{"id":9377,"date":"2020-08-20T07:28:23","date_gmt":"2020-08-20T07:28:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/?p=9377"},"modified":"2023-11-17T12:23:41","modified_gmt":"2023-11-17T12:23:41","slug":"strategies-for-learning-data-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/bigdata-cloud\/strategies-for-learning-data-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Strategies for Learning Data Science"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"9377\" class=\"elementor elementor-9377\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"has_eae_slider elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-2eb7ba6f elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"2eb7ba6f\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-e-type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"has_eae_slider elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-544e5228\" data-id=\"544e5228\" data-element_type=\"column\" data-e-type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-67ec96b0 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"67ec96b0\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\"><strong>Practical Advice for Breaking into Data Science<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Doyou want to break into data science? But just don\u2019t know how? If so, then read on as this article is for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Late last year in December of 2019, I released a YouTube video by the same name called\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=7XdoaQYwTeA\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><em>Strategies for Learning Data Science in 2020<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0for my recently started YouTube channel called the\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/youtube.com\/dataprofessor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Data Professor<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0where I shared my strategies for learning data science as an academic professor who had self-taught himself data science and has been active in the field for the past 16 years since 2004.<\/p>\n\n\n<figure><iframe src=\"https:\/\/cdn.embedly.com\/widgets\/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2F7XdoaQYwTeA%3Ffeature%3Doembed&amp;display_name=YouTube&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D7XdoaQYwTeA&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2F7XdoaQYwTeA%2Fhqdefault.jpg&amp;key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=youtube\" width=\"654\" height=\"430\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f2f757c elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"f2f757c\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n<p>In this article, I\u2019ll be discussing how you too can embark on a similar path of becoming a data scientist by sharing with you some of the learning strategies that I use to learn data science.<\/p>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-6686a6a elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"6686a6a\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"1e4c\">What background do you need to break into data science?<\/h1>\n<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-485ac4d elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"485ac4d\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n<p>Should you have a computer science degree in order to become a data scientist? Or if you are coming from a non-technical background, could you also make a similar transition into data science?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Firstly, I am not a computer scientist and as you may recall from my very first article on Medium (<a href=\"https:\/\/towardsdatascience.com\/how-a-biologist-became-a-data-scientist-c52ec0060b8c\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"broken_link\"><strong><em>How a Biologist Became a Data Scientist: How I Transitioned from a Non-Technical Background into Data Science<\/em><\/strong><\/a>), my undergraduate degree was in biological science. And because of my fascination with computers and data, I have been self-studying the necessary concepts and skills necessary for doing data science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Data science is a multidisciplinary field that encompasses several disciplines such as informatics, computer science, statistics, science, mathematics, data visualization and most importantly problem-solving. If you look into job descriptions of data scientists on LinkedIn, you will notice that there are various first degrees that data scientists may have. As you can see, the background is quite diverse. In fact, many are not computer science graduates. However, if you have a computer science degree you may have an advantage. And if you don\u2019t, that\u2019s okay too (myself included as a biology major).<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-dfebe3e elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"dfebe3e\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n<p>Having the passion to learn data science and apply it to whatever field you are in, I believe that is the key to becoming a data scientist. Owing to the abundance of data in biology, this has incentivized my transition of becoming a data scientist. Particularly, by applying machine learning to analyze the big biological data in an effort (1) to find and discover new drugs, (2) to understand the mechanism of action of drugs and also (3) to create diagnostic tools that will be able to assist clinicians and health professionals in diagnosing patients for a particular disease of interest.<\/p>\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-e1d8cce elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"e1d8cce\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"40fb\">Where to Start?<\/h1>\n\n<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-7740899 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"7740899\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>This is a tough question. Where do you actually start when you want to break into data science? The answer can get quite diverse. If you ask a hundred data scientists, you might get a hundred different answers!