website that you use more often, you can pin the same websites to your desktop as apps. To do this, simply head to the website to be pinned, and go to Chrome Settings then More Tools and then ‘Add to desktop.’

Handy Chrome Shortcuts

Chrome supports dozens of keyboard shortcuts, and these can be used to do everything from managing/navigating tabs, to clearing browser history. Here are some that you’ll end up using the most:

* Ctrl+Shift+N: Open a new window in Incognito mode; Ctrl +J: Open recent downloads; Shift+Esc: Open Google Chrome’s task manager; Alt+Enter: Open URL in a new tab after typing the URL manually; Ctrl/Shift+F5: Reload the current page while ignoring cached content.

Create a work-friendly home page

Wish for a more work-friendly home page? Chrome is there to help. Check out Momentum, a cool app from the Chrome Web store. It actually helps you be more productive by letting you add your to-do’s for the day, including any priority tasks. Moreover, everyday it welcomes you with some stunning wallpapers, so no more boring grey screen.

Search for the images using Google reverse image lookup

There have been times where you’ve looked up for a certain image and you have not been able to download it. Not anymore. Simply right click on the image, and hit the Search Google for image option. Chrome will launch a new tab, and using Google’s reverse image lookup it’ll search for similar images on the web. How cool is that?

Chrome’s Task Manager

Chrome is a very power hungry browser, we all know. So how to make it eat a little less of your RAM? It’s simple. Hit Shift+Esc and it’ll show you Chrome’s own task manager, which provides detailed info about the running tabs, extensions, plug-ins etc. You can see which app or extension is sucking up so much of your RAM, and kill it there and then. It gives you a good bifurcation of the resources each app or page is consuming.

Remote desktop access through Chrome

Chrome can also be used for remote desktop access, just like Team Viewer and other such applications. And the process too is very simple. All you have to do is install the Google Chrome Remote Desktop App on both machines, and follow the easy instructions provided. The remote system sharing is secure, and authenticated by user shared PINs.

Chrome Dictionary

Reading something on the web and you don’t know what the word means? No worries, just install Google Dictionary from the Chrome’s webstore. Once installed, simply hit the dictionary and then select the word you want the meaning for. It’ll open a pop up and show you the meaning.

Scroll Click

Sometimes we’re working on a certain project, scrolling pages after pages. Now you don’t want the next click to change the page you’re on, simply click the middle scroll wheel on your mouse, or right click on the link and select Open in a new tab. This won’t disrupt your current page as well as your page will be ready in a fresh tab.

Using Omnibox to search under a website

When we type into Chrome's Omnibox it searches Google by default, but you can also use it to search into any site. All you need to do is start typing a site's name into the box, Amazon or YouTube, for example, and then press Tab and search what you’re looking for. If the site doesn't support native Omnibox searching, you can manually add it into Chrome's search engine list by right-clicking the Omnibox and selecting "Edit search engines." You can also set up a custom keyword to use in place of the site's URL.

OK Google!

If you have a microphone connected with your computer, you can set up by simply downloading Google's official Voice Search Hotword extension to enable the functionality. Once installed, you can just say Okay Google, just like we do on our Android devices to search.

Scrolling the fun way

Too lazy to scroll an entire page using the scroll wheel or mouse? Simply press Spacebar and it will push an entire page down. Now want to scroll the same page up? Press Shift Spacebar and it’ll scroll an entire page upwards.

Recovering Closed Tabs

Just closed a tab accidently while working on it? Simply hit Ctrl+Shift+T and it’ll reopen the last closed tab for you. Moreover it can retrieve up to 10 recently closed tabs.

Source From :

http://www.techgig.com/tech-news

7 best women safety apps

Women safety has become the utmost priority of the Indian government considering the increasing cases of crime against women. There are various safety apps present on the play store designed for the protection and security of women. Therefore on this International Women’s day we combined a list of best 7 safety apps for women, which will ensure that they are not alone anywhere they go. The basics of most apps are similar — a user-decided list of emergency contacts to alert, and transmission of GPS-determined location — but the newer ones are easier to use, almost intuitive.

Take a look and download the one you like the most:

Safetipin

Safetipin is one of the good options when it comes to safety apps for women. The app is designed keeping in mind the concept of personal safety. It incorporates all the essential features such as GPS tracking, emergency contact numbers, directions to safe locations etc.

The app also pins the safe areas along with their safety scores to go at the time of any problem. It also enables the users to pin unsafe areas and help others. Safetipin is available in Hindi, Bahasa and Spanish, besides English.

Raksha - women safety alert

The Raksha app is designed to ensure that women stay safe always. The app comes equipped with a button, which will send alerts to your loved ones with your location in a situation of distress. You can select the contacts, which will be able to see your location. Moreover, if the app is switched off and is not working then also you will be able to send alerts by simply pressing the volume key for three seconds.

The app also has SOS functionality and can also send SMS if stuck in a non internet area.

Himmat

The Himaat app is a free safety app recommend for women by the Delhi Police. In order to use the app, the user has to register at the Delhi Police website. Once the registration is complete the user will receive an OTP, which has to be entered at the time of completing the app configuration.

In a problematic situation if the user raises the SOS alert from the app, the location information and audio video will be directly transmitted to the Delhi Police control room following which the police will reach the location.

Women safety

The next on our list is the Women Safety app that will inform and update your dear ones if you are stuck in an unsafe place. It will send all the details related to your location with just a tap of a button.

The app will send an SMS to a preconfigured number along with your location and a link of Google Maps. The app will also click two pictures with the front and rear camera, which are directly uploaded to the server.

The Women safety app comprises of three coloured buttons based on the seriousness of a situation. So, you can tap the one you want depending on your situation.

Smart 27x7

The Smart24x7 app is supported by the various states' police just to ensure the safety of women and senior citizens. The app sends panic alerts to emergency contacts in a problematic situation. It also records voices and also takes photographs during the panic situation and transfers these to the police as well.

It also has call centre support, which will track down the primary movements of the user. Users just need to press the panic button and select the type of service required and then finally click on submit.

Shake2Safety

The Shake2Safety app is the easiest to use. The user just needs to shake their smartphone or just press the power button four times to send an SOS text or call to the registered numbers. It works with the locked screen on and even without an internet connection. Moreover, the users will also have the ability to activate or deactivate the option of shaking the device to send an alert.

The app can also be used in case of an accident, harassment, robbery or any natural calamities.

bSafe

The bSafe app ensures the safety and security of women. It allows contacts follow you through a live GPS trail and also set a timed alarm which goes off if you haven’t ‘checked in’. Moreover, it will also make your phone ring with a fake call and also notifies the emergency contacts with the location, video and even siren.

Along with this, there is also a Guardian Alert button, which will immediately tell your friends or family members with the GPS location and video at the time of distress.