Data Science vs Machine Learning: Difference Between the Two

The age of data is upon us and this new advent has witnessed the rise of two fields of study that has taken the world by storm – data science and machine learning. Data science and machine learning are two famous buzzwords that have garnered the attention of young aspirants looking for a prospective future career. But despite machine learning being a part of the data science course syllabus, they shouldn’t be mistaken as synonyms. This article will give be your guide to answering the question – data science vs machine learning, what’s the difference between the two?

Data Science

Data science put simply is the study of data cleansing, preparation, and analysis. Dr. Thomas Miller of Northwestern University describes data science as “a combination of information technology, modeling, and business management”. Data science is an interdisciplinary field that uses an amalgamation of tools, techniques, and algorithms to extract insights from structured and unstructured data. 

A major example of this can be witnessed in the case of Netflix, as Netflix uses data science techniques to comprehend user interest by extracting the data and viewing patterns of its users. One factor to consider while discussing data science vs machine learning is that machine learning is a subset of data science, but both pursue different end goals.

Skills Needed To Become A Data Scientist

• Programming knowledge of Python, R, SAS
• Experience in SQL database Coding
• Data Mining, cleaning, and Visualizing skills
• Expertise in Big Data Tools such as Hadoop
• Experience with Machine Learning Algorithms

Machine Learning

Machine learning shows its worth in solving problems that are extremely labor-intensive for humans. Machine learning is an ever-developing field that enables machines to learn from past data and perform a given task automatically. A high-quality model that shows reproducible results is the main output of machine learning. 

Certain famous applications of machine learning are email spam filtering, delivering product recommendations, image recognition, face recognition, etc. Machine learning is undeniably intertwined with data science, making the discussion of data science vs machine learning a difficult one, but it must be remembered that both use different tools and provide different outputs.

Skills Needed to Become a Machine Learning Engineer

• Detailed understanding and precise implementation of Machine Learning Algorithms
• Knowledge of Natural Language Processing
• Expertise in Statistics and probability concepts.
• Experience with data modeling and data evaluation.
• Knowledge of Text representation techniques

Data Science vs Machine Learning – The Difference

Here are a few points that’ll help you understand how data science and machine learning differ from each other.

• Data science deals with deciphering patterns from hordes of data and making key business decisions with the help of it. Machine learning enables machines to learn from past data and carry out labor-intensive tasks automatically.
• Data science can work with raw, structured, and unstructured data, whereas Machine learning mostly relies on structured data.
• The scope of data science goes as far as data acquisition, data cleaning, and data investigation. The scope of machine learning includes supervised, unsupervised, semi-supervised learning.
• Data science gives the final output in the form of a report based on key data, whereas Machine learning gives the final output in the form of an ML Model.

Data science and machine learning will undeniably be a major part of the future, and thus it’s crucial that you’re clear about data science vs machine learning before choosing one to specialize in. We at Praxis have identified the need for exemplary data scientists and are proud to present a top of line Post Graduate Program in Data Science. With astounding placement records and a well-curated curriculum, we are confident that we can mold you into an ideal candidate ready to make their mark as remarkable professionals. Learn more about the curriculum and placement stats of our Data Science Course in Kolkata and Data Science Course in Bangalore

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