<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>If you ask me, I started with a domain knowledge of biology. I had some data problems in biology that I need answers for. In my journey of eventually becoming a data scientist, I\u2019ve slowly learned the necessary skillsets one by one. This was not done in 3 months or 1 year but have started since 2004. Having been doing data science for 16 years before the term was coined, having published more than 100 research articles, having taught data science (data mining back then) since 2006, could I say that I have mastered data science. Absolutely not! I am still continuing to learn new concepts in data science on a daily basis. The landscape of data science is so vast that it could take a lifetime to master (and perhaps not even master the entire field but only a subset of it).<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n<p>As you will see in the cartoon illustration below, the starting point of breaking into data science is quite flexible. From whichever background that you are coming from, you could indeed break into data science and with the necessary effort, time and practice invested you will be on your way of becoming a data scientist.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-bbf9b63 elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"bbf9b63\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Home-448x253_1-1.png\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-ca54bd3 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"ca54bd3\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- wp:separator --><hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/><!-- \/wp:separator -->\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-3d7b6e8 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"3d7b6e8\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\"><h1 id=\"cdb8\">How Much Time is Needed to Become a Data Scientist?<\/h1><\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-3b36cb9 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"3b36cb9\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Another popular question that you may be wondering about is the amount of time that is needed to become a data scientist. You might have heard from somewhere that you can learn data science in 3 months or less.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>But really, is that at all possible? The answer is yes and no. Confused? You see, in 3 months you might have a taste or feel of what data science has to offer. You might be able to gain a preliminary introduction to data science. You might even gain data literacy or become a citizen data scientist.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Let\u2019s say that if you have a computer science degree, the time it would take to become a data scientist would not be so long because you already have the fundamentals of computing, you already have the technical background, you already know how to program (if not, that\u2019s okay too!). So these technical skills that you have will make your transition much quicker.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Let\u2019s say that if you are a web developer and you\u2019re going to learn R or Python then you will be at a better position to learn both languages or either one of these languages than a non-technical person coming from a field such as biology (yep, that\u2019s me!).<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-88b03f1 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"88b03f1\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>For a biology major the time that it takes to learn R or Python might be longer. However, I believe that if you have the mindset and passion to learn then I think that is all that is necessary. I read somewhere that if you spend say 10,000 hours you will be able to master skills or knowledge.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Let\u2019s say that you spend about two hours a day learning about the concepts of programming and data science so I believe that within a year or two you will be able to learn enough to towards becoming a data scientist. So given that you also practice. I would argue that a data scientist is\u00a0<em>a way of life<\/em>. Becoming one requires dedication and life-long learning for acquiring new skills that would allow you to be in the loop of the field. It\u2019s a\u00a0<em>use it or lose it<\/em>\u00a0philosophy. So aside from life-long learning, I also highly recommend to apply the newfound knowledge and skills on data science projects.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Personally, my day-time job as an Associate Professor of Bioinformatics requires me to keep up-to-date on the latest developments of the field so as to foster innovation and the development of novel bioinformatics tools as well as the application of existing machine learning algorithms to extract knowledge and provide insights on the underlying mechanism of diseases as well as in the quest of discovering a new drug for potential therapeutic applications.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:separator --><hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/><!-- \/wp:separator -->\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-2838893 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"2838893\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Do I Need To Learn How to Code?<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-27c8d30 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"27c8d30\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>So the next question that you may have is whether you will need to learn how to code in order to become a data scientist? This really depends on the circumstances, so yes and no. Before I learn how to code, I would use this software called WEKA. It is a point-and-click graphical user interface (GUI) software for performing data mining that I relied on for analyzing the data that I had compiled during the course of my PhD study.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Over time, I began to notice that data analysis via the point-and-click interface was not an efficient process. The main reason is that it requires a lot of manual work where I will have to physically use the mouse to click and perform various tasks in the software: (1) to import the data, (2) to specify the input parameter, (3) to initiate the training of the model, (4) to collect the data, (5) to put it into Excel, (6) to combine it and therefore all of these were quite tedious.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>There was this one time that I could vividly remember during the course of my PhD study. It is when I controlled the 40-50 computers at the computer lab of the university. So on each of the computers, I would run some calculations (model building using the WEKA software) after which I would then manually collect the data from each of the 40\u201350 computers and then pooling the results for subsequent analysis and plot making in Microsoft Excel.