Demystifying Data Science
Jim Harris in
Data Quality,
OCDQ Radio,
Podcasts tagged
Best of 2013,
Big Data,
Data Science,
Melinda Thielbar,
Philosophy,
Predictive Analytics,
Statistics
Tuesday, February 19, 2013 at 3:14AM OCDQ Radio is a vendor-neutral podcast about data quality and its related disciplines, produced and hosted by Jim Harris.
During this episode, special guest, and actual data scientist, Dr. Melinda Thielbar, a Ph.D. Statistician, and I attempt to demystify data science by explaining what a data scientist does, including the requisite skills involved, bridging the communication gap between data scientists and business leaders, delivering data products business users can use on their own, and providing a straightforward explanation of key concepts such as signal-to-noise ratio, uncertainty, experimentation, and correlation.
Melinda Thielbar is the Senior Mathematician for IAVO Research and Scientific. Her work there focuses on power system optimization using real-time prediction models. She has worked as a software developer, an analytic lead for big data implementations, and a statistics and programming teacher.
Melinda Thielbar is a co-founder of Research Triangle Analysts, a professional group for analysts and data scientists located in the Research Triangle of North Carolina.
While Melinda Thielbar doesn’t specialize in a single field, she is particularly interested in power systems because, as she puts it, “A power systems optimizer has to work every time.”

Demystifying Data Science
Additional listening options:
Related OCDQ Radio Episodes
Clicking on the link will take you to the episode’s blog post:
- Data Quality and Big Data — Guest Tom Redman (aka the “Data Doc”) discusses Data Quality and Big Data, including if data quality matters less in larger data sets, and if statistical outliers represent business insights or data quality issues.
- Decision Management Systems — Guest James Taylor discusses data-driven decision making and analytical concepts from his book Decision Management Systems: A Practical Guide to Using Business Rules and Predictive Analytics.
- Good-Enough Data for Fast-Enough Decisions — Guest Julie Hunt discusses Data Quality and Business Intelligence, including the speed versus quality debate of near-real-time decision making, and the future of predictive analytics.
- So Long 2011, and Thanks for All the . . . — The OCDQ Radio 2011 Year in Review, featuring Jarrett Goldfedder, who discusses Big Data, Nicola Askham, who discusses Data Governance, and Daragh O Brien, who discusses Data Privacy.
- Big Data and Big Analytics — Special Guests Jill Dyché and Dan Soceanu, following the 2011 Pacific Northwest BI Summit, discuss big trends in business intelligence, including cloud computing, collaboration, and big data analytics.


