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homearama · 4 years

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10 Best Headsets for Xbox One Reviews in 2020

The US technology giant Microsoft likes to promote the Xbox One X, currently the most powerful console in its range that ordinary consumers can buy. But what use are razor-sharp textures and impressive multiplayer sessions if the whole story doesn’t hit the right note? For an immersive gaming experience, the harmonious sound is at least as important as the optical opulence.

As we all gamblers know, good headsets offer the best conditions to immerse yourself in the acoustics of a game. In order to save you from unnecessary bad purchases, we have selected the 10 best headsets for the Xbox and show you today which models will flatter your listeners the most. Have fun with our contribution!

Best Headsets for Xbox One Reviews – Buyers Guide [Bluetooth and Wireless]

Beyerdynamic MMX 300 Premium B06WGVJ9GY

The undisputed king among the best headsets for the Xbox One comes from Beyerdynamic and bears the name “MMX 300 Premium”. In order to avoid confusion from the outset, it should be mentioned at this point that we are explicitly referring to the headset model from the second generation. In view of the rather high price of around 250 to 300 €, one or the other of you should probably weigh twice whether you really want to buy this headset. From our side, however, we can give an unreserved purchase recommendation for the wired device. The advantages of the headset start with its high-quality workmanship: The over-ear earpieces come with a convincing foam padding that keeps any pressure away from your ears.

The decisive criterion, namely the sound , can simply be described as excellent . The individual sounds are reproduced powerfully and well-balanced. The fine sound mix even allows us to perceive marginal background noises in the game that we had not even noticed before. So we can not only lose ourselves wonderfully in the background noise of our game, but thanks to the coherent surround sound we also locate opponents in multiplayer games long before they waddle into our field of vision.

Speaking of multiplayer: all commands that you communicate to your fellow players via the microphone reach the recipient with excellent sound quality. It may be true that you have to invest a large amount of money for our test winner, but you will receive a 1a product that will heave you into sound spheres that you did not know before.

SteelSeries Arctis 3 B07G12Z1HR

For a purchase price of just under 100 $, the SteelSeries Arctis 3 is a bit cheaper than the model just presented. It doesn’t take long before the buyer realizes that this headset has been tailored exactly to the needs of Xbox gamers. The device can be connected to your Microsoft console in no time thanks to the integrated Xbox wireless connectivity. Just press a button and the wireless headset connects to the games box, just like a controller. The very long battery life of the SteelSeries Arctis 3 is particularly impressive. It takes almost 28 hours before the product’s battery needs to be charged. If you prefer to hear a pushing song while gaming than the in-game drivel, you can use the processed Bluetooth function to connect to another device during the gaming session. The well-sealed auricles hide unpleasant background noises, so that you can completely delight in the crystal-clear timbre of the headset . The quality of the microphone was also highly praised by the users. So if you’re looking for a headset that clearly focuses on Microsoft’s in-house console, you can’t go wrong with the SteelSeries Arctis 3!

HyperX HX-HSCA-RD Cloud Alpha B074NBSF9N

In the usual way we present you with the third place on our list at the same time as the winner in the “price-performance ratio” group. Anyone who is thinking of getting the HyperX HX-HSCA-RD Cloud Alpha should plan a budget of 85 to 100 $ for it. This makes the visually appealing headset one of the medium-priced models. But does this mean that the technical properties of the product do not go beyond mediocrity either? We can give the all-clear on this point.

Thanks to its high-quality auricles, the headset is not only extremely comfortable to wear , but also scores with a pleasantly robust workmanship. Of theThe sound is excellently balanced, but does not quite reach the broad sound spectrum of the Beyerdynamic MMX 300 Premium . Nevertheless, the integrated technology is completely sufficient to create immersive gaming acoustics.

Because the headset is connected to your controller via cable, you never run the risk of being surprised by the sudden loss of sound. In the same breath, this also means that your freedom of movement is minimally restricted. There are no compromises in terms of the microphone . Thanks to noise suppression, your voice reaches the ears of your fellow players in razor-sharp state at any time . By the way, you can not only use this model for your Xbox. If the corresponding device has an input for the headset’s jack plug, it also connects to the HyperX HX-HSCA-RD Cloud Alpha.

Razer Thresher Xbox One B07471GW41

The Razer Thresher for the Xbox One shines with its 50mm drivers , which, in combination with the surround sound created by Windows Sonic, ensure an impressive soundscape . However, we don’t want to ignore the fact that the sound spectrum is not quite as well balanced as with the first two devices on our list. This shortcoming is compensated for by the virtual surround sound, which allows us to precisely locate ambient noises within the corresponding game.

