How Data Science Happens

Abstract

Data science allows practitioners to find deep patterns within data and turn the data into actionable information. The actionable information may be advisory, an indication of a general trend, or may be specific instructions to take. Using data visualization, advanced geospatial mapping, data mining, and predictive analytics, analysts can discover information hiding the data and create predictions based on prior behavior of people, organizations, and objects. This chapter presents an outline for the student or nonpractitioner about what data science is and how it works. Using this, a student may find first stepping stone into the field. The nonpractitioner can learn the vocabulary and concepts to work better with data scientists on their team.

Keywords: data science, machine learning, visualization, data analysis

JEL Classification: C63, C53, C81