Data science is what data scientists do

I extracted the following text from the Murtaza Haider’s book “Getting Start With Data Science”, published in 2015 by IBM Press.

“I define data science as something that data scientist do. Years ago, as an engineering student I was stuck with the question: What is engineering?

When I shared these concerns with my doctoral supervisor, he had a laugh. “Engineering is what engineers do”, he responded. Over the next 17 years, I realised the wisdom in his statement. You first become an engineer by obtaining a degree and then registering with the local professional body that regulates the engineering profession. Now you are an engineer. You can dig tunnels; write software codes; design components of an iPhone or a supersonic jet. And when you are leading the global response to financial crisis in your role as the chief economist of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), as Dr. Raghuram Rajan did, you are an engineer.

Professor Raghuram Rajan did his first degree in electrical engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology. He pursued economics in graduate studies, later became a professor at a prestigious university, and eventually landed at the IMF. He is currently serving as the 23rd Governor of the Reserve Bank of India. Could someone argue that his intellectual prowess is rooted only in his training as an economist and that the fundamentals he learned as an engineering student played no role in developing his problem-solving abilities?

Professor Rajan is an engineer. So are Xi Jinping, the President of People’s Republic of China, and Alexis Tsipras, the Greek Prime Minister who is forcing the world to rethink the fundamentals of global economics. They might not be designing new circuitry, distillation equipment, or bridges, but they are helping build better societies and economies and there can be no better definition of engineering and engineers - that is, individuals dedicated to building economies and societies.

So briefly, I would argue that data science is what data scientists do.”