What is Data Science and What Does a Data Scientist Do?

The world has navigated to a technological trend for advancement. More companies and industries, including agriculture, continue to adopt technology in their daily tasks. One area of concentration is data collection and analysis. This trend and dependency have given rise to data science, helping companies and other businesses make sense of collected information.

But what is data science?

Data Science

In basic terms, data science:

  • is the analysis of data for practical or actionable insights. It integrates various principles, tools, programming skills, mathematical knowledge, domain expertise, and statistics to make meaningful sense from data.

  • utilizes algorithms to analyze audio, text, videos, images, and other forms of data to generate organizational insights for value and growth. It performs the descriptive analysis for insights and helps to predict the future occurrence of an event.

  • is primarily used in predictions and decision-making from machine learning. This process is carried out by a data scientist who analyzes data for practical application.

Importance of Data Science

For organizations to remain competitive and relevant during this era of big data, it's essential to develop and implement efficient skills and decisions from data analysis. This is achievable only through data science. Today, more companies and industries continue to realize the importance of hiring a data scientist to avoid the risk of being edged out of operation.

In today’s technology age, becoming a data scientist can be both interesting and lucrative. You will be equipping yourself with the capacity to understand big data and derive value from it efficiently. Here are a few reasons why it's important:

  • Data science positions you in helping recruiters blend key data points to pick a candidate who fits their business needs.

  • It can help an organization refine and identify a target audience, giving your company a competitive edge.

  • If you are in the healthcare industry, data science will assist you in analyzing data from trackers, telemedicine reports, to help monitor a patient's well-being and make the right decision. You can also assist hospital directors in improving care and reducing waiting time, while serving patients effectively.

  • In the financial sector, data scientists are hired to perform analysis that helps to detect fraud and to offer financial guidance.

Roles and Responsibilities of a Data Scientist

After completing your data science degree at Berkeley College, you qualify to work with business stakeholders in accessing data for goal setting.

  • You are responsible for creating predictive models and algorithms, including designing data modeling processes.

  • Your work entails extensive research to identify hidden weaknesses, opportunities, and trends adding value to a company.

  • Sift and clean data to eliminate what is irrelevant and test the remaining portion for its accuracy in solving a problem or decision making.

  • You also extract data from different sources and relay it onto a dashboard in an understandable language for other members to consult.

Did you know that as a data scientist, you can work as a data engineer, data architect, data analyst, business intelligence specialist, or for artificial intelligence in the federal government? For more information regarding the Business Data Science Bachelor’s program at Berkeley College, call 800-446-5400 today.

The views and/or opinions in this article are those of the individuals interviewed. The academic achievements and/or employment outcomes described in this article are specific to each individual and are not a guarantee of similar results for past or current students. For up-to-date and detailed information, please visit BerkeleyCollege.edu and view our catalogs at BerkeleyCollege.edu/publications