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-43cce49 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"43cce49\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>During the course of my PhD studies, I never did learn to code while I only relied on the data mining capabilities of the WEKA software to do all my machine learning model building using algorithms such as linear regression, J48 (the Java implementation of the C4.5 algorithm), back-propagation neural network and support vector machine. Towards the end of my PhD studies, I came across another great GUI-based multivariate analysis software known as The Unscrambler, which allowed me to run 2 additional machine learning algorithms namely principal component analysis and partial least squares regression.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>Thus, by the end of my 4 years of PhD studies, I was able to graduate with 13 publications (research articles) thanks to the use of the 2 GUI-based software: WEKA and The Unscrambler software. Did I mentioned that during the course of my PhD studies, I did try to learn C++ and Java with no success. Pretty much stuck at the Hello World example and did not really gained any further progress.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>So when did I learn coding? You might be wondering. Before revealing the answer, let me give you some context. So after receiving my PhD, I was hired as a Lecturer at the same university (fast forward to today, I have just celebrated my 14 years in academia + 4 years of PhD studies = 18 years of research).<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-738a742 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"738a742\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Okay, now comes the part when I learn how to code. It was about a years into my Lecturership where I met a research assistant (I will hereafter refer to as the RA) who had joined my research lab to help translate some of the existing workflow that I had been doing into a programmatic workflow namely in Python. So the RA showed me this book that he had been using to learn Python called the\u00a0<strong><em>Python Power!\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>This was my second (and successful) attempt at learning how to code. So why did this second attempt worked? Let me explain that in the next section.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>So with all this said, is it possible to do data science without coding? It is possible to use GUI-based software such as\u00a0<em>WEKA<\/em>,\u00a0<em>Rapid Miner<\/em>,\u00a0<em>Orange<\/em>\u00a0or other similar software (which in modern times is referred to as no-code AI) to perform machine learning model building.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>But the entire end-to-end workflow of the entire data mining project was not entirely possible via the use of only 1 software such as\u00a0<em>WEKA<\/em>. So I ended up making use of the text editor called\u00a0<em>Ultra Edit<\/em>, which allowed me to apply recorded macros for semi-automating some of the data pre-processing that was required.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-53192cc elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"53192cc\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Plot making was predominantly created using\u00a0<em>Microsoft Excel<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0<em>Powerpoint<\/em>\u00a0(for adding in-figure panel labels and for designing the layout of a multi-plot figure. Another software I also used for making more sophisticated plots such as a contour plot was made possible using the\u00a0<em>Sigma Plot<\/em>\u00a0software. The challenge was to manually transform the output of 1 software as the input of the second software. This process is repeated iteratively whereby the output of the second software is used as the input of the third software, etc.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>As you can see, it is indeed possible to perform the entire end-to-end workflow of the entire data mining model building via GUI-based software but at the cost of manual work.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>So thinking in retrospect, if I could start my PhD again, I would definitely put in more effort on learning how to code (the thing is, I did tried to learn how to code but without success; the second attempt a couple of years later was successful because of a change in mindset which I will be sharing with you in the forthcoming section\u00a0<em>Self-taught coder?<\/em>).<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-dc1b15f elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"dc1b15f\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>You see, if you know how to code, even if just only a little bit, it will help to greatly speed up your workflow. Imagine automating the entire end-to-end project in R or Python code instead of having to do everything manually. So what\u2019s the difference? The answer is time and reliability. Particularly, the automated approach is less prone to human error while being significantly faster to compute and complete.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:separator --><hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/><!-- \/wp:separator -->\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-3d36213 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"3d36213\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\"><h1 id=\"6705\">What Language to Learn? R or Python?<\/h1><\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-7365723 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"7365723\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>So now the very important question is what language should you learn how to code. If you\u2019ve been googling or if you\u2019ve been watching videos on YouTube you may come across two languages that are very popular for data science. So the first one is R and the second one is Python. A popular question that is often asked and debated is whether to learn R or Python.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-9c256b7 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"9c256b7\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\"><h2 id=\"eb9f\">Is there a compelling reason for R or Python?