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Authored by Professor S. Sadagopan. Director – IIIT Bangalore. Prof. Sadagopan is one of the most experienced academicians on the expert panel of UpGrad & IIIT-B PG Diploma Program in Data Analytics. These days, whenever I visit any campus, I am often asked one question – “Can I double my salary by enrolling in an Analytics course?” This question is popular in academic institutes and software factories, alike. Mostly, it comes from engineering students (who are still in college) but is also often asked by those who have gained 4-5 years of work experience within the IT industry. I also get a smaller number of such queries from working professionals in other sectors – accountants, lawyers, doctors and design professionals. My answer is simple. YES – provided you meet some requirements. Let me elaborate. What’s Cooking in Data Analytics? Team Data at UpGrad Speaks Up! The Computer Age Analytics is today what computing was in the 60’s and 70’s when many of us entered the job market. The “computer” was a newfound tool that attracted the attention of scientists and engineers across the spectrum Every day, some new use was found for the machine whose basic capability was adding a long list of numbers incredibly fast, without error, many times; later, an ability to store and retrieve a large set of numbers reliably and accurately, was added; much later, an ability to transmit and receive a large set of numbers extremely fast (at the speed of light), reliably and at affordable cost, got added. This, in turn, led to diverse applications: Accurate and fast census, so that census data can be used for economic planning Precise weather prediction, so that disasters can be better managed Library automation, so that book procurement and books issue/return can be efficient Top Data Science Skills You Should Learn SL. No Top Data Science Skills to Learn 1 Data Analysis Online Certification Inferential Statistics Online Certification 2 Hypothesis Testing Online Certification Logistic Regression Online Certification 3 Linear Regression Certification Linear Algebra for Analysis Online Certification Payroll to improve wage settlement accuracy and fast disbursal of payslips Inventory control to optimize storage/stock-out costs Scheduling to improve operational costs of air-crafts/trains/buses Product mix to optimize the production/distribution/storage costs Media planning to maximize the reach for a given advertisement budget The ability to creatively use this “newly discovered toy” – the computer – to create unusual value was the newfound opportunity; it was quickly rewarded by unusual job/research opportunities across the board. Analytics, today, is in a similar situation. Explore our Popular Data Science Online Certifications Executive Post Graduate Programme in Data Science from IIITB Professional Certificate Program in Data Science for Business Decision Making Master of Science in Data Science from University of Arizona Advanced Certificate Programme in Data Science from IIITB Professional Certificate Program in Data Science and Business Analytics from University of Maryland Data Science Online Certifications Read our popular Data Science Articles Data Science Career Path: A Comprehensive Career Guide Data Science Career Growth: The Future of Work is here Why is Data Science Important? 