Category: #SoDS

Summer of Data Science

Summer of Data Science Goal-Setting

The purpose of the Summer of Data Science is to learn a specific topic or complete a specific project or read a book or finish a course so you can check something off of your long data science “to learn” list, and have fun achieving goals along with other data science learners during a fixed period of time. The deadline should be motivating, to get you to start and finish something before the summer is over.

Week 1 was all about brainstorming ideas and gathering resources – dreaming up what you’d love to learn, and finding content that will help you learn it.

Week 2 (which started yesterday, but don’t worry, jump in any time even if you see this a month from now) is all about goal-setting.

Summer of Data Science 2017

Since Memorial Day in the U.S. is the unofficial start of the summer season, I figured today would be a good time to launch the SUMMER OF DATA SCIENCE 2017!!!

The Summer of Data Science is a commitment to learn something this summer to enhance your data science skills, and to share what you learned.

Becoming a Data Scientist Podcast Episode 12: Data Science Learning Club Members


Verena, David, Kerry, and Anthony are members of the Becoming a Data Scientist Podcast Data Science Learning Club! They appear in the order in which they joined the club, and each discuss their starting points before joining, their participation in the activities, and advice they have for new data science learners.

Podcast Audio Links:
Link to podcast Episode 12 audio
Podcast’s RSS feed for podcast subscription apps
Podcast on Stitcher
Podcast on iTunes

Podcast Video Playlist:
Youtube playlist of interview videos

More about the Data Science Learning Club:
Data Science Learning Club Welcome Message

“Becoming a Data Scientist” Learning Club?

I have been thinking about doing a “Becoming a Data Scientist” podcast for a long time, at least since April. The podcast would include interviews focused on how people working in various data-science-related jobs got to where they are today (how did they “become a data scientist”?). I’m getting closer to taking the dive and getting it started.

I had an idea today that would take it a step further. Imagine how book clubs work where you pick a book, go off and read it, then gather occasionally to discuss and record your thoughts. Except instead of a book club, it’s a data science learning club!

BPDM’s interview with….. me!

An organization based in Puerto Rico called “Broadening Participation in Data Mining” (BPDM) interviewed me over the weekend, and it’s online now! Without further ado…. Thanks to Orlando and Herbierto for having me on! (P.S. I did put up the post about Data Sources on DataSciGuide)

The Imitation Game, and the Human Element in Data Science

Last night, my husband and I watched The Imitation Game. First of all, it’s a great movie and you should see it. Secondly, there was a moment that got me thinking about the human element of machine learning.

[Spoiler Alerts – but you probably already know much of the story, and the movie is still good even if you know the historical outcome.]

I thought a moment like this may be coming when Alan Turing was first applying to work at Bletchley Park, and Denniston can’t believe he’s applying to be a Nazi codebreaker without even knowing how to speak German. Alan emphasizes that he is masterful at games and solving puzzles, and that the Nazi Enigma machine is a puzzle he wants to solve. He starts designing and building a machine that will theoretically be able to decode the Nazi radio transmissions, but the decoder settings change every day at 12am, so the machine must solve for the settings before the stroke of midnight every day in order for the day’s messages to be decoded in time to be useful and not interfere with the next day’s decoding process. Turing can’t prove his machine will work, simply because it is simply taking too long to solve the daily puzzle. In the meantime, people are dying in the war, and the Nazis are going on transmitting their messages over normal radio waves believing the code is “unbreakable”.