Mailiao Refinery, Taiwan Courtesy Planet Labs and Quandl

Big data: big buzz

“Big data” encompasses the collection, processing, indexing and analysis of large-scale datasets. Some concrete examples in the scientific computing arena include temperature and sunlight data from satellites monitoring of the Earth’s environment, particle tracking data produced by the Large Hadron Collider in Europe, satellite image data used in the search for planets orbiting distant stars, and studies of the cosmic microwave background radiation.

These same big data collection and analysis techniques are now being applied to arenas that are decidedly more down-to-earth. These include anonymized smartphone

Continue reading Go with big data and machine learning, or leave finance to those who do