The product, which costs around 135 $, works entirely without connecting cords and is very easy to connect to your console. The battery life is around 16 hours before the headset slowly but surely runs out of juice. The optically simple housing of the headphones has been refined with a few discreet splashes of color, which blend elegantly into the external appearance of the headset. The well-made foam pads create a comfortable fit that lasts for many hours of play without your eavesdroppers feeling warm.

It’s important to mention that Razer offers its Thresher headset in several different models! So make sure when you buy that the addition “Xbox One” is included, otherwise it may be that the purchased product is not compatible with your Microsoft console.

Astro Gaming A50 B01G3WBCQY

The refreshed A50 lives up to the name Astro, and a lot more. With its futuristic design and 5.8 GHz wireless technology, this high-end headset delivers one of the best sounds in our entire collection. The A50 is equipped with Dolby Digital 7.1 surround sound, which offers an impressive soundscape regardless of the type of playback. To improve your gameplay even further, you can adjust the sound in three different EQ modes – so you can quickly boost the bass or treble while the unidirectional microphone isolates your voice from ambient noise.

The A50 also has all of the added benefits you would expect from a quality headset, including auto power off, hassle-free wireless connectivity and long battery life. But most importantly, the A50 makes games more engaging and fun. For the serious gamer, audiophile, or those who just love great sound, it’s a must-have – provided you are willing and able to spend the money. For Xbox gamers, Astro offers an Xbox One-specific version that includes a wireless adapter for the console to get the most out of the headset.

Sennheiser GSP 500 B07CK4J1SW

At first glance, the GSP 500, which costs around 130 $, shines with its adjustable headband, which allows you to adapt the headset to your individual head shape. This works really well over a certain period of time, but after an hour-long gaming session, a slight feeling of pressure can arise. The volume of the game can be easily adjusted by screwing on the built-in controller, which was attached directly to the device.

The sound quality is without a doubt in the top league. The sound spectrum is extremely clear and impresses with its profound balance . As with other models we have presented, the Sennheiser GSP 500 also knows how to shine with its immersive space. A plus point that ensures that you can immerse yourself even deeper in the game. Due to the open design of the product, however, it is possible that noises from the surroundings are not blocked out satisfactorily. If you gamble alone in your gaming room, this shouldn’t be a problem. On the other hand, if the loud tone is common in your household, this fact could prove to be annoying.

While this headset clearly outperforms cheaper competitors, it has to admit defeat to higher-priced models in some points.

Plantronics RIG 600 B01M636IJ9

In order not to burden your wallet too much, in the course of the seventh place we present you a model that is available for a final price of well under 100 $. In fact, the Plantronics headset doesn’t even cost 70 $, which is why the product should arouse the interest of bargain hunters in particular. But what can the buyer expect for such a narrow thaler?

Basically, the RIG 600 meets all the important criteria that a modern headset should master. The sound with its 40mm drivers turns out to be surprisingly full-bodied, especially the basses were able to please us with their intensity. However, there are some drawbacks in terms of noise suppression. Because the ear cups of the device are relatively small, your eavesdroppers are not completely shielded from your surroundings. Conversely, this means that loud background noises are unfortunately perceived very well. Good for those who can call a quiet room their own!

The microphone, on the other hand, does particularly well. Your own voice is conveyed to your fellow players in excellent quality . Here we would have only wished that the microphone could be aligned more flexibly. If your home environment offers the right circumstances, with the Plantronics RIG 600 you get a rock-solid headset for a more than fair price.

Beexcellent Gaming Headset B07GGCM89X

While we have just arrived in the low-budget segment, we will continue with a model that is very difficult to undercut in terms of price. Because the Beexcellent Gaming Headset doesn’t even cost you € 25. Instead of exercising discreet restraint, the manufacturer chose the approach of equipping its device with opulent LED lighting. This may certainly be a matter of taste, but the bluish lights offer a successful visual change from the often too simple models of the competition. With a headset, of course, it’s not primarily about the external values. We can say one thing straight away: Despite its rather bulky construction, the Beexcellent gaming headset feels pleasantly comfortable .

The quality of the sound should also meet the expectations of most gamers satisfactorily . The same applies to the microphone, which enables communication with online friends without major losses. However, if we take a closer look at the sounds reproduced, we cannot avoid noting that the sound spectrum is not particularly broad. These deficits are particularly noticeable in the mids and highs.

