The phrase “using data to tell stories” is so commonly used nowadays that it runs the risk of becoming a cliche, if it hasn’t become one already. This episode’s guest flips this logic around - instead of using data to tell stories, he uses stories to teach data science!

Arvind Venkatadri is a faculty member at Srishti Manipal School of Art, Design and Technology. His research/teaching interests include TRIZ, Computation in R, Design using Open Source Electronics Hardware, and Complexity Science. He is part of the School of Foundation Studies at SMI.

This is a very wide ranging conversation. We talk about, among other things, The Three Musketeers, Lawrence of Arabia and Legally Blonde. We talk about how Arvind leverages all of these to teach his students data science and logic and game theory.

At a time when the field of data science is rife with “pile stirring”, where a large section of practitioners treat it as an extension of software engineering, Arvind’s approach, centred on stories and the human experience, is really refreshing. His approach also gives a pointer on how to widen the base in terms of attracting people into data science. 

I must apologise for one thing - this conversation was recorded during Deepavali in November 2021, so you can occasionally hear the sound of firecrackers in the background. I really hope you can get past that and listen to Arvind’s stories.

Show Notes

00:03:00: Arvind’s journey into teaching Data Science in an art school

00:05:45: Teaching data science to art students

00:15:45: Teaching statistics through art and stories. Wassily Kandinsky

00:23:00: Teaching coding through art

00:31:00: Shapes and colours and emotions

00:44:00: Lawrence of Arabia (can’t say more here in the description!)

00:50:00: Data science and the human experience

Links:

Arvind’s homepage

Arvind on Twitter

Arvind’s course on R for artists and designers

An intro to Wassily Kandinsky's work

Data Chatter is a podcast on all things data. It is a series of conversations with experts and industry leaders in data, and each week we aim to unpack a different compartment of the "data suitcase".

The podcast is hosted by Karthik Shashidhar. He is a blogger, newspaper columnist, book author and a former data and strategy consultant. Karthik currently heads Analytics and Business Intelligence for Delhivery, one of India’s largest logistics companies.

You can follow him on twitter at @karthiks, and read his blog at noenthuda.com

There is a conception, or misconception, that journalists are not good at maths. It is rather common to see newspaper headlines and graphics that make basic mathematical and logical errors.

On the other hand, in the last decade or so, we have seen a massive rise in “data journalism”. With more and more data being available, journalists are able to write stories exclusively based on data.

How do these two square off?

To answer this, we have Sukumar Ranganathan, editor in chief of the Hindustan Times. He was previously editor of Mint, of which he was one of the founding editors. It was while he was at Mint that he gave a big push to the then nascent field of “data journalism”, inviting writers such as HowIndiaLives, Rukmini S and myself to write data-backed pieces for Mint. He has previously worked in editorial leadership roles at The Hindu Businessline and Business Today.

Sukumar has degrees in chemical engineering, maths, and business administration, and is interested in mathematics, science and technology, the history of business, new media, and data-based political journalism. He reads and collects comic books and is an amateur birder. He tweets under the ID @HT_ed

Show Notes:

00:03:15: Are journalists really bad at maths?
00:16:30: Impact of bad data on public policy, and information theory
00:21:00: How data in journalism has changed in the last 20-25 years
00:23:00: The data journalism story
00:31:15: Judging a data story
00:45:30: Advice to budding data journalists

Data Chatter is a podcast on all things data. It is a series of conversations with experts and industry leaders in data, and each week we aim to unpack a different compartment of the "data suitcase".

The podcast is hosted by Karthik Shashidhar. He is a blogger, newspaper columnist, book author and a former data and strategy consultant. Karthik currently heads Analytics and Business Intelligence for Delhivery, one of India’s largest logistics companies.

You can follow him on twitter at @karthiks, and read his blog at noenthuda.com

There are two dominant programming languages used for data science nowadays - R and Python, each having its own set of loyal users. Both have their own strengths and weaknesses. In this episode, we look at what each langauge is good and bad at, what kind of people are more likely to use each, and how being able to program in both and switch seamlessly can indeed be a superpower.

Today’s guest is Abdul Majed Raja RS, a Data Scientist at Atlassian. Abdul Majed likes to call himself an Analytics Consultant with over a decade of experience helping organisations solve their business problems. He's also a Content Creator trying to help newcomers navigate the Data Science space easily and learn continuously. You can find him on Twitter and on Youtube at 1littlecoder. 

Show Notes: 

00:03:00: How Abdul got into analytics
00:05:30: MS Excel in data science
00:07:45: When to use R and when to use Python
00:17:00: What data scientists can learn from software engineers
00:24:30: Graphics and visualisations in R and Python
00:26:45: Machine learning in R and Python
00:29:15: Why the Indian market in Data Science leans towards Python
00:34:45: Working with databases
00:37:30: Building dashboards in R and Python
00:47:00: Working with R *and* Python at the same time
00:51:30: What about Excel and Julia?

Links

I don't like Notebooks - Joel Grus  - 

Interface between R and Python - reticulate.

Julia Silge Youtube Channel for latest Tidymodels tutorials

Advantages of Using R Notebooks For Data Analysis Instead of Jupyter Notebooks - Max Woolf

Data Chatter is a podcast on all things data. It is a series of conversations with experts and industry leaders in data, and each week we aim to unpack a different compartment of the "data suitcase".

The podcast is hosted by Karthik Shashidhar. He is a blogger, newspaper columnist, book author and a former data and strategy consultant. Karthik currently heads Analytics and Business Intelligence for Delhivery, one of India’s largest logistics companies.

You can follow him on twitter at @karthiks, and read his blog at noenthuda.com