Applications of Data Science Business

1. Empowering management and officers to make better decisions

An experienced data scientist is likely to be as a trusted advisor and strategic partner to the organization’s upper
management by ensuring that the staff maximizes their analytics’ capabilities. A data scientist communicates and
demonstrates the value of the institution’s data to facilitate improved decision-making processes across the entire
organization, through measuring, tracking, and recording performance metrics and other information.
2. Directing actions based on trends—which in turn help to define goals
A data scientist examines and explores the organization’s data, after which they recommend and prescribe certain
actions that will help improve the institution’s performance, better engage customers, and ultimately increase
profitability.
3. Challenging the staff to adopt best practices and focus on issues that matter.
One of the responsibilities of a data scientist is to ensure that the staff is familiar and well-versed with the
organization’s analytics product. They prepare the staff for success with the demonstration of the effective use of
the system to extract insights and drive action. Once the staff understands the product capabilities, their focus can
shift to addressing key business challenges.
4. Identifying opportunities
During their interaction with the organization’s current analytics system, data scientists question the existing
processes and assumptions for the purpose of developing additional methods and analytical algorithms. Their job
requires them to continuously and constantly improve the value that is derived from the organization’s data.
5. Decision making with quantifiable, data-driven evidence.
With the arrival of data scientists, data gathering and analyzing from various channels has ruled out the need to take
high stake risks. Data scientists create models using existing data that simulate a variety of potential actions—in this
way, an organization can learn which path will bring the best business outcomes.
6. Testing these decisions
Half of the battle involves making certain decisions and implementing those changes. What about the other half? It is
crucial to know how those decisions have affected the organization. This is where a data scientist comes in. It pays to
have someone who can measure the key metrics that are related to important changes and quantify their success.
7. Identification and refining of target audiences
From Google Analytics to customer surveys, most companies will have at least one source of customer data that is
being collected. But if it isn’t used well—for instance, to identify demographics—the data isn’t useful. The
importance of data science is based on the ability to take existing data that is not necessarily useful on its own and
combine it with other data points to generate insights an organization can use to learn more about its customers and
audience.
A data scientist can help with the identification of the key groups with precision, via thorough analysis of disparate
sources of data. With this in-depth knowledge, organizations can tailor services and products to customer groups,
and help profit margins flourish.
8. Recruiting the right talent for the organization
Reading through resumes all day is a daily chore in a recruiter’s life, but that is changing due to big data. With the
amount of information available on talent—through social media, corporate databases, and job search websites—
data science specialists can work their way through all these data points to find the candidates who best fit the
organization’s needs.
By mining the vast amount of data that is already available, in-house processing for resumes and applications—and
even sophisticated data-driven aptitude tests and games—data science can help your recruitment team make
speedier and more accurate selections.
Insurance
Insurance companies bring security to society by offering protection against financial losses. Through the pooling of
similar risks, insurers allow to trade uncertainty for certainty by transferring the risk from individuals facing the loss
to the insurer, in exchange for a premium. Non-life (e.g. motor, fire, liability), life and health insurers work in a data
driven business, and are constantly confronted with the challenges created by rapidly increasing technical and
computer facilities for data collection, storage and analysis. Predictive modeling (or: insurance analytics) is a
cornerstone of the insurance industry.
As is the case with a number of industries, energy companies are incorporating data science in energy management
strategies as a way to better manage and conserve energy. From seismic monitoring to temperature measurement
and gathering wind information, there’s a constant stream of energy data to uncover, examine and analyze. It is the
hope that data science in energy management will lead to more and more smart poweroptions for both the energy
companies and consumers.
Energy
Energy companies are applying innovative technologies to reduce error margins, compete with some intense
competition and work around strict government regulations. The dream of having easy energy can only be realized
now by incorporation of data science in energy management, and companies are doing just that.
