Find out everything about the changes that data science brings to different industries!
Do you sometimes find yourself astonished at the fact that the world changes at this rate? If you look, for example, at the past 20 years or so, you have to admit that it is clear that the progress of technology completely altered nearly all aspects of our lives. Take business, for instance. Twenty years ago or so, if you wanted to start some kind of business, you had to physically go to see how other similar businesses function. For example, let's say you wanted to open a new bar, right? The competition is strong because there are 20 super hot places worth visiting in the world and it is difficult to make something unusual to stand out among them! Hence, you had to go around and investigate to understand what are the things that they lack, and what you could offer. You would have to spend some time to see what customers like and what doesn't make them happy, etc.
But today, you can gather all that information with much less effort. How? By relying on data science! Because of the internet, data science and business analytics became essential for any successful business on the Internet, gaming industry, or some other. It is something that we are hearing often about, right? But do you know what data science is and how it can be useful for you? We asked these questions to data scientists and in this text, we shared with you their ideas on how data science changes sports and other industries.
What is Data Science?
The first question that we need to address before we go any further is “what is data science”? According to the data science definition, it is a multidisciplinary approach to the concept of extracting insights for ever-growing data collected by different organizations. In simple words, it is a process of building, and structuring data to extract and analyze them. But it is essential to remember that it is not the same as data analytics, although they are often used interchangeably. As a data scientist, you are allowed to form a hypothesis, run experiments to collect data, organize and structure data for further analysis, etc. data scientists write algorithms using programming languages. So, data scientists need computer science and pure science skills, which is much more than a data analyst needs. Python is one of the most common programming languages that data scientists use. Now, when we establish data science's meaning, let’s see how it impacts sports and other niches.
How Data Science Affects Various Industries
Sports
As you know, billions of people worldwide enjoy some kind of sport. Especially, when there are large and important championships like Super Bowls, World Cup, etc, people gather in stadiums or in front of their devices to watch games. However, a sport is also an enormous industry that generates tens of billions of dollars each year, right? The more people follow the games, the bigger the profit. But to generate even more money, the sports industry is using data science. There are different factors such as weather, condition of players, etc., that can impact the result of a match and so on. When you can analyze and predict these factors you have greater chances to improve the outcomes. For example, the sports industry can use data science to track players' health and make necessary interventions. Apart from that, they can use it to select the best players, etc.
Gaming
Nowadays, the popularity of games is skyrocketing, as the statistic shows that there were 2 .7 billion gamers worldwide in 2020. Of course, the pandemic had to do a lot of it, but it doesn't erase the fact that the gaming industry is on the rise like no other. Logically, with so many players, the data that needs to be processed is huge and enlarging. Playing time, interaction time, etc., are considered as vast material that needs to be analyzed. Hence, we see that the gaming industry uses more and more data science techniques. One of the best data science examples is for game development. The functionality, the idea, and the design of the game are critical for its popularity. Information that is gathered through data science is greatly appreciated in the case of game development.
Medicine
If you are wondering about the use of data science for social good, we should talk about how it is used in medicine. Let's take wearable tracker devices for example. They record changes in the patient's condition over a period, which is something that enables doctors to understand how to provide greater care. In this period data science combined with other disciplines such as statistical analysis, computational biology, etc., helps in many ways with the application including epidemiology, drug discovery, vaccine development, etc.
Transport
You know how frustrating it is to miss the plane or to arrive somewhere much later than you planned because of the bad judgment of transportation companies?! Of course, we all do! Well, that is why they are also starting to read data science news and to use the technique to collect and analyze information so they can prevent this from happening. For instance, various companies are starting to use data science for beginners to map their travels, predict, and prevent potential problems, etc.
Education
The fact is that the teachers and school administration can’t make adequate decisions if they don't have the data. Hence, data scientists build a system that can keep all data in one place. They also keep this data secure to protect the information on students and staff. Apart from that, data science enables us to measure the quality of the work based on student's experiences.
Bottom Line
We listed just some niches that use data science and showed how it benefits them. Although data science isn't new, only recently it is getting the appreciation it deserves. In the future, more industries will start using it, which will benefit both them and the scientists looking for career options! Have you heard about data science before? What are your thoughts about it?
About the Author
Jeremy Ambrose is a journalist interested in computer science. He lives in Seattle and is writing for different magazines and portals, including ours. Last year he also started a blog where he shares his insights about how technology affects our professional and private lives and how we can benefit from it.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Why do we need data science in the gaming industry?
- The gaming industry is using more and more data processing techniques. One of the best examples of data science is game development. The functionality, idea and design of a game is critical to its popularity. The information collected through data science is highly valued in the case of game development.
