---
title: "Course Introduction"
author: "Dr. Hua Zhou @ UCLA"
date: "Jan 4, 2022"
output:
  # ioslides_presentation: default
  html_document:
    toc: true
    toc_depth: 4  
subtitle: Biostat 203B
bibliography: ../bib-HZ.bib
csl: ../apa.csl
---

## Statistics and data science

- Statistics, the science of _data analysis_, is the applied mathematics in the 21st century.

- Data is increasing in [volume, velocity, and variety](http://www.forbes.com/sites/oreillymedia/2012/01/19/volume-velocity-variety-what-you-need-to-know-about-big-data/).

- My favorite definition of a _data scientist_:

> A data scientist is someone who is better at statistics than any software engineer and better at software engineering than any statistician.

## Big data in 1990s

@Huber94HugeData; -@Huber96MassiveData

| Data Size | Bytes          | Storage Mode               |
|-----------|----------------|----------------------------|
| tiny      | $10^2$         | piece of paper             |
| small     | $10^4$         | a few pieces of paper      |
| medium    | $10^6$ (MB)    | a floppy disk              |
| large     | $10^8$         | hard disk                  |
| huge      | $10^9$ (GB)    | hard disk(s)               |
| massive   | $10^{12}$ (TB) | hard disk(s); RAID storage |

## Big data in 21st centry

4V's of big data:

<p align="center">
  <img src="./4-Vs-of-big-data.jpg" height="450" width="700">
</p>
Source: [IBM](http://www.ibmbigdatahub.com/infographic/four-vs-big-data).

## Who are hiring?

Following tables is based on a survey of 403 students who earned a master’s degree in statistics, biostatistics, or a related field (actuarial science, data science, informatics, math with stats focus) during the
2019–2020 academic year. 

<p align="center">
  <img src="./ms-employment-sector.png" width="500">
</p>

Source: [AmStat News (2021 Nov)](https://magazine.amstat.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/AmstatNewsNov2021-updated.pdf).

> there were more than 109 unique—although similar—job titles. The most
common were data scientist (20), biostatistician
(18), data analyst (9), biostatistician I (7), and
statistician (5). 

## A typical data scientist on [LinkedIn](http://linkedin.com)

A position posted by Genetech.
<p align="center">
  <img src="./genetech.png" height="450" width="700">
</p>

## Course description

- This course introduces some computing skills and software tools for handling potentially big public health data.

- Read [syllabus](https://ucla-biostat-203b.github.io/2022winter/syllabus/syllabus.html) and [schedule](https://ucla-biostat-203b.github.io/2022winter/schedule/schedule.html) for a tentative list of topics and course logistics.

## Why R?

<p align="center">
  <img src="./ms-employment-software.png" width="500">
</p>

## More (free) UCLA resources for learning data science

- IDRE workshops: <https://idre.ucla.edu/calendar>  

- QCBio workshops: <https://qcb.ucla.edu/collaboratory/workshops/>

## References