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Data Science is such a broad field that includes several subdivisions like data preparation
and exploration, data representation and transformation, data visualization and 10 GitHub Repositories to Master D
Engineering
presentation, predictive analytics, and machine learning, etc. For beginners, it’s only natural
to raise the following question: What skills do I need to become a data scientist? Learning System Design: Top 5 Esse
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This article will discuss 10 essential skills that are necessary for practicing data scientists.
These skills could be grouped into 2 categories, namely, technological skills (Math & LLM Handbook: Strategies and
Blog Techniques for Practitioners
Statistics, Coding Skills, Data Wrangling
Top Posts & Preprocessing Skills, Data Visualization Skills,
About
Machine Learning Skills, and Real World Project Skills) and soft skills (Communication How to Use GPT for Generating Cre
Content with Hugging Face
Skills, Lifelong Learning Skills,Topics
Team Player Skills, and Ethical Skills). Transformers
AI
Career Advice however mastering the foundations of data
Data science is a field that is ever-evolving,
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science will provide you with the necessary
Data Engineeringbackground that you need to pursue advanced Module for Effective Debugging
Data Science
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concepts such as deep learning, artificial
Machine intelligence, etc. This article will discuss 10
Learning
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essential skills for practicing data
NLP scientists.
Programming
Python
SQL Get the FREE ebook 'The Great B
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1. Mathematics
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(i) Statistics and Probability
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straight to your inbox.

Statistics and Probability is used for visualization of features, data preprocessing, feature
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transformation, data imputation, dimensionality reduction, feature engineering, model
evaluation, etc. Here are the topics you need to be familiar with: SIGN UP

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a) Mean

b) Median

c) Mode

d) Standard deviation/variance

e) Correlation coefficient and the covariance matrix

f) Probability distributions (Binomial, Poisson, Normal)

g) p-value

h) MSE (mean square error)

i) R2 Score

j) Baye’s Theorem (Precision, Recall, Positive Predictive Value, Negative Predictive Value,
Confusion Matrix, ROC Curve)

k) A/B Testing

l) Monte Carlo Simulation

(ii) Multivariable Calculus

Most machine learning models are built with a data set having several features or
predictors. Hence, familiarity with multivariable calculus is extremely important for building
a machine learning model. Here are the topics you need to be familiar with:

a) Functions of several variables

b) Derivatives and gradients

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c) Step function, Sigmoid function, Logit function, ReLU (Rectified Linear Unit) function
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d) Cost function
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e) Plotting of functions AI
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of a function
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(iii) Linear Algebra Machine Learning
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Linear algebra is the most important math skill in machine learning. A data set is
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represented as a matrix. LinearPython
algebra is used in data preprocessing, data transformation,
SQL
and model evaluation. Here are the topics you need to be familiar with:
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a) Vectors Events
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b) Matrices Cheat Sheets
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c) Transpose of a matrix Tech Briefs

d) The inverse of a matrix

e) The determinant of a matrix

f) Dot product

g) Eigenvalues

h) Eigenvectors

(iv) Optimization Methods

Most machine learning algorithms perform predictive modeling by minimizing an objective

function, thereby learning the weights that must be applied to the testing data in order to
obtain the predicted labels. Here are the topics you need to be familiar with:

a) Cost function/Objective function

b) Likelihood function

c) Error function

d) Gradient Descent Algorithm and its variants (e.g., Stochastic Gradient Descent Algorithm)

Find out more about the gradient descent algorithm here: Machine Learning: How the
Gradient Descent Algorithm Works.

2. Essential Programming Skills

Programming skills are essential in data science. Since Python and R are considered the two
most popular programming languages in data science, essential knowledge in both
languages are crucial. Some organizations may only require skills in either R or Python, not
both.
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(i) Skills in Python About

Topics
Be familiar with basic programming
AI skills in python. Here are the most important packages
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that you should master how to use:
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a) Numpy Data Science
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b) Pandas Machine Learning
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c) Matplotlib NLP
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d) Seaborn
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e) Scikit-learn Datasets
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(ii) Skills in R

a) Tidyverse

b) Dplyr

c) Ggplot2

d) Caret

e) Stringr

(iii) Skills in Other Programming Languages

Skills in the following programming languages may be required by some organizations or

industries:

a) Excel

b) Tableau

c) Hadoop

d) SQL

e) Spark

3. Data Wrangling and Preprocessing Skills

Data is key for any analysis in data science, be it inferential analysis, predictive analysis, or
prescriptive analysis. The predictive power of a model depends on the quality of the data
that was used in building the model. Data comes in different forms, such as text, table,
image, voice, or video. Most often, data that is used for analysis has to be mined,
processed, and transformed to render it to a form suitable for further analysis.

i) Data Wrangling: The process

Blogof data wrangling is a critical step for any data scientist.
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Very rarely is data easily accessible
About in a data science project for analysis. It’s more likely for
the data to be in a file, a database, or extracted from documents such as web pages,
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tweets, or PDFs. Knowing how AIto wrangle and clean data will enable you to derive critical
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insights from your data that would otherwise be hidden.
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ii) Data Preprocessing: Knowledge about
Machine data preprocessing is very important and include
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topics such as: NLP
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a) Dealing with missing data Python
SQL
b) Data imputation
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c) Handling categorical data Events
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d) Encoding class labels for classification
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e) Techniques of feature transformation and dimensionality reduction, such as Principal
Component Analysis (PCA) and Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA).

