Data Is Pattern

Michelangelo, in creating David said, “I just chip away the stone that doesn’t look like David.” Looking at data, I sense that “David” lies inside - a pattern. Chipping away, the pattern appears from noise. The future is hidden there, correlations waiting to be found, and more clues waiting to be unlocked through clustering. The right model is as critical as an artists’ choice of chisel. Mathematics gives me a special perspective to see meaning in data, to find connections between numbers, which records the past and the meaning for the future.

The ability to sense the pattern is the key to data analysis, I am always fond of the TED talk above. Data is the carrier of information, the world is about information, every time we scare becuase we have no knowledge of what we are dealing with. Once we have data, things change a lot, connecting business in different fields, that is what the world heading to.

Algorithms in Data Science

During the national mathematical modeling contest, my team members and I performed analysis on chemical compounds and physical observations for thousands of red wine samples. Provided with a sample of well and poorly rated wines, we were tasked with predicting how others would perform. Observing the data, I realized we would need to build a model to identify classes of wine from the rules that the ranked samples followed. Spurred by my grasp of the task we faced, we discussed machine learning algorithms that would provide a solution. We settled upon a Support Vector Machine model - a supervised learning algorithm - using the training set to calibrate our classifiers, we successfully separated the wine samples. I am Michelangelo. It is my job to bring David from this stone, so that you can see him yourself.

Data as World Fuel

The amazing thing in data sicence is that it connects the world with sicence, technology, art and business.