Praveen Kumar Gupta

In depth

Data Science incorporates skills from computer science, mathematics, statistics, information visualization, graphic design, and business. Statistician Nathan Yau, drawing on Ben Fry, also links data science to human-computer interaction: users should be able to intuitively control and explore data. In 2015, the American Statistical Association identified database management, statistics and machine learning, and distributed and parallel systems as the three emerging foundational professional communities. Relationship to statistics Many statisticians, including Nate Silver, have argued that data science is not a new field, but rather another name for statistics. Others argue that data science is distinct from statistics because it focuses on problems and techniques unique to digital data. Vasant Dhar writes that statistics emphasizes quantitative data and description. In contrast, data science deals with quantitative and qualitative data and emphasizes prediction and action. Andrew Gelman of Columbia University and data scientist Vincent Granville have described statistics as a nonessential part of data science. Stanford professor David Donoho writes that data science is not distinguished from statistics by the size of datasets or use of computing, and that many graduate programs misleadingly advertise their analytics and statistics training as the essence of a data science program. He describes data science as an applied field growing out of traditional statistics. Later, attendees at a 1992 statistics symposium at the University of Montpellier II acknowledged the emergence of a new discipline focused on data of various origins and forms, combining established concepts and principles of statistics and data analysis with computing. The term “data science” has been traced back to 1974, when Peter Naur proposed it as an alternative name for computer science. In 1996, the International Federation of Classification Societies became the first conference to specifically feature data science as a topic. In 1998, Chikio Hayashi argued for data science as a new, interdisciplinary concept, with three aspects: data design, collection, and analysis. In a 2001 paper, he advocated an expansion of statistics beyond theory into technical areas; because this would significantly change the field, it warranted a new name. The professional title of “data scientist” has been attributed to DJ Patil and Jeff Hammerbacher in 2008. Though it was used by the National Science Board in their 2005 report, "Long-Lived Digital Data Collections: Enabling Research and Education in the 21st Century," it referred broadly to any key role in managing a digital data collection.