<\/h2><\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-416212d elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"416212d\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>So the answer really depends on whether there is a compelling reason to choose R or Python. For example, you might want to use the\u00a0<strong><em>Bio3D<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0R package or the\u00a0<strong><em>shiny<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0package, so if that\u2019s the case then choose R. Or perhaps, you really want to use the\u00a0<strong><em>Biopython<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0library in Python, then, by all means, go with Python.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-8de85aa elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"8de85aa\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Do you have a study partner or mentor?<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-ba9c54e elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"ba9c54e\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>So personally I\u2019ve learned Python first not because of any particular reason of the language itself. So the decision to learn Python was rather due to the fact that the RA whom I mentioned earlier in the previous section had already used Python to code the workflow for the project that we were working on. This more or less, limited the choice to use Python and so my learning journey into coding started here.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>So I had asked the RA to explain what the Python source code meant, line by line. The first explanation did not make sense for me. So it took some cartoon doodling on a piece of paper on what actually was happening when each line is executed. Shortly after, he had left the group to pursue his PhD studies. So my learning journey into coding continued.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-0d391e7 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"0d391e7\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\"><h2 id=\"1ee0\">Self-taught coder?<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-73df918 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"73df918\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>So I came to the conclusion that by following the coding examples in books did not really ignited my learning process. So what actually, propelled my learning? It was framing my own data problem and based on this problem (which serves as the ultimate incentive) I would seek out ways on how to programmatically solve the data problem and produce the necessary results. The completion of this small task would provide small bits of victory that would help to fuel my learning motivation. By\u00a0<em>seeking out ways<\/em>\u00a0to solve data problems, what did I actually do?<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>The answer is quite straight forward. I discovered\u00a0<strong><em>Stack Overflow<\/em><\/strong>. It is a magical and powerful resource that allowed me to self-teach my way through learning coding by learning from the examples of how others solved the coding problem. Sometimes, some of the questions had multiple answers that ultimately led to the same results. Particularly, some answers received more upvote while others might receive fewer upvoted which really is a subjective issue on whether it helped others in their learning journey as well. By comparing and learning from these multiple answers, this helped me realised that in order to get the job done (solve the data problem) I would not need to remember the syntax (which I blindly attempted to do when I was trying to learn C++ or Java several years prior but at no success).<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>So this time around, I was guided by the\u00a0<strong>desire<\/strong>\u00a0to solve data\/coding problems and the\u00a0<strong>logic<\/strong>\u00a0of what tasks are necessary to arrive at the end solution. So how did I come up with the logic of what tasks are needed to be done? I would simply look at the data\/coding problem and try to list out all the steps onto paper on how I would do this, if I had to do it manually. I would then proceed to sequentially code each step, one by one, until all has been solved. Before you know it, the pie that has been broken down into bite-sized pieces are tackled and completed one by one.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:separator --><hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/><!-- \/wp:separator -->\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-e1fead3 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"e1fead3\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Know Your Python Libraries and R Packages<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f8f35ad elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"f8f35ad\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>So the next step of becoming a data scientist is you need to become familiar with the standard library of Python or the standard package and modules of R. Particularly, you will need to know what packages or libraries in R or Python that you can use to wrangle your data, to pre-process your data and also to create your prediction model.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-0474363 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"0474363\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\"><!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2 id=\"c390\">Dataframes<\/h2>\n<!-- \/wp:heading --><\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-60bb5d3 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"60bb5d3\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>For example, if you handle data frames in Python you would use\u00a0<strong><em>pandas, therefore,<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0you will have to learn pandas so that you can merge different data frames together. In R, you can use\u00a0<strong><em>dplyr<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0and also the\u00a0<strong><em>data frame built-in function in R<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-d6ef2f6 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"d6ef2f6\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\"><!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2 id=\"4d7f\">Data visualizations<\/h2>\n<!