Doing Data Science

Preface

Rachel Schutt

Data science is an emerging field in industry, and as yet, it is not well-defined as an academic subject. This book represents an ongoing investigation into the central question: “What is data science?” It’s based on a class called “Introduction to Data Science,” which I designed and taught at Columbia University for the first time in the Fall of 2012.

In order to understand this book and its origins, it might help you to understand a little bit about me and what my motivations were for creating the class.

Motivation

In short, I created a course that I wish had existed when I was in college, but that was the 1990s, and we weren’t in the midst of a data explosion, so the class couldn’t have existed back then. I was a math major as an undergraduate, and the track I was on was theoretical and proof-oriented. While I am glad I took this path, and feel it trained me for rigorous problem-solving, I would have also liked to have been exposed then to ways those skills could be put to use to solve real-world problems.

I took a wandering path between college and a PhD program in statistics, struggling to find my field and place—a place where I could put my love of finding patterns and solving puzzles to good use. I bring this up because many students feel they need to know what they are “going to do with their lives” now, and when I was a student, I couldn’t plan to work in data science as it wasn’t even yet a field. My advice to students (and anyone else who cares ...