8 Ways Data Science Brings Value to the Business Relevance of Data Science for Managers The Ultimate Data Science Cheat Sheet Every Data Scientists Should Have Top 6 Reasons Why You Should Become a Data Scientist A Day in the Life of Data Scientist: What do they do? Myth Busted: Data Science doesn’t need Coding Business Intelligence vs Data Science: What are the differences? Make Way For Data Analytics The maturity of mathematical models that Google/Facebook/Twitter and Amazon/Flipkart use, The opportunity provided by anytime, anywhere connectivity and near-infinite computing power provided by mobile networks and cloud, The near-universal access provided by smart devices (smartphones and tablets) …all offer unusual possibilities and boundless opportunities. Coupled with: The identification (who?) and precise location (where?) made possible by device identity and GPS, can be used to target goods & services (what?) with a precision unparalleled in human history. How Uber Uses Data Analytics For Supply Positioning and Segmentation All this explains the huge wave of interest in Analytics, everywhere. upGrad’s Exclusive Data Science Webinar for you – Watch our Webinar on The Future of Consumer Data in an Open Data Economy document.createElement('video'); https://cdn.upgrad.com/blog/sashi-edupuganti.mp4   Reaping The Analytics Harvest: What Will It Take? A larger issue that is often forgotten by students/young professionals is that a salary from corporation X is just part of a fee that the corporation realizes from its end customer (another corporation, government or end user) for a value that Corporation X created; and nothing else. As the old saying goes, “money does not grow on trees.” Unless a working professional in a corporation (individually or collectively) creates such value, there cannot be a question of getting a salary (let alone “double my salary”) in a sustained manner. Value creation can only happen when you have: A mindset to create value; The knowledge to create value and; Skills to realize the value In the earlier era, to succeed in computing, you needed a computing mindset; similarly, to succeed in data analytics you need an analytics mindset. Students and young professionals would be well advised to ponder over the trio: An ability to make sense out of a set of numbers that are seemingly unconnected, an eye for patterns, sometimes an ability to visualize numbers/patterns that use the phenomenal amount of information available today; in other words, an analytics mindset. Over the years, a lot of analytics knowledge has evolved – statistical methods, optimization models, pattern recognition techniques, machine learning, artificial intelligence, etc. The student/professional wanting to enter the Analytics field would be well advised to master this knowledge base from Analytics courses that are now available from many institutes/universities /online platforms. In addition, for working professionals, the individual knowledge of his/her domain – manufacturing, sales, finance, service, agriculture, healthcare – would greatly help in articulating the ‘analytics value creation.’  Finally, mastering a whole range of tools – like SAS, SPSS, R Programming Language, Excel extensions – and many more tools that will get created in the next decade, (the way programming and database tools evolved in 60’s & the 70’s) is going to be extremely crucial, as these are the skills which can enable one to realize the above-mentioned value. If the students/working professionals who keep asking me this question “will I get double my salary if I do an Analytics course?” ask themselves whether they have the mindset for, and mastery of, the knowledge & tools; they will get the answer to the question themselves. Also, it is important not to forget that one is rewarded for the value one creates the knowledge; simply possessing the knowledge does not help in creating the value. Getting the No. 1 rank in an Analytics course does not guarantee success; internalizing the knowledge and applying the acquired knowledge well is the key. My best wishes for getting the result of the “double my salary” question or even triple! Prof. Sadagopan: Decoding Easy Vs. Not-So-Easy Analytics   Professor Sowmyanarayanan Sadagopan is the Director of IIIT-Bangalore. These are his personal views. He can be reached at ss@iiitb.ac.in Learn Data Science Courses online from the World’s top Universities. Learn Advanced Certificate Programs to fast-track your career. Also, check our Master’s Degree program in Data Science from LJMU

