My Data Science Journey

My Data Science Journey

The Theory Part

Days 1 and 2

Started an intensive booth camp course in Data Science organized by PyData Ghana. We are led by our instructor Daniel Boadzie a Data Scientist and a Software Engineer. So far we started by learning some of the tools used by Data Scientists such as;

  • Python
  • R
  • Julia
  • Selenium
  • Spyder
  • Excel

Although we were made to understand that you really don't need to be statistically inclined to be a Data Scientist, it however, helps to have some basic knowledge in Statistics which is easy to learn. It all starts with the mind, the passion and grit to learn.

Some of the statistical methods that are used by Data Scientists are

  • Linear Regression
  • Predictive Analysis
  • Probability

There are numerous areas that Data Science can be used. These areas include Finance Machine Learning Image Recognition Medicine

For one to become a Data Scientist there are a number of skill set that one needs to acquire. Some of these shill sets include;

Data Wrangling A Data Scientist must have the skills of obtaining data, cleaning the data and presenting the data to tell a good story to any ordinary user of the data.

Dealing With Big Data Big Data is any kind of data that keeps on growing on a daily basis. As defined by oracle.com "The term Big Data refers to a dataset which is too large or too complex for ordinary computing devices to process". Data Scientists deal with these kinds of data to wrangle them and make meaning from them.

Communication Apart from the technical skills that one needs to have as a Data Scientists, there is also the other aspect of gaining a communication skills. This entails the ability to communicate verbally and graphically any data that you have been able to wrangle.

Problem Solving Skills One of the key skills one need to obtain is a problem solving skills; the ability to use innovative and dynamic ways of solving problems. It is not enough to only know the usual way of solving problems but rather one must have the skills of using other methods to solve problems.

People Skills This is also a very crucial skills that a Data Scientist must have. The ability to work with people entails accepting peoples opinions and differences. It also includes the ability to work within a team.

For me as a starter it has been very eventful and an eye opener. I have come to understand deeply the crucial role teamwork and people skills play in the world of a Data Scientist and to a large extent the world of Developer.

My next article will be on the practical aspect of my journey.