4. Data Visualization Skills

Understand the essential components of good data visualization.

a) Data Component: An important first step in deciding how to visualize data is to know
what type of data it is, e.g., categorical data, discrete data, continuous data, time series
data, etc.

b) Geometric Component: Here is where you decide what kind of visualization is suitable
for your data, e.g., scatter plot, line graphs, bar plots, histograms, qqplots, smooth
densities, boxplots, pair plots, heatmaps, etc.

c) Mapping Component: Here you need to decide what variable to use as your x-variable
and what to use as your y-variable. This is important, especially when your dataset is multi-
dimensional with several features.

d) Scale Component: Here you decide what kind of scales to use, e.g., linear scale, log
scale, etc.

e) Labels Component: This includes things like axes labels, titles, legends, font size to use,
etc.

f) Ethical Component: Here, you want to make sure your visualization tells the true story.
You need to be aware of your actions when cleaning, summarizing, manipulating, and
producing a data visualization and ensure you aren’t using your visualization to mislead or
manipulate your audience.

5. Basic Machine Learning Skills

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Machine Learning is a very important
About branch of data science. It is important to understand

the machine learning framework:

TopicsProblem Framing, Data Analysis, Model Building, Testing
& Evaluation, and Model Application.
AI Find out more about the machine learning framework
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from here: The Machine Learning Process.
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The following are important machine learning algorithms to be familiar with.
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i) Supervised Learning (Continuous
NLP Variable Prediction)
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a) Basic regression
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b) Multiregression analysis Datasets

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ii) Supervised Learning (Discrete Variable Prediction)

a) Logistic Regression Classifier

b) Support Vector Machine Classifier

c) K-nearest neighbor (KNN) Classifier

d) Decision Tree Classifier

e) Random Forest Classifier

iii) Unsupervised Learning

a) KMeans clustering algorithm

6. Skills from Real World Capstone Data Science

Projects

Skills acquired from course work alone will not make you a data scientist. A qualified data
scientist must be able to demonstrate evidence of successful completion of a real-world
data science project that includes every stage in data science and machine learning process
such as problem framing, data acquisition and analysis, model building, model testing,
model evaluation, and deploying models. Real-world data science projects could be found
in the following:

a) Kaggle Projects

b) Internships

c) From Interviews

7. Communication
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About

Data scientists need to be able to communicate their ideas with other members of the
Topics
AI
team or with business administrators in their organizations. Good communication skills
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would play a key role here to be able toVision
Computer convey and present very technical information to
Data Engineering
people with little or no understanding of technical concepts in data science. Good
Data Science
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communication skills will help Machine
foster an atmosphere of unity and togetherness with other
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team members such as data analysts,
NLP data engineers, field engineers, etc.
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Python
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8. Be a Lifelong Learner
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Data science is a field that is ever-evolving,
Cheat Sheets so be prepared to embrace and learn new
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technologies. One way to keepTech
in touch
Briefs with developments in the field is to network with
other data scientists. Some platforms that promote networking are LinkedIn, GitHub, and
Medium (Towards Data Science and Towards AI publications). The platforms are very useful
for up-to-date information about recent developments in the field.

9. Team Player Skills

As a data scientist, you will be working in a team of data analysts, engineers,

administrators, so you need good communication skills. You need to be a good listener,
too, especially during early project development phases where you need to rely on
engineers or other personnel to be able to design and frame a good data science project.
Being a good team player will help you to thrive in a business environment and maintain
good relationships with other members of your team as well as administrators or directors
of your organization.

10. Ethical Skills in Data Science

Understand the implication of your project. Be truthful to yourself. Avoid manipulating data
or using a method that will intentionally produce bias in results. Be ethical in all phases,
from data collection and analysis to model building, analysis, testing, and application. Avoid
fabricating results for the purpose of misleading or manipulating your audience. Be ethical
in the way you interpret the findings from your data science project.

In summary, we’ve discussed 10 essential skills needed for practicing data scientists. Data
science is a field that is ever-evolving, however mastering the foundations of data science
will provide you with the necessary background that you need to pursue advance concepts
such as deep learning, artificial intelligence, etc.

Blog
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About
Benjamin O. Tayo is a Physicist, Data Science Educator, and Writer, as well as the Owner of
DataScienceHub. Previously,Topics
Benjamin was teaching Engineering and Physics at U. of
AI
Central Oklahoma, Grand Canyon U., and Pittsburgh State U.
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