Big Data: How Data Analytics Is Transforming the World

Sampling the tremendous scope and power of data analytics; its impact on science, business, medicine, public policy, and many other spheres of modern life; investigating common misconceptions about data analysis.

Applications of data analysis outside of large organizations and large datasets; learning how to pull data from one's daily life by charting cell phone usage to personalizing medical care or improving exercise routines.

There is a ginormous amount of data available to today's users; investigating strategies to help manage the data deluge; learning efficient ways to think about data that separate useful information from what can be strategically ignored.

Humans are experts at pattern recognition, which is a key skill in data analysis; differentiating between real and imagined patterns; studying some surprising correlations between apparently unrelated phenomena; coincidence against cause and effect.

Algorithms are the secret for managing huge datasets; various effective sorting procedures include simple algorithms that can be performed by hand; how these concepts apply to more complex problems, such as web search engines.

What happens after one gathers data; it must be stored, organized and integrated with other data sources and later analyzed; determining how this cycle works in practice and uncovering some hidden pitfalls.