Big Data EC1702991

Big Data and Bitcoins Recently, Bitcoin has seen a recent spike in value, which has prompted many people to begin "mining" for more. This in turn has had a knock on effect with computer parts, sending the price of dedicated graphics cards far more expensive than before. Big data can be used for both of these problems through methods such as google trends. For bitcoin, google trends can be tracked for how often people are giving attention and searching google for bitcoin or similar terms. Big data can also be used for tracking the current value of bitcoin and analyzing any patterns in the price changes to help predict whether the value will rise more or fall.

Week 3 Big and small data Small data is a way of keeping the size of data down. A file such as an image could take a lot of space depending on the size of the image, but by compressing it and losing some of the quality you can massivly reduce ths size. An example of small data could be Meteorological Aviation Report (METAR). The image below shows this off, each section of the code represents a different piece of information and saves entire data entries from being typed out and takes less time to process.  https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/big-data-and-the-environment/3/steps/420387 Citizen Science Is the collection of data about the natural world that has been gathered by the general public, usually as part of a project with other data scientists. This can be used to gain vast amounts of information quickly since many people at once can gather the information as opposed to just one scientist or one sensor. One example is Thames 21, a charity which worked with Cit...

Week 2 Open Data Open data, by definition, is data that is free to use by anyone for any purpose at any time. This includes republishing data and not being affected by Copyrights or Patents by doing so. One proposed example of this is satellite data. By allowing this data to be "open data" we can allow it to be analysed to learn more about how our atmosphere is being affected by greenhouse gasses as well as monitor current changes and prevent new problems from arising.  https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/big-data-and-the-environment/3/steps/420374 Data Scientist A data scientist is someone who's job it is to analyse and interpret data, like usage statistics for a website in order to aid/assist a company or business with making important decisions. IEA data scientist Dr Ben Lloyd-Hughes states that there are 7 phases of a data science project which a data scientist will complete. 1. Problem Statement 2. Data Acquisition 3. Data Preparation 4. Data Ex...

Week 1  Environmental Sources of Big Data The best example of Big Data the is provided by the environment is the weather and the changes within it. Supercomputers are used to create weather simulations in real time to analyse current weather and look for patterns, and furthermore use this data to predict the weather that is still to come. This data includes things such as air pressure, humidity and sea surface temperature.  https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/big-data-and-the-environment/3/steps/420355  Observing Earth from space with Big Data Big data can also help humans observe the planet from space and choose to view select parts of it. Satellites in space can be used to 24/7 monitor the planet and can send back data such as weather or communications data. These can also be used for sending mapping data for earth and cartography data. Google earth is an example of that, where the entire planet is available to be viewed thanks to the data that has b...

11. Big Data in society One application of big data within society is tailoring specific ads or sites etc to the public based on past search results or views. Netflix is a prime example of this. Netflix uses a person's previously watched films and shows and suggests content it thinks would be perfect for that user. for example, if a user watched a nature documentary, Netflix would use this to suggest other nature documentaries to watch. Social media platforms are also an example of Big data being used in society. take Facebook. Every user on Facebook will upload or share countless amount of pictures and videos, all of which can be analysed by companies and can even allow companies to target a user based on things like age or race.  https://www.mentionlytics.com/blog/5-real-world-examples-of-how-brands-are-using-big-data-analytics/

10. Big data in science Big data has recently become an integral part of working in science, with a good understanding of algorithms being an essential trait required of modern day biologists, physicists etc Not long ago, sequencing an entire genome (determining the order of all 3 billion pairs of DNA letters in the helix) took years. The Human Genome Project, the first completed sequence of an entire human genome, took around 13 years from conception to its completion in 2003, and cost more than £2 billion. Today, next-generation sequencing can do the same thing in 24 hours for not much more than a thousand pounds. This has completely changed how scientists work. It's not just that they get their hands dirty less often, nor simply that the required skills have changed. It's that the whole process of science – how you come by an idea and test it – has been upended. This has left a lot of senior scientists needing to understand and supervise techniques that didn...