Data needs ‘engineering not maths’

data scientistData scientists may be being hailed as the savours of the data industry but there is likely to be a major shortage of them unless schools and colleges can train more electrical engineers, according to one expert.
Speaking at this week’s Campus Party Europe conference at the O2 in London, Massachusetts Institute of Technology director Alex ‘Sandy’ Pentland, claimed that mathematicians are not the answer.
Arguing that there are not enough data scientists being trained – “not even close” – he said: “One of the things that happened, which is sort of unfortunate, is most of the computer science type of data people are trained in a type of mathematics called discrete mathematics… [which is not best suited to] the sort of data that we’re collecting now.
“The people who are much closer are the electrical engineer types, who are used to signals and audio and video and stuff like that. But they also have to then extend themselves to become much more familiar with machinery and human behaviour.”
Pentland, who is director of the Human Dynamics group and the Media Lab Entrepreneurship Program at MIT, continued: “We tend to teach people that everything that matters happens between your ears when in fact it actually mostly happens between people. There needs to be general literacy about data interpretation and also much more literacy about the way society works.”

1 Comment on "Data needs ‘engineering not maths’"

  1. RT @DM_editor: Where are all the #data scientists going to come from? Engineering, apparently http://t.co/vxVmqCn2l5 #digitalmarketing #da…

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