Hi All!
This is the place where I will share my passion for Data Science. It is a subject that I have been exploring since 2012 when a friend first introduced me to the idea of becoming a data scientist (and I said “What’s that!)
The graphic below symbolizes all the ideas I have for enhancing this Website… and all the work still left to do.
More to come soon! – But scroll down for a head start!
By the way, this site is just getting started… So sorry for the mess!!
A Little About Me…
During the past 6 years I worked with a team of investigators at a large regional hospital system in the US. Primarily we conducted research into the delivery of health care services, asking ourselves, how we can improve our system’s clinical outcomes and, equally important, how can we to promote equity in the distribution of health care in our community.
Prior to that, I spent 10 years developing data warehouses for our organization. Of course, at the time, I had no idea that I would someday be using those same data warehouses as a member of a medical research team. That team didn’t exist yet.
And, prior to that, I served in various capacities in information technology, ranging from support technician to systems analyst to manager of an information systems department.
Now I devote my time to reading and writing about data science and taking on the occasional freelance project.
Data Science?
It seems like sort of a vague term. At least it did to me the first time I heard it. Feel free to look it up on Wikipedia if you want a longer “official” definition, but here is what it means to me.
Data science, for me, is simply an area of study focused on mathematical models that can be used to predict a future outcome based on information received in the past. As an added bonus, its ability to do this should improve over time. It’s a machine that can learn.
The ideas behind these kinds of models originated more than 50 years ago but were not practical until computers became sufficiently powerful, and affordable to large numbers of experimenters. The experimenters became known as data scientists. Over the last 20 years this new breed of specialist has impacted our lives in innumerable ways.
If you want a picture of what data scientists have accomplished, think of things like Internet search engines, self-driving cars or rockets that can land themselves. Or a system that can tell if a skin blemish is benign or not. Or a a Website that can suggest someone who you might fall in love with.
To do these sorts of amazing things takes some level of mastery over many skills: Statistics, computer programming, mathematics, experimental methods and hacking (the friendly kind), to mention a few. In other words, it takes a Data Scientist.