by Prof. S. Sadagopan

14 May 2018

Blogs

5058

Authored by Professor S. Sadagopan, Director – IIIT Bangalore. Prof. Sadagopan is one of the most experienced academicians on the expert panel of UpGrad & IIIT-B PG Diploma Program in Data Analytics. As a budding analytics professional confounded by jargon, hype and overwhelming marketing messages that talk of millions of upcoming jobs that are paid in millions of Rupees, you ought to get clarity about the “real” value of a data analytics education. Here are some tidbits – that should hopefully help in reducing your confusion. Some smart people can use “analytical thinking” to come up with “amazing numbers”; they are very useful but being “intuitive”, they cannot be “taught.” For example: Easy Analytics Pre-configuring ATMs with Data Insights  “We have the fastest ATM on this planet” Claimed a respected Bank. Did they get a new ATM made especially for them? No way. Some smart employee with an analytical mindset found that 90% of the time that users go to an ATM to withdraw cash, they use a fixed amount, say Rs 5,000. So, the Bank re-configured the standard screen options – Balance Inquiry, Withdrawal, Print Statement etc. – to include another option. Withdraw XYZ amount, based on individual customer’s past actions. This ended up saving one step of ATM operation. Instead of selecting the withdrawal option and then entering the amount to be withdrawn, you could now save some time – making the process more convenient and intuitive. A smart move indeed, however, this is something known as “Easy Analytics” that others can also copy. In fact, others DID copy, within three months! A Start-Up’s Guide to Data Analytics Hidden Data in the Weather In the sample data-sets that used to accompany a spreadsheet product in the 90’s, there used to be data on the area and population of every State in the United States. There was also an exercise to teach the formula part of the spreadsheet to compute the population density (population per sq. km). New Jersey, with a population of 467 per sq. km, is the State with the highest density. While teaching a class of MBA students in New Jersey, I met an Indian student who figured out that in terms of population density, New Jersey is more crowded than India with 446 people per sq. km!  An interesting observation, although comparing a State with a Country is a bit misleading. Once again, an Easy Analytics exercise leading to a “nice” observation! Some simple data analytics exercises can be routinely done, and are made relatively easier, thanks to amazing tools: B-School Buying Behavior Decoded In a B-School in India that has a store on campus, (campus is located far from the city center) some smart students put several years of sales data of their campus store. They were excited by the phenomenal computer power and near, idiot-proof analytics software. The real surprise, however, was that eight items accounted for 85% of their annual sales. More importantly, these eight items were consumed in just six days of the year! Everyone knew that a handful of items were the only fast-moving items, but they did not know the extent (85%) or the intensity (consumption in just six days) of this. It turns out that in the first 3 days of the semester the students would stock the items for the full semester! The B-School found it sensible to request a nearby store to prop up a temporary stall for just two weeks at the beginning of the semesters and close down the Campus Store. This saved useful space and costs without causing major inconvenience to the students. A good example of Easy Analytics done with the help of a powerful tool. Top 4 Data Analytics Skills You Need to Become an Expert! The “Not So Easy” Analytics needs deep analytical understanding, tools, an ‘analytical mindset’ and some hard work. Here are two examples, one taken from way back in the 70’s and the other occurring very recently: Not-So-Easy Analytics To Fly or Not to Fly, That is the Question Long ago, the American Airlines perfected planned overbooking of airline seats, thanks to SABRE Airline Reservation system that managed every airline seat. Armed with detailed past data of ‘empty seats’ and ‘no show’ in every segment of every flight for every day through the year, and modeling airline seats as perishable commodities, the American Airlines was able to improve yield, i.e., utilization of airplane capacity. They did this through planned overbooking – selling more tickets than the number of seats, based on projected cancellations. Explore our Popular Data Science Online Certifications Executive Post Graduate Programme in Data Science from IIITB Professional Certificate Program in Data Science for Business Decision Making Master of Science in Data Science from University of Arizona Advanced Certificate Programme in Data Science from IIITB Professional Certificate Program in Data Science and Business Analytics from University of