Data Science Weekly – Volume 1 – April 2014

Via TP - Data Scientist Interviews Parham Aarabi, Founder of Modi Face ModiFace technology simulates skin-care and cosmetics products on user photos. So, a skin care product that reduces dark spots, or a shiny lipstick, or a glittery eyeshadow … we specialize in making custom simulation effects for all facial products. This is us as a core Pick problems that in your view truly matter.

Data Smart : Summary

Data Science is a very loose word and can mean different things in different situations. However one thing is certain, the principles used in tacking problems are from diverse fields. Drew Conway has this Venn diagram on his blog : In such a diverse field one does not know where to start and how to start. Someone has made a nice Metromap too. All said and done, this is a field that has considerable entry barriers.

Efficient Simulation Smoother

This paper gives the details of a useful algorithm that speeds up the simulation of state vectors from a state space model. The algorithm runs very quick as compared to other methods. I ran the algorithm for a simple local level model inference via Gibbs sampling and found the speed to be considerably faster than other Forward Filter Backward Sampling algorithms. For a more generic Bayesian inference, this algorithm will no doubt cut the computation time significantly.

In Praise of Walking

A lovely article written by Shiv Visvanathan : My father loved to walk. It was his great ritual, his idea of prayer and work. Every morning at four, the house would echo with the thump of his shoes, the tumbler of coffee, as he hurried out. My dachshund, a wise ten-year-old would wait impatiently, grumbling melodramatically about any delay. Whoever talked of walking a dog never understood man or beast.