With good analysis, big data can help the energy industry:
• Discover new sources of energy
• Reduce drilling and exploration costs
• Heighten the efficiency of exploration and increase productivity
• Forecast and prevent accidents during exploration and usage
• Ensure there are no power outages, guaranteeing users of 24-hour energy distribution
• Gauge how people consume energy
• Increase the supply as demand increases
• Enhance energy conservation in homes and industries
• Enhance the process of maintenance and repairs
These measures will help ensure that energy companies will increase their profits and consumers will have energy
when they need it.
Data Science in Energy Discovery and Exploration
One example of using data science in energy is through seismology. Energy companies are using seismic monitoring,
or seismic surveys, to discover new oil-rich grounds. Using monitoring tools, energy companies are able to assess the
profitability of newly discovered oil, using numerous and parallel processing platforms. Data science is widely used to
estimate the amount of oil or gas that is yet to be extracted from a well, determine the quality of the soil, investigate
any geological anomalies, and to compare historical production data, local oil drilling history, weather and
environmental changes to facilitate better drilling and production.
Realtime Metrics in Oil Production
Because billions of dollars are involved in oil production there is a lot of pressure at play. Oil extraction has become a
high-tech affair. Picture an oil field where every machine is in communication with the others and they’re all
constantly relaying data to the energy company headquarters. Oil rigs are in communication with their operators to
maintain a steady production flow. Sensors alert the mine workers of any repairs needed, and compressors notify
workers whenever there is a dangerous overload.
This sounds a bit far-fetched, but it is already happening. Chevron has been using smart technology  to enhance oil
extraction and production processes. Officials call it intelligent-field (i-field). BP has the same kind of technology, and
call it Field-of-the-Future, while Royal Dutch Shell uses Smart Field technology. Simply, these are digitalized oil fields
that all gather data.
The technologies these companies utilize collect sensor data including temperature, pressure, volume, vibrations
and shock. They combine the data with real-time analytics and real-time international communications to enable the
energy companies to monitor every step of the oil production process. These steps include the moment oil is
discovered, extraction, daily well and machine maintenance, purification and distribution.
By incorporating data science in energy management, energy companies can enjoy profits from every drop of oil
extracted while reducing costs. According to Chevron, with a digitized oilfield production, rates can rise by up to 8
percent while discovery rates can increase by up to 6 percent.
Safe Oil Extraction and Usage
Failure in extraction and production of oil and gas is costly. It can cost lives as seen with Exxon Valdez, Deepwater
Horizon, and Fukushima. Oil and gas companies cannot afford failure. By incorporating data science in energy
management, potential accidents can be detected and prevented before they occur. By using sensors, companies
can monitor the life cycle of different components and machines and replace them before they cause a disaster.
Some examples are:
• When temperature and pressure go above normal, an alert is relayed to the control center and control measures
are taken.
• When the ground on which the well rests is fragile and cannot support the drilling, this is detected, and the process
halted until a solution is found.
• When key machines need parts replaced, the operators can have the parts ready.
Data is also collected from weather forecasts, maintenance reports, geologic surveys and video reports. This data is
used to detect unusual patterns, determine dangers, and help prevent accidents or catastrophes.
Production of Clean Energy
In addition to oil extraction and maintaining safety within the oil industry, data science is also used in the renewable
energy sector. Renewable sources of energy are gaining popularity by the day; they are the future of the energy
industry. In the US, for instance, by 2030, about 30 percent of the energy produced should be clean energy.
When harvesting wind energy, wind turbines rotate and can be used to collect wind data. Sensors are fitted on the
wind turbines to collect wind speed, pitch, and yawn degrees. The data collected is used to monitor the performance
of the turbines, including any failures.
Wind data combined with turbine functioning data, vibrations and acoustic emissions, work order data such as
repairs data, and turbine history such as years of productivity, shows the energy company numerous places to
enhance efficiency and reduce costs.