Maryland Data Science Online Certifications If indeed more passengers showed up than the actual number of seats, American Airlines would request anyone volunteering to forego travel in the specific flight, with the offer to fly them by the next flight (often free) and taking care of hotel accommodation if needed. Sometimes, they would even offer cash incentives to the volunteer to opt-out. Using sophisticated Statistical and Operational Research modeling, American Airlines would ensure that the flights went full and the actual incidents of more passengers than the full capacity, was near zero. In fact, many students would look forward to such incidents so that they could get incentives, (in fact, I would have to include myself in this list) but rarely were they rewarded!) upGrad’s Exclusive Data Science Webinar for you – Transformation & Opportunities in Analytics & Insights document.createElement('video'); https://cdn.upgrad.com/blog/jai-kapoor.mp4 What American Airlines started as an experiment has become the standard industry practice over the years. Until recently, a team of well-trained (often Ph.D. degree holders) analysts armed with access to enormous computing power, was needed for such an analytics exercise to be sustained. Now, new generation software such as the R Programming language and powerful desktop computers with significant visualization/graphics power is changing the world of data analytics really fast. Anyone who is well-trained (not necessarily requiring a Ph.D. anymore) can become a first-rate analytics professional. Top Data Science Skills You Should Learn SL. No Top Data Science Skills to Learn 1 Data Analysis Online Certification Inferential Statistics Online Certification 2 Hypothesis Testing Online Certification Logistic Regression Online Certification 3 Linear Regression Certification Linear Algebra for Analysis Online Certification Unleashing the Power of Data Analytics Our learners also read: Free Python Course with Certification Read our popular Data Science Articles Data Science Career Path: A Comprehensive Career Guide Data Science Career Growth: The Future of Work is here Why is Data Science Important? 8 Ways Data Science Brings Value to the Business Relevance of Data Science for Managers The Ultimate Data Science Cheat Sheet Every Data Scientists Should Have Top 6 Reasons Why You Should Become a Data Scientist A Day in the Life of Data Scientist: What do they do? Myth Busted: Data Science doesn’t need Coding Business Intelligence vs Data Science: What are the differences?   Cab Out of the Bag Uber is yet another example displaying how the power of data analytics can disrupt a well-established industry. Taxi-for-sure in Bangalore and Ola Cabs are similar to Uber. Together, these Taxi-App companies (using a Mobile App to hail a taxi, the status monitor the taxi, use and pay for the taxi) are trying to convince the world to move from car ownership to on-demand car usage. A simple but deep analytics exercise in the year 2008 gave such confidence to Uber that it began talking of reducing car sales by 25% by the year 2025! After building the Uber App for iPhone, the Uber founder enrolled few hundreds of taxi customers in San Francisco and few hundreds of taxi drivers in that area as well. All that the enrolled drivers had to do was to touch the Uber App whenever they were ready for a customer. Similarly, the enrolled taxi customers were requested to touch the Uber App whenever they were looking for a taxi. Thanks to the internet-connected phone (connectivity), Mobile App (user interface), GPS (taxi and end-user location) and GIS (location details), Uber could try connecting the taxi drivers and the taxi users. The real insight was that nearly 90% of the time, taxi drivers found a customer, less than 100 meters away! In the same way, nearly 90% of the time, taxi users were connected with their potential drivers in no time, not too far away. Unfortunately, till the Uber App came into existence, riders and taxi drivers had no way of knowing this information. More importantly, they both had no way of reaching each other! Once they had this information and access, a new way of taxi-hailing could be established. With back-end software to schedule taxis, payment gateway and a mobile payment mechanism, a far more superior taxi service could be established. Of course, near home, we had even better options like Taxi-for-sure trying to extend this experience even to auto rickshaws. The rest, as they say, is “history in the making!” Deep dive courses in data analytics will help prepare you for such high impact applications. It is not easy, but do remember former US President Kennedy’s words “we chose to go to the Moon not because it is easy, but because it is hard!” Get data science certification from the World’s top Universities. Learn Executive PG Programs, Advanced Certificate Programs, or Masters Programs to fast-track your career.  