In view of the very low price, however, we would like to hold back a bit with our grumbling tirades. The bottom line is that the Beexcellent Gaming Headset fulfills its purpose and is therefore an excellent entry-level model for a particularly small budget.

Razer Kraken Tournament Edition B07G5FQMJ8

Thanks to THX Spatial Audio, the Razer Kraken Tournament Edition takes its users into a whole new sphere of Dolby Surround experiences. The 50mm drivers, which, according to the manufacturer, cover a particularly wide range of sounds , also fit . A cooling gel is used inside the ear cups. This significantly reduces the development of heat, so that the player can literally keep a cool head.

The common 3.5mm jack plug turns the Razer Kraken Tournament Edition into a multi-platform headset that can be connected to all current consoles. In terms of acoustic fine adjustment, the headset shines with its individual adjustment options. This also applies to the microphone, which can be easily retracted and extended. If you are considering buying the Razer Kraken Tournament Edition, you should expect it to cost anywhere from 80 to 90 $.

Creative Sound BlasterX H5 Tournament Edition B01L1JXI0M

With regard to the optical components, the manufacturer chose a rather cautious approach. Thanks to the coherent foam padding, your ears are embedded in soft ear cups that completely enclose your listeners. Thanks to this isolation, you are protected from annoying background noises from your home environment.

The sound of this model is particularly powerful and delivers a solid, well-balanced sound experience . While the Creative Sound BlasterX H5 Tournament Edition is convincing in terms of “sound”, the headset’s microphone has a few weaknesses. Although we can be consistently understood by our fellow players, the sound of our voice is at most sufficient. Here the focus of the makers was clearly on those tones that are transported through the ear cups into the gamer’s ear canal. However, if you mainly gamble in single player mode, we can warmly recommend you tenth place on our list today.

source https://homearama.tv/best-headsets-for-xbox-one-reviews/

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juliandmouton30 · 7 years

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RIBA Stirling Prize 2017 shortlist announced

A studio for photographer Juergen Teller, a new wing at the British Museum and a revived seaside pier are among the projects shortlisted for this year's Stirling Prize.

The Royal Institute of British Architects has revealed six projects vying for the 2017 edition of the RIBA Stirling Prize, which is awarded annually to the building that is judged to have made the greatest contribution to British architecture in the past year.

These six are: Barrett's Grove by Groupwork and Amin Taha; British Museum World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners; Command of the Oceans by Baynes and Mitchell Architects; City of Glasgow College City Campus by Reiach & Hall Architects and Michael Laird Architects, Hastings Pier by dRMM Architects; and Photography Studio for Juergen Teller by 6a Architects.

Half of the buildings on the shortlist are tourist attractions. The other three include a research facility, a housing block and a private workspace.

RIBA president Jane Duncan described them as "spaces and places of pure beauty, surprise and delight".

"This year's shortlisted schemes show exceptionally creative, beautifully considered and carefully detailed buildings that have made every single penny count," she said.

"Commissioned at the end of the recession, they are an accolade to a creative profession at the top of its game. Each of these outstanding projects has transformed their local area and delights those who are lucky enough to visit, live, study or work in them."

RIBA reveals the best of British architecture for 2017

Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners has already won the prize twice before, first for its Barajas Airport in 2006, then for its Maggie's Centre London in 2009. Reiach & Hall Architects, Michael Laird Architects and dRMM have all been shortlisted before, but never won.

The list was selected from the 49 winners of the RIBA's national awards, which were revealed last month.

A panel of judges will now visit all six projects before selecting a winner. This will be announced on Tuesday 31 October 2017, in a ceremony at the Roundhouse in Camden, London.

Last year the prize went to Caruso St John for the "highly accomplished and expertly detailed" London gallery it designed for British artist Damien Hirst.

Read on for judges' citations for all six shortlisted projects:

Barrett's Grove, Stoke Newington, London, by Groupwork and Amin Taha

"Barrett's Grove is a characterful building in a disjointed urban street. Its adjacency to a primary school is a fitting location for a house built with the fairy-tale materials of brick, wood and straw. Inside, the building holds a series of generously proportioned, well-lit apartments; each with a wicker basket balcony that sticks out proud and far, like a salute to passers-by.

"The staggered hit-and-miss brick skin of the façade makes a larger-than-usual pattern, which fits the tallness of the overall building. Wrapping the skin up and over the roof, emphasizes the simplicity of the building's form.

"Inside, the feeling is of a large house split into many homes; a refreshing change from the cheap finishes and convoluted corridors of many apartment blocks.

