Data Science

One of the frequent ways people can run into random numbers is through their research. We often hear the term “random sample,” or a “randomized” assignment to control. Or, sometimes, we can randomly select a certain number of rows or columns from data to perform an analysis on a representative snapshot of the data. Additionally, for many of us from a natural science or engineering background, random numbers are often used in simulations or optimization models. Given the wide variety of uses for random numbers in Data Science, I thought it would be interesting to take an...

Introduction

When Janet Vertasi, a sociology professor of technology at Princeton, learned of her pregnancy, she decided to conduct a personal experiment. She hid her pregnancy from the internet for nine months. This meant only sharing her pregnancy with close friends and family, using her own personal server while making purchases on Amazon and even opting to use cash For many of her transactions. During this time Amazon mistook her as a “suspicious customer” (Vertasi 2014, Gray 2014). Recall another incident of how Target found out about a...

Like many graduate students from the MIDS program who are also full-time working professionals, I return to campus to seek knowledge and satisfy my intellectual curiosity in information and data science. It has become a part of a lifelong learning pursuit that enables me to constantly apply what I learn back into the real world. Along the way, I never forget that it is also important to have fun with science by combining new knowledge with my own passions in arts and music in whatever ways possible. For nearly a decade, I have been helping clients in...