Thinking aloud about analytics

There's so much talk about machine learning, big data, artificial intelligence etc., etc. that the mind boggles. What's even more worrying is the suggestion that you can become a "data scientist" by merely gaining familiarity with a dozen tools often sold as black boxes.

What's behind it all? At Bangalore's St. Joseph's College, which is into the fourth year of its M.Sc. programme on big data analytics, we invited four experts for a wide-ranging discussion: Rajeeva Karandikar, currently Director of Chennai Mathematical Institute; L Ravichandran, President and COO of Tech Mahindra, Bimal Roy, a former Director of Indian Statistical Institute and currently Chairman, National Statistical Commission, and Vidyadhar Mudkavi, who heads CSIR's Fourth Paradigm Institute.

The discussion theme was how the world looks like today and how will it evolve in tomorrow's more data-centric ("Fourth Paradigm") world. The deliberations were illuminating, and always compelling. Here is an outline of some of the topics we discussed.

Discussion

How is ML different from classical statistics? | Is too much data a good thing or bad? | How is computer programming changing? | Why is data security such a big issue? | What is artificial about artificial intelligence?

Insights

The validity and the spirit of statistical hypothesis testing | The power of simulation | The value of visualizations and animations | The dynamics of the stock market, and black swan events | Ethics in AI-driven world | The AI way | Sports analytics, HR analytics

People or entities

Thomas Bayes | P C Mahalanobis | Bitcoin | Watson | Cloud | Kindness Institute | Virat Kohli

Projects

Election prediction | EVM evaluation | Estimating the number of tigers | Obfuscation | Modelling aircraft arrivals at busy airports | Rainfall prediction and cloud seeding | Using drones in agritech

Advice

Doing well in multiple choice exams | Perform well at interviews | Career choice recommendations | Getting more human to succeed | How to manage large public and private institutions

Last word

If you wanted one thing to change what would it be? | Who was your idol and why?