-- \/wp:heading -->\n<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-5541e5c elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"5541e5c\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>If you want to create graphs in Python you would use\u00a0<strong><em>matplotlib<\/em><\/strong>,\u00a0<strong><em>seaborn<\/em><\/strong>,\u00a0<strong><em>altair<\/em><\/strong>,\u00a0<strong><em>plotly<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong><em>plotnine<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0while in R you could use the R base plot function,\u00a0<strong><em>ggplot2<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong><em>plotly<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-2e5e555 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"2e5e555\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\"><!-- wp:heading -->\n<h2 id=\"3972\">Machine learning<\/h2>\n<!-- \/wp:heading --><\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-ce1a536 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"ce1a536\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>In order to do machine learning and build prediction models in Python, you would need to use\u00a0<strong><em>scikit-learn<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0or you can use\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.tensorflow.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><em>TensorFlow<\/em><\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/keras.io\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><em>keras<\/em><\/strong><\/a>,\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/pytorch.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><em>PyTorch<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.fast.ai\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><em>fast.ai<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0for your deep learning models.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>In R you would use\u00a0<strong><em>caret<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong><em>rattle<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0and also\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/tensorflow.rstudio.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><em>TensorFlow<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/keras.rstudio.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><em>keras<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0as well.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-d65846b elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"d65846b\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\"><h2 id=\"4ed3\">Deployment<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-f614218 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"f614218\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>After you have built your model and you would like to deploy it. You could essentially choose one of 2 approaches: (1) deploy as an application programming interface (API) or (2) deploy as a web application.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>In Python, you could deploy your scikit-learn models using\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/palletsprojects.com\/p\/flask\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><em>flask<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0(see this tutorial\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/towardsdatascience.com\/deploying-a-machine-learning-model-as-a-rest-api-4a03b865c166\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>Deploying a Machine Learning Model as a REST API<\/em><\/a>by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/towardsdatascience.com\/@nguyenngo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Nguyen Ngo<\/a>).\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/aihub.cloud.google.com\/u\/0\/p\/products%2Fe4dce5bd-f7b1-4d1a-842d-36f42be5608d\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"broken_link\"><strong><em>Cloud ML Engine<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0from Google is also another option (see this tutorial\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/towardsdatascience.com\/deploying-scikit-learn-models-at-scale-f632f86477b8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"broken_link\"><em>Deploying scikit-learn Models at Scale<\/em><\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/towardsdatascience.com\/@yufengg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Yufeng Gao<\/a>). In R, you could use the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.rplumber.io\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><em>plumber<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0package for creating the web API (see this tutorial\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.shirin-glander.de\/2018\/01\/plumber\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><em>How to make your machine learning model available as an API with the plumber package<\/em><\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.shirin-glander.de\/page\/about\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Shirin Elsinghorst<\/a>\u00a0and the tutorial\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/tmobile-tech\/r-can-api-c184951a24a3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"broken_link\"><em>R can API and So Can You!<\/em><\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@heathernolis\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"broken_link\">Heather Nolis<\/a>.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-a7242f0 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"a7242f0\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>To deploy machine learning models as a web application, it is recommended that you first save the model into a file via the\u00a0<strong><em>pickle<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0function in Python and via the\u00a0<strong><em>saveRDS<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0function in R. The actual web application can then be provisioned using\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/palletsprojects.com\/p\/flask\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><em>flask<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.streamlit.io\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><em>Streamlit<\/em><\/strong><\/a>in Python while to do this in R you can use the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/shiny.rstudio.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong><em>shiny<\/em><\/strong><\/a>\u00a0package.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>I have also created a tutorial video series on how you can create data science web applications in Python using the\u00a0<strong><em>Streamlit<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0library.