Question: What does a data scientest doo?

Catherine Smith answered on 13 Nov 2018:

Good question – it is a new field! Basically it involves applying statistics and computer programming to a specific topic area. For me, that is the study of infectious disease epidemiology. So I spend a lot of time using statistical analysis software on large databases about people with and without infections. I try to answer questions like what sorts of people are most likely to get a certain type of infection, where are they most at risk, and what do they do about their symptoms when they have them. The next step is to design trials of interventions to try to improve how infections are treated and stop them spreading between people.