Nowadays, everyone and their mother is becoming aware of the critical role Data Science will have in our society. I have worked in this area since "Business Intelligence" was a fancy term to describe a Pivot Table, so I’ve seen the evolution from BI to Big Data, to Data Science, to Machine Learning and Neural Networks, etc. I remember taking a Big Data course on Coursera and feeling completely lost, and I also remember the sleepless nights trying to configure a virtual machine so I could do… something with Hadoop. But this article is not a biography, so let’s get to the point!
The amount of online resources today is simply ridiculous. There is so much to learn, and so many courses to try. Reading through certain topics here on Medium, it may seem like everyone is either an aspiring Data Scientist, or a PhD in Deep Learning. Don’t get me wrong, I think this enthusiasm is great. But for new people coming into this field, it can be overwhelming and even frustrating trying to figure out where to start, or how to stay focused.
Personally, I realised that even more important than which course I took, I learned faster and was more motivated when I came up with my own study framework
I don’t believe there is a single pace or framework that works for everyone, and therefore I will not waste your time – nor mine – explaining my journey in detail. But as always, free to leave a comment below if you want to know more.
The part of my process that I want to share with you is about keeping your brain sharp and ready to tackle any Data Science task, even when you are not sitting in front of a computer.
Now, these apps alone will not magically transform you into a Data Scientist. I hope it’s clear that this is not the point! The goal here is to use your phone to consolidate what you learned elsewhere, and to keep your analytical skills sharp. By default, I look for apps that are designed to deliver short, simple and clear tasks. Ideally, you should be able to use them while you commute, while you wait in line for something, on a lunch break, you get the idea…
I also tried to add a short video for each one, so you can easily check them before deciding to install them.
1. Datacamp
If you have never seen Datacamp while searching for online resources about Data Science, there must be something wrong with your browser! Datacamp is an amazing platform with hundreds of courses. From spreadsheets to SQL, Python, R, and even Git.
Datacamp is where I started my Python journey a little over a year ago, and I’ve seen their subscription prices go up as they added dozens of new courses and polished the community forum experience. You will not run out of things to learn, that’s for sure!
Regarding the App, it is designed for beginners and advanced users, and lets you practice specific parts of each course you have completed. It’s a very nice way to review short snippets and consolidate what you learned.
I use it mostly for short exercises that can be completed very easily on the phone, but there are a lot of things you can explore. I could not find a video specifically for the app, but here’s one with a nice overview of what they offer. It’s for a business account, but the tools are mostly the same as an individual subscription. You can always show it to your boss and convince him/her to buy your team a business account!
2. Elevate
It’s pretty straight forward: Elevate is designed to act as a personal trainer for your brain. Each day the app will show you 3 challenges based on your previous performance and they’re focused on improving processing speed, attention, memory, speaking (yes, speaking!), logic, etc.
Considering how important analytical and communication skills are for a data scientist, this is quite a training tool. __ I used Elevate for some time before switching to Lumosity (more on this one ahead) and installed it again recently when I was writing this article.
I guess the free version could offer more variety, but at least you’ll be able to know what kind of exercises they offer before subscribing.
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3. Lumosity
This is an app I only found recently, despite being one of the top recommended apps and having millions of users. I see Lumosity as a substitute for Elevate, but yet they are not quite the same.
Both the claim and app structure are similar to Elevate. A personalized coach for your brain, that offers you 3 challenges a day with the free version. I do feel like Lumosity exercises are more challenging and fun, and definitely more addictive.
Now that I think about it, I did use Elevate for some time, so maybe I was just happy to see some new exercises!
As mentioned, the app offers a free version or a 14 day trial with a subscription. I recommend you give it a try if you’re looking for a brain stimulant.
I left out the NeuroNation because the free version is very limited, but they do claim it can change your life and there are lots of scientific logos on their website. Bold claims like that always make me suspicious, so maybe next time…
Next up, statistics apps.
4. Data Science 101
Data Science 101, as the name suggests, is an educational app that can help users learn about Data Science topics like machine learning and classification models.
It is mainly an app for beginners, but can be used by just about anyone who needs a high-quality resource to study the field and understand the inner workings of different ML algorithms such as regressions, K-Nearest Neighbours, Support Vector Networks (SVM), etc.
The best part about it is that not only it acts as a cheat sheet, but it also has some ready to use code snippets.
It is light and simple. Give it a go and see if it is useful to you!
5. Basic Statistics
We all need some basic statistics understanding if we are to survive in this data-driven era. Basic Statistics can help you refresh the concepts most of us forgot somewhere between high school and college.
Basic Statistics feels like if someone got the notes from the best students in our Statistics class and compiled them into a super simple app.
And I’m sure you know how handy those notes were when you were studying!
6. Probability Distributions
Probability Distributions is a nice complement to the previous app. Here you can plot and visualize various probability distributions on your mobile phone. To be honest, you might want to skip this one until you have some knowledge about statistics.
It is definitely not an app to keep by your side all the time, but it is a nice tool to have on your phone when you are at the pub arguing with your nerd friends about probabilities. Yes, nerds go to pubs too!
Next, let’s move on to Programming.
7. Programming Hub
Programming Hub is like the Holy Grail of coding apps. It has all sorts of programming languages in there, and it works really well. The languages it includes are HTML, Javascript, C, C++, C#, Swift, Python, R Programming, Java, CSS. They also have a collection with thousands of code examples that you can transpose to your computer.
This is not an in-depth review so I’ll keep it short. I like how interactive the experience is, and how fast the code is compiled. Of course, if you want the full experience you will need to pay a subscription, but you can still do a lot of things with the free version.
Developers need to eat too, right?
It may be a good way to start your coding journey if you are just testing what language to pick!
8. QPython
This article would not be complete without a dedicated Python resource! If you read any of my previous articles, you know I work mostly with Python for my projects. And unless you have been living under a rock for the last two or three years, you know that Python is simply one of the best all-purpose languages out there. Including for Data Science projects.
QPython has at least two versions, one for beginners and one for advanced users (with a few more technical features). The app names can be confusing at first, but use the QPython Ox if you are just starting. For more advanced users, use the QPython 3x app. But please read their description in the app stores so you are fully aware of what you are installing. They make it really clear what different app versions mean.
Unfortunately, I believe the app is only available to Android users, but its features consist of a Python interpreter and editor, runtime environment, QPYI and SL4A library. It is also compatible with Python 2.7.
This is not a short video but I found it really useful to start using the app. If you are interested in more advanced stuff, I recommend checking this channel because he has a lot of tutorials about it!
I know there is a huge boom of "Best X for Y" articles here on Medium, but I tried to keep this short and simple, just like the articles I preferred reading when I was starting.
If you just got into Data Science, I hope you find the links useful, and if you want to take it a step further, please check my other articles. I have published several projects like web scraping tutorials to grow an Instagram account, and to get flight prices from Kayak, just to name a couple.
Update:
I think it’s only fair to add Towards Data Science to this list! I read a lot articles in
Thank you for reading! As always, I welcome feedback and constructive criticism. If you’d like to get in touch, you can contact me here or simply reply to the article below.
