How Is Data Science Changing the World for the Better? 

Two of the most talked-about things of the last decade are artificial intelligence (AI) and data science. Data science is an emerging field that extracts information from raw and unstructured data with the help of scientific methods, algorithms, and processes. This information is helping the world grow. According to a report, The global big data analytics market revenue is expected to reach over 68 billion U.S. dollars by 2025. But how and where is data science applicable? 

This blog will help you understand the data science process, its applications, and how hiring data engineers can help make the world a better place.

Understanding the data science process

What good is data if there is no use for it, right? It is why we have data science and data scientists. The job of a data scientist – an analytical expert who collects data and searches for meaning in it, is to filter data and use various techniques to find information from it. To do that, they use complex algorithms and help ML engineers build efficient machine learning models

Though this is an overview of the job, their role in data science is profound. Various steps go under in developing a model. Let’s look at the steps used to derive information from the data – 

  1. Collection of data

Data is abundant. You need a specific data set and a problem statement to perform some analysis. So once the objective is clear, the next step is to identify the data and store it in a database. Usually, we store data in an excel or CSV file. 

  1. Data cleaning and preprocessing 

When data is in raw form, it contains meaningless information, such as words, numbers, and characters. For a computer system to comprehend and conclude meaning from it, you need to clean and pre-process data. Here, we use scripting languages like R and Python to clean data and make it machine-readable. 

  1. Performing data analytics and modeling 

Once your data is clean, it is ready for data analysis. It requires data scientists to use data visualization to spot trends. Here, with the help of machine learning algorithms, models are built that respond to the given input. It is the primary job of a data scientist who uses statistics,  predictive tools, and programming languages to derive outputs for a given input data.  

These insights benefit many businesses, and they can use them to expand their growth. Often these insights need to be backed up, and the data science teams need to support how their models can help the organizations. 

Let’s look at some areas where data science is contributing to the growth of businesses and making an impact.

Seven ground-breaking application areas for data science engineers

1) Marketing

Today, companies are making huge profits by creating customized ads with the help of data science to drive traffic and ultimately more revenue to their websites.

Let’s take the example of e-commerce websites. They monitor their customers’ online shopping behavior and feedback study and analyze trends to send personalized ads and offers to them to generate more revenue. Data-driven marketing is everywhere. From Youtube, and Netflix to Instagram, big tech companies are hiring data scientists to up their marketing game. 

2) Healthcare

Hospitals generate a lot of unstructured data, and it is not an easy task to keep track of everything. But data science has made work in hospitals easier. It is one of the reasons why we see more openings for data science roles in hospitals.

Data science has transformed the healthcare Industry. Because of data scientists,  we are better at diagnosing diseases, creating prevention plans, delivering better prescriptions, and running hospital operations. Data scientists associated with the healthcare industry are also responsible for analyzing personal data and health history, so they can create products that solve regular health problems. 

3) Combating global warming

Over the years, the effects of climate change are getting evident. Controlling carbon dioxide emissions is the primary concern of environmental scientists, and data science can play a pivotal role in combating climate change.

We have ongoing projects that use data science to monitor climate change from space. Data scientists can help us understand climate change in a better way and take measures to prevent its repercussions. 

4) Innovation

The world thrives because of new ideas. With a plethora of data available, we have the leverage to derive new ideas and build new technologies with it.  

If used carefully, customer feedback can help developing countries build affordable technologies. For instance, analytic programs that collect data on pandemic outbreaks, weather, and other daily problems are in the works to improve livelihood. 

5) Poverty prediction

Ending poverty is a global mission. To eliminate it, we have to track it continuously. And this is where data science helps. NGOs use data science to keep track of whether their strategies are working or not. Moreover, we are using this data to predict poverty in the future with the help of machine learning models built on poverty datasets. 

Such models help in identifying low-level income households. In return, NGOs and other social groups utilize this data to prioritize their strategies to end poverty.

6) Entertainment

Does your OTT give your movies and series recommendations? If it weren’t for data science, there would be no Netflix or Amazon, or it would be boring. Data science plays a huge role in the media. It tracks customers’ feedback to give them better recommendations and create better content.

Data science jobs in entertainment are blooming. The requirement is massive because data science has pushed the entertainment industry with customer sentiment analysis and customer-specific advertising & content.

7) Automation

We use automation to build new technologies. From research and designing to manufacturing, we require data science to create better tools. All the updated technologies we see today, from better cameras, sensors, Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), and Light Detection and Ranging, are all because of data science.

However, the use of data science is beyond developing these tools. Automated cars, for example, are one prime example. Data science is revolutionizing the automotive industry too!

Conclusion

Data science is the future! We looked at how data science is already changing the lives of millions, though the true potential is yet to unlock. We still lack in terms of infrastructure and good data scientists. The United States Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that “the demand for skilled and knowledgeable data scientists will boost, leading to a 27.9% rise in employment by 2026.”

This blog covered the buzz about the word “data science” and how data-centric industries are bringing new solutions to the world. Data scientists can help us understand customer needs and conclude better insights from data. Companies worldwide are utilizing this power of data science to generate more revenue and expand their business—the key to changing the world for the better lies in understanding its problems. And data science both understands and provides solutions for those problems. 

Author’s Bio

Aman is a content writer who enjoys writing about technology, trading, and investment. He is passionate about film-making and watches 7-9 films a week. Living in a remote area in Himachal Pradesh, Aman aims to have a minimalist lifestyle.