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:html -->\n<figure><iframe src=\"https:\/\/cdn.embedly.com\/widgets\/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2Fvideoseries%3Flist%3DPLtqF5YXg7GLmCvTswG32NqQypOuYkPRUE&amp;display_name=YouTube&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DZZ4B0QUHuNc&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FZZ4B0QUHuNc%2Fhqdefault.jpg&amp;key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=youtube\" width=\"654\" height=\"430\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n<!-- \/wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>If you would like to create data science web applications in R, then please check out the following tutorial video series in using the\u00a0<strong><em>shiny<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0package.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-a5b6cfe elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"a5b6cfe\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- wp:html -->\n<figure><iframe src=\"https:\/\/cdn.embedly.com\/widgets\/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2Fvideoseries%3Flist%3DPLtqF5YXg7GLkxx_GGXDI_EiAvkhY9olbe&amp;display_name=YouTube&amp;url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DtfN10IUX9Lo&amp;image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FtfN10IUX9Lo%2Fhqdefault.jpg&amp;key=a19fcc184b9711e1b4764040d3dc5c07&amp;type=text%2Fhtml&amp;schema=youtube\" width=\"654\" height=\"430\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/figure>\n<!-- \/wp:html -->\n\n<!-- wp:separator --><hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/><!-- \/wp:separator -->\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-3efb687 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"3efb687\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h1 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Own Your Data Science Journey<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-07fea93 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"07fea93\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>And the most important part of becoming a data scientist is that you have to persevere. You have to try hard. You have to own your data science journey. This journey won\u2019t be easy so you will have to put in the extra effort to make it work.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>My data science journey has been very phenomenal. I have learned a lot of things. I have met a lot of talented people. I have the opportunity to do and get paid for what I really like. So I\u2019m never bored of this job and there\u2019s always new data, to be collected, to be analyzed and we have ongoing collaborations there\u2019s really a continuous inflow of new data and new opportunities to learn about biology so it is a very very fulfilling job. If I could turn back the clock and decide again what I would like to do I will stick to the same path and become a data scientist. I would believe that data science fits well in my own Ikigai (check out the awesome article\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@kittuvaidyakv\/ikigai-the-secret-to-living-a-meaningful-life-6314bd007e09\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"broken_link\"><em>Ikigai: The secret to living a meaningful life<\/em><\/a>\u00a0by\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/medium.com\/@kittuvaidyakv\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" class=\"broken_link\">Ketaki Vaidya<\/a>).<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:separator --><hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/><!-- \/wp:separator -->\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-602a72b elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"602a72b\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Final Take-Home Message<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-6039940 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"6039940\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-e-type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<!-- wp:paragraph -->\n<p>And most importantly of all, you have to code. You have to do data science project. If you can take away 2 key messages from this article, please take 2: (1) learn to code and (2) apply your coding skills to work on your own data science projects.<\/p>\n<!-- \/wp:paragraph -->\n\n<!-- wp:quote -->\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\">\n<p>\u201cThe Best Way to Learn Data Science is to Do Data Science.\u201d<br \/>\u2014 Chanin Nantasenamat, Data Professor<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<!-- \/wp:quote -->\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you want to break into data science? But just don\u2019t know how? If so, then read on as this article is for you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":886,"featured_media":23707,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-post-2.php","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[187],"tags":[94,562,430],"ppma_author":[3736],"class_list":["post-9377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigdata-cloud","tag-data-science","tag-learning","tag-strategies"],"authors":[{"term_id":3736,"user_id":886,"is_guest":0,"slug":"chanin-nantasenamat","display_name":"Chanin Nantasenamat","avatar_url":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Chanin-Nantasenamat-150x150.jpg","user_url":"http:\/\/www.mahidol.ac.th\/mueng\/","last_name":"Nantasenamat","first_name":"Chanin","job_title":"","description":"Chanin Nantasenamat is Associate Professor and Head, Center of Data Mining and Biomedical Informatics at Mahidol University, Thailand. He is also Founder of Data Professor YouTube Channel and Associate Editor at Frontiers in Pharmacology. Thought Leader on AI and ML Education, he was a Visiting Professor at Uppsala University, Lund University, University of California at Los Angeles as well as the California State University at Fullerton."}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/886"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9377"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34149,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9377\/revisions\/34149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9377"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.experfy.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=9377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}