Big Data: How Data Analytics Is Transforming the World

By: Tim Chartier, The Great Courses

Narrated by: Tim Chartier

In our age of accelerating progress in so many fields, it’s easy to lose sight of the underlying innovation that makes the data analytics revolution possible. These 24 lectures introduce you to the key concepts, methods, and accomplishments of this versatile approach to problem solving. You need no expertise in mathematics to follow this exciting story.

Tim Chartier, professor of mathematics and computer science, explains the basic computational techniques used in data analytics, but his focus is on how these ideas are applied and the amazing results they achieve. His case histories make these lectures both accessible and entertaining. He takes you behind the scenes to review many examples of data analysis in action, including the pitfalls and potential of Internet traffic analysis, algorithms that aim to predict what customers want, some of the best defenses for keeping your personal data private, how methods for filling out March Madness game brackets can be applied to other problems, and much more.

Professor Chartier is a champion of the fun, challenge, and breathtaking power of mathematics - qualities that are accessible with data analytics. And with his enjoyable lectures, you’ll discover concepts and tools that are transforming the world - and that you can use to transform your own life. It’s like watching a thrilling spectator sport that invites you to suit up and join the action!

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2014 The Great Courses (P)2014 The Teaching Company, LLC

Big Deal

Some math included. A little dry but important for how data can affect your life.

Decent but publisher didn’t edit this audiobook

This audiobook was irritating. First, writer gave a 1st grade class lecture on what is data. Second, publisher didn’t edit this audiobook. You can hear the narrator backtracking what he said then went back again to reverse that backtrack. This was boring. Hard to keep track what the author is saying.

Not much meat on the bones

This course can be summed up by, “Yay, Big Data!” There’s a lot about interesting discoveries made by data analytics, but not much detail about specifics of techniques. Bear in mind, I’ve been a professional software developer for over thirty years, and I still came away without learning actual algorithms deeply enough to attempt to implement any of them.

So if you are just looking for a basic, “what can data analytics do?” this course will probably suffice. But if you want to actually DO data analytics, you’ll need much more.

visual book..

good narrative and details, but this is a visual book where formulas and charts are part of the narrative making it hard to follow

Great course for data science novices

Great and inter course for novices in data science. Covers common and well know material for those in the field, but does offer some clear explanations and examples of complex concepts. The sports data science examples are fantastic.

poorly recorded

I have listened to a lot of the great course's materials, and this one was the hardest to get through. recording was choppy at times and the speaker stumbled on words more than I would have expected.

Great tour through the analytics discipline

This was an excellent primer on analytics. With almost 20 years in data - databases, BI, analytics - I was hoping to use it as a refresher as work is pushing me back into core data science. Having this book did exactly that. In short, it is a good primer for any audience. Approachable for people new to the industry. Good overview for experienced folks who could use a review of the major topics in big data and analytics.

Good science-pop

Best for nonpro audience. Wide topics coverage. Good (but common) examples. Moderate complexity of calculations. Clear language.

Very solid investigation into data applications and analysis

I appreciated the solid research-based reflections with useful tools and common pitfalls in data analytics.

Minimally technical, and talks a lot about sports

I’m not into basketball or baseball, and the information was so basic/surface level that I was so bored. Also, the voice actor would make reading mistakes ALL the time, and not edit them out. It was the author reading the book, not a professional. Just the way he read made it very boring. It did not flow, and was hard to listen to for extended periods of time. I’m not sure if I’ll be able to finish it, and I got it for free.