Big Data's big issue: Where are all the data scientists coming from? Plug “data scientist” into Google and it is clear the job title has finally come of age and, suddenly there is a huge skills shortage. An oft-quoted source about this shortage is a McKinsey Global Institute study, here. This predicts a talent gap of 140,000 to 190,000 people by 2018 in the US alone. I am always sceptical of IT …
I appreciated the article and see the target, the terminology is secondary. I don't like the wiggle room in the bridgebuilder analogy between engineer and statistitian, though, as
1) They said that about Velikowsky between egyptologists and archeologists
2) many statistitians are mathematically competent and practical enough to run toolkits - maybe they are confining their curiosity to a currently saleable set of problems.
I'd be interested in your proposed toolkit as captured in your course - could you provide a link, please?
The Data Science course begins for the first time in January. An announcement from the University contains the same information as this article:
http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/study/postgrad/degreedetails.asp?17
The page explains that "there will be significant overlap between the BI [Business Intelligence] and DS courses".
Dundee has offered the Business Intelligence masters for three years now. A summary of the BI syllabus is available here:
http://www.computing.dundee.ac.uk/study/postgrad/degreedetails.asp?13
I would guess that the Data Science course would focus more on algorithms and presentation, whereas the Business Intelligence course would focus more on design and implementation.
I've been working on a project that generates enormous volumes of log data for the past couple of years and faced the task of consolidating data from hundreds of Apache logs. Gulp. Fast-forward: Splunk! For those of us without all of the right skills or time to roll everything from scratch, Splunk makes it supernaturally easy to extract information from data, complete with meaningful visualizations.
Sadly, I've had very little luck evangelizing for this sort of analysis amongst programmers I know.
I hope that your course work includes Splunk (and tools like it - whatever they might be) that show what "Big Data" analytics can look like in the real world.
P.S. A neighbor's son is looking to do a semester abroad in Spanish at your uni next term. Aussies can be shocking at geography ;-)
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...having worked in what is now called the 'big data' world for nearly 25 years I've still yet to meet anyone that would come close to possessing "machine learning techniques, data mining, statistics, maths, algorithm development, code development, data visualisation and multi-dimensional database design and implementation."...and I have worked with some *very* skilled individuals over the years.
Should this superhuman being ever be found, how useful would their output be to the typical blue-chip company if it is not repeatable, understandable and supportable by mere mortals?
A jack-of-all-trades who is also expected to be a master-of-all-trades is surely a recipe for disaster.
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