"The apartments are double aspect and each room is a good proportion. Space is used wisely and left over space is exploited, for example a strip of workspace overlooks the living room in the top maisonette making a small strip of space a delight to inhabit."

Find out more about Barrett's Grove ›

The British Museum World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre, London, by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners

"The WCEC building is located on the north-west corner of the British Museum site in Bloomsbury. It consists of five vertically linked pavilions (one of which is located entirely underground), and houses a new exhibition gallery, laboratories and conservation studios, storage, and facilities to support the Museum' logistical requirements and loans programme.

"This building is the realisation of an extremely complicated brief in terms of spatial challenges, technical requirements, and engineering technologies. Its achievement derives from the elegant and simple way these challenges are met, while maintaining a clear and coherent diagram and a refined and rational building enclosure.

"The spaces provided for exhibition allow objects of a size and height which would not be possible to exhibit elsewhere in the museum. Objects can be delivered at street level in lorries which are then taken to lower floors by a platform lift that sinks into the ground without disturbing the landscape.

"The jury felt that the substantial accommodation for curation activities, with demanding constraints on direct light, thermal control and pest prevention, are seamlessly threaded into the overriding diagram and structure, with an admirable rigour and clarity.

"Grander public spaces are accommodated in the main museum, while the new extension provides simple circulation through glass lifts, bridges and glazed lobbies, making the journey through the building clean and enjoyable.

"A system of fritted glazed horizontal panels allow controlled light into the building while insuring protection for the exhibits either on display or within the workshops. This allows curation of precious artefacts to occur in an environment that maintains access to natural light.

"The jury appreciated the way the architects had overcome planning and heritage concerns in relation to the building for new offices which are sunk below ground but grouped around an attractive glass-roofed central space.

"Generally the jury admired the skill and control the architects had demonstrated in realising the client's enormously complicated and demanding brief while maintaining a rigorous and disciplined plan and an elegant external cladding system."

Find out more about World Conservation and Exhibitions Centre ›

Command of the Oceans, Chatham, Kent, by Baynes and Mitchell Architects

"This project is a champion for progressive conservation, inventive re-use and adaptation of existing fabric. The importance of the historic fabric has been clearly understood, which has allowed freedom in other areas to change the circulation and the reading of the buildings to give the whole complex of buildings a new lease of life.

"The striking new visitor entrance, clad in black zinc, knits together the historic fabric to either side. The decision to use black cladding rather than a white structure which would match existing, and the decision not to mimic the pitch of the existing roofs, was a bold move in conservation terms and very successful. The modest entrance is immediately obvious to the visitor on arrival in the large car park, which sits above the old mast pond; and yet in certain lights it seems to disappear and becomes very much subservient to the adjacent listed structures. This inventive solution to create a raised entrance with associated ramp won Baynes and Mitchell the architectural competition, and unlocks the whole plan.

"The cathedral-like quality of the entrance hall, with its focus on the end view over the dockyard, is very successful. The museum element of the scheme which tells the history of the dockyard is designed around a route which ultimately leads to the hidden timbers of the unknown ship beneath the floorboards. This sense of discovery and the decision to leave the timbers in situ is a very powerful move.

"The project is academically rigorous in terms of repairs, reversibility and selection of new materials and is a delightful new addition to the historic dockyard. The project exhibits careful and critical use of appropriate repairs. Successful engagement with specialist craftsmen and sensitive repairs, such as the scarfing of the main timbers in the mast house, adds to the beauty of the refurbished spaces.

"Internally, the existing buildings were assessed in terms of their significance and this informed the hierarchy and extent of the new interventions. Baynes and Mitchell have also fully engaged with the impact of the proposals in terms of the archaeology of the site and an appropriate means of responding to the concept of 'as found' presentation.

"The palette of black metal, blue limestone, board-marked concrete and composite timber has been carefully chosen in response to the strong, industrial language of the historic buildings and landscape.

"This project has benefited greatly from an enlightened client who is committed to making the story of the dockyard accessible to the visitor. This deep understanding of the historical significance of this group of buildings has been fully understood by the architect and interpreted in a way to reveal significant features of the historic landscape. This is a Heritage Lottery Funded project and Historic England was closely involved in a very collaborative way."

City of Glasgow College City Campus, Glasgow, by Reiach & Hall Architects and Michael Laird Architects

"The merger of Glasgow's central, metropolitan and nautical colleges created a super college bringing together facilities and teaching previously housed in 11 separate buildings across the city within two new central campuses. City Campus, more than 60,000m2 in size, is the second of these large new buildings. It brings together six major faculties in 300 high-tech classrooms, multi-purpose lecture theatres and specialist teaching facilities.

