University of Pretoria - Research Review
University of Pretoria - Research Review
Theme 1 - Society
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The age of big data science

As the cost and complexity of undertaking certain forms of science has led to increasing global science cooperation, so too has the ‘data revolution’ opened up new research frontiers and brought about new ways of collaborating and of doing research.
Professor Jan Eloff Professor Jan Eloff

We have witnessed an unprecedented increase in the volume of data generated in recent decades. Advances in technology have allowed for better storage and speed, and for data to be produced in real-time, without human intervention, through satellites, sensors, drones, digital cameras, machines, phones and many more devices. To illustrate, there are an estimated 26 billion devices connected over the Internet and well over 2 billion people via social media platforms.

Professor Jan Eloff in the Department of Computer Science writes that 'Big Data' are so large and complex that it becomes increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to process and interpret volume. Big Data are typically not only high-volume, but also have high-changing and high-variety characteristics. It is the search for new and novel ways of managing these large volumes of data that gave rise to the concept of Data Science – the behavioural aspects of data that require advanced algorithms to detect the ‘hidden’ knowledge and behavioural patterns, and predictive analytics to forecast trends:

Big Data Science = Big Data + Machine Learning + Predictive Analytics

Big data examples from research profiled in this Review would include, for example, changing market flows, consumer identities and patterns of decision-making, as well as land, water and natural resource use.

Some of the better known examples of Big Data are those gathered by social media platforms. People need to be aware continually that what and who they are dealing with is ‘real’. For example, how does a person know that the recipient of information is a real person and not a botnet or a fake person who will misuse such data? How does one know that the email received from a bank was really sent by the bank? Such questions relate to deception and are the focus of the Cyber-Security and Big Data Science Research Group in the Department of Computer Science, with researchers leveraging advances in Big Data Science to seek innovative solutions to identity and content deception.

The age of big data science NASA astronaut Kjell Lindgren took this photograph of Earth from the International Space Station, and shared it with his followers on social media. This image was used in the cover design of the publication, Science International (2015). Open Data in a Big Data World (Paris: ICSU, ISSC, TWAS and IAP).