by Prof. S. Sadagopan

14 Dec 2016

Blogs

5057

(This article, written by Prof. S. Sadagopan, was originally published in Analytics India Magazine) There is an old “theory” that talks of “power shift” from “carrier” to “content” and to “control” as industry matures. Here are some examples In the early days of Railways, “action” was in “building railroads”; the “tycoons” who made billions were those “railroad builders”. Once enough railroads were built, there was more action in building “engines and coaches” – General Electric and Bombardier emerged; “power” shifted from “carrier” to “content”; still later, action shifted to “passenger trains” and “freight trains” – AmTrak and Delhi Metro, for example, that used the rail infrastructure and available engines and coaches / wagons to offer a viable passenger / goods transportation service; power shifted from “content” to “control”. The story is no different in the case of automobiles; “carrier” road-building industry had the limelight for some years, then the car and truck manufacturers – “content” – GM, Daimler Chrysler, Tata, Ashok Leyland and Maruti emerged – and finally, the “control”, transport operators – KSRTC in Bangalore in the Bus segment to Uber and Ola in the Car segment. In fact, even in the airline industry, airports become the “carrier”, airplanes are the “content” and airlines represent the “control” Learn data science courses from the World’s top Universities. Earn Executive PG Programs, Advanced Certificate Programs, or Masters Programs to fast-track your career. It is a continuum; all three continue to be active – carrier, content and control – it is just the emphasis in terms of market and brand value of leading companies in that segment, profitability, employment generation and societal importance that shifts. We are witnessing a similar “power shift” in the computer industry. For nearly six decades the “action” has been on the “carrier”, namely, computers; processors, once proprietary from the likes of IBM and Control Data, then to microprocessors, then to full blown systems built around such processors – mainframes, mini computers, micro computers, personal computers and in recent times smartphones and Tablet computers. Intel and AMD in processors and IBM, DEC, HP and Sun dominated the scene in these decades. A quiet shift happened with the arrival of “independent” software companies – Microsoft and Adobe, for example and software services companies like TCS and Infosys. Along with such software products and software services companies came the Internet / e-Commerce companies – Yahoo, Google, Amazon and Flipkart; shifting the power from “carrier” to “content”. Explore our Popular Data Science Courses Executive Post Graduate Programme in Data Science from IIITB Professional Certificate Program in Data Science for Business Decision Making Master of Science in Data Science from University of Arizona Advanced Certificate Programme in Data Science from IIITB Professional Certificate Program in Data Science and Business Analytics from University of Maryland Data Science Courses This shift was once again captured by the use of “data center” starting with the arrival of Internet companies and the dot-com bubble in late nineties. In recent times, the term “cloud data center” is gaining currency after the arrival of “cloud computing”. Though interest in computers started in early fifties, Computer Science took shape only in seventies; IITs in India created the first undergraduate program in Computer Science and a formal academic entity in seventies. In the next four decades Computer Science has become a dominant academic discipline attracting the best of the talent, more so in countries like India. With its success in software services (with $ 160 Billion annual revenue, about 5 million direct jobs created in the past 20 years and nearly 7% of India’s GDP), Computer Science has become an aspiration for hundreds of millions of Indians. With the shift in “power” from “computers” to “data” – “carrier” to “content” – it is but natural, that emphasis shifts from “computer science” to “data science” – a term that is in wide circulation only in the past couple of years, more in corporate circles than in academic institutions. In many places including IIIT Bangalore, the erstwhile Database and Information Systems groups are getting re-christened as “Data Science” groups; of course, for many acdemics, “Data Science” is just a buzzword, that will go “out of fashion” soon. Only time will tell! As far as we are concerned, the arrival of data science represents the natural progression of “analytics”, that will use the “data” to create value, the same way Metro is creating value out of railroad and train coaches or Uber is creating value out of investments in road and cars or Singapore Airlines creating value out of airport infrastructure and Boeing / Airbus planes. More important, the shift from “carrier” to “content” to “control” also presents economic opportunities that are much larger in size. We do expect the same from Analytics as the emphasis shifts from Computer Science to Data Science to Analytics. Computers originally created to “compute” mathematical tables could be applied to a wide range of problems across every industry – mining and machinery, transportation, hospitality, manufacturing, retail, banking & financial services, education, healthcare and Government; in the same vein, Analytics that is currently used to summarize, visualize and predict would be used in many ways that we cannot even dream of today, the same way the designers of computer systems in 60’s and 70’s could not have predicted the varied applications of computers in the subsequent decades. We are indeed in exciting times and you the budding Analytics professional could not have been more lucky. Announcing PG Diploma in Data Analytics with IIT Bangalore – To Know more about the Program Visit – PG Diploma in Data Analytics. Top Data Science Skills to Learn to upskill SL. No Top Data Science Skills to Learn 1 Data Analysis Online Courses Inferential Statistics Online Courses 2 Hypothesis Testing Online Courses Logistic Regression Online Courses 3 Linear Regression Courses Linear Algebra for Analysis Online Courses upGrad’s Exclusive Data Science Webinar for you – ODE Thought Leadership Presentation document.createElement('video'); https://cdn.upgrad.com/blog/ppt-by-ode-infinity.mp4 Read our popular Data Science Articles Data Science Career Path: A Comprehensive Career Guide Data Science Career Growth: The Future of Work is here Why is Data Science Important? 8 Ways Data Science Brings Value to the Business Relevance of Data Science for Managers The Ultimate Data Science Cheat Sheet Every Data Scientists Should Have Top 6 Reasons Why You Should Become a Data Scientist A Day in the Life of Data Scientist: What do they do? Myth Busted: Data Science doesn’t need Coding Business Intelligence vs Data Science: What are the differences? Our learners also read: Free Online Python Course for Beginners About Prof. S. Sadagopan Professor Sadagopan, currently the Director (President) of IIIT-Bangalore (a PhD granting University), has over 25 years of experience in Operations Research, Decision Theory, Multi-criteria optimization, Simulation, Enterprise computing etc. His research work has appeared in several international journals including IEEE Transactions, European J of Operational Research, J of Optimization Theory & Applications, Naval Research Logistics, Simulation and Decision Support Systems. He is a referee for several journals and serves on the editorial boards of many journals.

by Prof. S. Sadagopan

11 May 2016