"While the initial impression of this building is as something of immense scale which also signals its presence as an important place of learning, its internal spaces are designed to encourage both the formal teaching processes which it contains and informal, more chance encounters. The materials palette and form of the building are deliberately restrained to generate something of skill, clarity and elegance, on the grandest scale.

"There is an astonishing scale and complexity to the brief for this project and considerable architectural skill is demonstrated in its realisation; not just in resolving the brief, but in the contribution to the city – in massing, composition and the generosity of the public route through the grand stepped atrium space. This architectural skill extends beyond the cityscape through to the detailed care taken in the organisation of student spaces, encouraging social interaction across disciplines, to the considered approach to materials and detailing."

Hastings Pier, East Sussex, by dRMM Architects

"It has taken a seven-year heroic collaboration to turn a smouldering pier in disrepair and decline into a vibrant public space with a palpable sense of ownership. This collaboration has been between the community, the Council, the engineers and the architect and it is the architect's vision which has been vital throughout to steer the process. After extensive stakeholder consultation, it was clear to dRMM that the pier would be expected to host many different populist scenarios.

"Predictably enough, it transpired that it had to be everything to everybody, with an absent owner not responding to the increasingly Dangerous Structure repair requirements, and no rebuild budget available in a run-down seaside town. Lateral thinking was required to make a structurally and socially sustainable project actually happen. The architects had to write the brief and help raise the budget before redesigning the pier.

"Their 'master-move' and response to this brief was to design a strong, community led/owned serviced platform which could accommodate a whole host of uses, from music concerts, to international markets. 'In homage to conceptualist Cedric Price, users bring their own architecture to plug in and play.' This concept is really working in practice and should be commended.

"The decision not to place any building at the end of the pier, which is possibly the obvious position to site a building, is an extremely powerful move. The large open space provides a sense of calmness and delight, with a strong connection to the sea and the seafront. The experience of free space and 'walking on water' is heightened by the optics of a very beautiful, louvred balustrade design and quality timber deck.

"The new visitor centre replacing the weakest section of the damaged pier is a relatively simple CLT structure clad in reclaimed timber which was salvaged from the original fire-damaged pier. This helps to create a strong feeling of place and belonging. It boosts an elevated, rooftop belvedere where locals go for a coffee or cup of soup. It offers adaptable space for events, exhibitions and education. Reclaimed timber deck furniture was designed by dRMM and Hastings & Bexhill Wood Recycling as part of a local employment initiative.

"The new pier is not a lonely pier: rather, it is extremely welcoming in its design, with free, open entry to the public. It offers flexibility, material and functional sustainability, and an uninterrupted vista of the natural and built surroundings. This is a Heritage Lottery Funded project and it has become a catalyst for urban regeneration.

"From a conservation perspective, this project has reinvigorated a fire-damaged historic structure and facilitated a contemporary and appropriate new 21st century use. The project has been mindful to integrate material from the original pier in the new design, and the process of restoration was used to help train a new generation of craft specialists."

Photography Studio for Juergen Teller, London, by 6a Architects

"The project comprises a series of three buildings and gardens to form a new studio, offices and archive for celebrated photographer Juergen Teller. The brief was for a light-filled, flexible, informal and welcoming set of spaces; with a natural flow and sociability.

"The project expertly exploits a typically London condition. Constrained by a long and narrow industrial plot at the rougher edge of Ladbroke Grove; its only face nestles between cheap developer housing, an industrial estate and the hinterland of the Westway.

"With few views possible out of the linear site, daylight is introduced through three courtyard gardens designed by Dan Pearson, and a grid of exquisitely thin concrete beams which march the length of the 60m site. These support north facing roof lights which fill the space with an extraordinary filtered light.

"Board-marked poured concrete registers the rhythm of the existing brick built party walls. Two raked concrete stairs brace the studio space, the only interruptions in an open landscape, which runs the length of the site.

"Detailing throughout is exquisite; from the in-situ concrete of the finely formed stairs, to the seamless brass balustrades. Large but delicately beaded timber window frames, add refinement to an otherwise minimal material palette. The building is an exemplar of fabric first and low energy design. The integration of services is expertly handled.

"The project is a mature and confident statement of orderliness and precision, whilst also being relaxed and playful. It forms a refined, yet flexible workplace, which is already beginning to act as a setting to prompt and influence on the work of its client.