Data Science and Energy Consumption Analysis
Most consumers, including private citizens and industries alike, are wasting energy by the way they use it. As such,
perhaps one of the areas where data science can help the most is in analyzing energy consumption with the goal of
reducing consumption instead of increasing production. Energy consumption data can be collected and analyzed in a
way that will lead to better efficiency. With energy efficiency methods in place both domestically and corporately,
savings are being reported by the Energy Information Administration. Even as the economy has expanded, energy
consumption has reduced greatly from 2014.
Energy companies, homes, and other industries are all working to reduce energy waste. Home systems such as
Google Home, Nest Thermometers and sensors are already reducing home energy consumption. And the National
Institute of Science and Technology predicts that by 2030 companies will be using smart-grid data analysis to save up
to $2 trillion .
As oil is becoming more scarce and as clean energy become more mainstream, there is a clear need to effectively
incorporate data from all areas of energy production. From extraction to consumption, data science in energy
management is a key element to making energy available, profitable, and safe.
Health
Medicine seems last to the data science party. Despite the immense information needs within medicine and the
recent digital transformation of medical data, health care remains far too anchored in a traditional culture that too
infrequently leverages the great advances in information technology we have experienced recently. In particular,
health care has not leveraged the power of patients to fully participate as equal partners as stewards of their own
health information.
Yet we are on the cusp of a transformative change in health care — one that will push the centrality of patients’
needs; the importance of the individual over the average; the integrative understanding of biology, behavior, context
and environment; the agency of people over their health and health care decisions; and the systematic learning from
daily collective experience over the pre-eminence of individual expertise. In short, we are about to spread expertise
instead of sequestering it.
Biotechnology
Advances in biotechnology have become omni-pervasive and completely integrated into modern life. Modern
miracles emerging from biotech have sprouted in so many diverse fields that they may not even be immediately
recognized as being associated with biotechnology in the first place:
 Genetically modified crops in agriculture
 Chemical processing in heavy industry
 Development of new drugs in the pharmaceutical industry
 Environmental monitoring and cleanup
 Genetic screening and DNA editing
Equally unrecognized may be the role that master’s-prepared data scientists play in each of those advancements as
they contribute to almost every area of biotech research.
The Amalgamation of Data Science and Biotechnology
The application of data science in biotechnology is about far more than simply mining massive data sets. Data
science is fundamentally about the extraction of knowledge from information; and it is the degree of knowledge that
is the important part, not the volume of information.
The Emergence of Bioinformatics
According to a June, 2014 article in Science Magazine, the field of bioinformatics has evolved from being simply
another tool in the researcher’s toolbox into a discipline in its own right. Analysts who once existed simply to deliver
the reports that would help answer the questions that scientists and clinicians posed are now being called upon to
help define the very questions that are being asked.
Data science is now its own focus of research within the sphere of biotechnology.
This new role demands a higher level of education for prospective data scientists working as bioinformaticians, as
they progress from the role of mere technician into fully-fledged research scientists.
Gaining New Knowledge from the  Relationship Between Data Sets
Some of the most exciting prospects in biotech may belong almost exclusively in the realm of data science. With so
many massive arrays of data in so many specialized fields, some industry observers believe that the next major
advances in life sciences may come from the ability to analyze the subtle links between those data sets. Tying
environmental data to disease patterns, or disease patterns to drug research, or drug efficacy to dietary trends-
these may ultimately prove to be even more beneficial in the long term than the most intensively focused analysis of
DNA.
Rob Kitchin, a professor at the National University of Ireland argues that the coupling of big data with new analytic
paradigms will ultimately change science from being knowledge-driven to being data-driven. In the process,
relationships that scientists might not have even considered looking for may end up revealing themselves.
Kitchin is careful to note, however, that such a world will not simply emerge wholly formed from the deep ocean of
data. An underlying knowledge of the methods of collection, storage, and algorithmic analysis applied to that data
will be crucial for exploring meaning. That kind of knowledge can only come from data scientists with analytical skills
that have been honed by earning an advanced degree in the field.
Mining the Future: From Flu Mapping to Biological Mediums for Data Storage
With this paradigm shift, it’s entirely possible that data scientists of the future won’t think of themselves as having a
career in biotechnology. Instead, they may think of themselves as biotechnologists working in the field of data
science.
The field is already finding new ways to explore healthcare trends from non-traditional data sets. Google’s Flu
Trends was one basic effort.  Although the basic functionality remains as part of a larger tool set, Flu Trends itself has
since been discontinued. When it was available to the public, it was a service that made use of nothing more than
geographically-mapped search phrase data to help track flu outbreaks around the world. And it was surprisingly
accurate.
There is no shortage of intriguing possibilities on the biotech horizon, which are sure to be pioneered by data
scientists in the coming years. One fascinating possibility is the use of DNA itself as a storage medium for digital data.
A December 2015 piece in the New York Times described experiments performed at the University of Washington
and the University of Illinois in which digital data was encoded into DNA molecules. When the technique is fully
developed, a system capable of storing all digital information currently in existence would occupy only about nine
liters of organic soup.
Whether or not your next hard drive is organic, such industry-shaking advances are going to become commonplace
for data science graduates entering the biotechnology industry in the coming years. It is hard to imagine almost any
development in biotechnology in the next few decades that will not in some way be driven by the work of these
scientists.
Biotechnology’s Broad Playing Field for Data Science
Most people instantly associate the term data science with “Big Data:” vast, deep, and detailed sets of information
generated by automated sensors, DNA sequencing equipment and years of in-depth research.
Within the many sub-disciplines of the biotech industry, the role of data science has been to find meaning within
these massive troves of biological data – whether for the purpose of sequencing genomes, creating new
combinations of pharmaceutical compounds, performing predictive diagnoses, environmental monitoring, or
creating genetically modified seeds:
Genomics
Genomics is the field that most immediately comes to mind when data science is mentioned in the same breath as
biotechnology. There’s no question that the modern study of genomics could hardly exist without big data. It took 13
years and almost 3 billion dollars to sequence the first complete human genome at a cost of about a dollar per DNA
base pair. Those 3 billion base pairs comprise a data set that will be studied for decades, if not centuries,
representing perhaps the ultimate challenge in biotech data management and analysis.
The cost and time to sequence a genome have dropped dramatically; in 2016 a complete genome can be processed
for around $1000, and technology is approaching the point where it could happen in a matter of hours.
Pharmaceutical Research
Modern pharmaceutical research and development processes rely heavily on molecular data modeling based on
massive libraries containing hundreds of millions of chemical compounds. This modeling represents a virtual
experimentation designed by data scientists to quickly and cheaply screen most of the options before actual
candidate drugs are synthesized for clinical trials.
The technique saves millions of dollars in development costs and speeds trials to get lifesaving drugs approved and
on the market fast.
Healthcare
In healthcare, data scientists are being asked to help find solutions to the problems of securely storing the
mountains of data associated with electronic medical records—and how to take advantage of that data to improve
predictive diagnosis and evaluate courses of treatment.
In Germany, at the National Center for Tumor Diseases, data scientists have developed a tool to allow clinical staff to
display and analyze patient information in real time from multiple patient data sources.
Environmental Science
In environmental science, data scientists help design monitoring systems and then work to integrate and compare
the data they generate against historical observations.
The vexing issue of testing and comparing information collected across decades – and sometimes centuries – using
different methods with different degrees of sensitivity is a thorny problem that only the best educated data
scientists can even hope to resolve.
Agriculture
In agriculture, data scientists are key to understanding the complex variables being manipulated in genetically
modified crops. Continuing the fastidious work began by Gregor Mendel in the mid-1800s, agricultural data scientists
study the traits expressed by genes over many hundreds of generations. They work with farmers to store and
analyze soil and leaf samples looking for new ways to maximize crop production and minimize the impact farming
has on the environment.