"The building is sublime and the whole team should be highly commended."

Find out more about Photography Studio for Juergen Teller ›

The post RIBA Stirling Prize 2017 shortlist announced appeared first on Dezeen.

from ifttt-furniture https://www.dezeen.com/2017/07/20/riba-stirling-prize-2017-shortlist-announced-british-museum-rogers-stirk-harbour-juergen-teller-6a-architects/

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jamescrowad · 7 years

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5 Easy Ways to Get the Most Value from Data Science

In late 2016, Kalyan Veeramachaneni, an MIT researcher on Big Data and AI, highlighted some of the flaws of using data science to drive business growth. The conclusion of his study was that data analysts tend to view their jobs as an intellectual challenge. They are therefore disconnected from the economic questions they should strive to answer. Let’s find out the other reasons behind less than stellar results for companies that spend big money on big data without getting proportional returns on their investments.

Data Science Is a Tool, Not an End Goal

The first and most important aspect any organization needs to grasp is that data science is not a miracle cure for your company’s underlying problems, just a gauge.

Data science has a reputation for having saved some organizations thousands of dollars and for rocketing start-ups to worldwide recognition. But that only happens when it helps answer some well defined questions.

Hiring the best data scientists without giving them direction is akin to acquiring a fancy sports car without having a driver’s license.

RELATED ARTICLE: SMALL BUSINESS BUDGETS: HOW TO SAVE BIG BUCKS ON THE BEST TECHNOLOGY

Define Your Business Strategy

Answers are usually no better than the questions asked. Therefore, data science should be part of a coherent business strategy.

Top management should define the company’s issues they hope to find solutions for by using big data. Furthermore, the variables should be chosen not by the scientists, but by those with knowledge of the processes.

A data science project needs to have clearly defined goals, metrics, and milestones. This should be no different from opening a new branch or buying new equipment.

You will need to assess opportunity costs, decide why are you making such an investment and how soon you expect to see results. Have smart goals for your big data project and instruct the data scientists about those goals from day one.

Especially for start-ups, it can be smart to hire a data science company to conduct the project instead of creating a new department. In this case, it is even more imperative to know what to ask for in terms of your expected results and business goals.

Since most data science projects are in the experimental stage, they lack explicit control. The positive aspect of this is that data scientists have opportunities to try and develop a wide array of models. However, the downside is that without a minimal viable product (MVP) requirement, their work can become too academic and lack real-world applications. A possible solution includes using an agile approach with weekly and monthly progress reports related to the initial goal.

Sidestep Common Communication Breakdowns

Data scientists and analysts usually come from an academic background. They’re focused on mathematics, statistics and science. Managers, on the other hand, are involved in the economic aspects of the business. They want to know how to deal with clients, save costs and avoid legal problems.

Misunderstandings and other communication difficulties can result in a lack of trust between the two groups.

A possible solution to this problem is to create cross-functional teams. The first rule is that the teams should establish a common language with clearly defined terms.

Additionally, invest in helping the data scientists develop some business acumen.

Another solution involves appointing, as head of the data analysis team, a leader who makes the two worlds come together. This person needs to have relevant experience both as a business consultant and as a data scientist.

Imperfect Management Is Perfect

It is not the most beautiful or interesting model that matters, but the one that solves the problems with the fewest resources.

Data scientists are highly intelligent individuals who are not all that interested in climbing the hierarchical ladder. However, models they can refine into thought diamonds fascinate them.

Tap into their natural inclination to solve problems by defining the struggle for them and letting them solve it by whatever means they come up with. Resist the temptation to micro-manage them. Design opportunities to make data scientists feel valued. Reward their innovative ways with industry-recognized competitions and award galas.

Make them care about the projects they are working on by taking them out of the lab and getting them on site if possible. By looking at the phenomenon unfolding in front of them, they will become more receptive. They will likely even identify interactions or ask for new sets of data that are more appropriate for the job.

Understand That Less Is More

Analysts should focus on speed and pick big data’s low-hanging fruit. You want them to develop simpler models, test those models against diverse data sets and pick only the most relevant sets.

However, this approach requires combing through enormous quantities of data and readying that data to be used in algorithms. This work, although necessary, is not all that enjoyable or intellectually stimulating. Therefore, it is a perfect candidate for automation.

Keep in mind that the models don’t have to be perfect. They just need to be good enough to predict what they are built to predict. They also need to have a simple interface that non-technical staff, such as sales agents or shipment personnel, can easily use.

Final Thoughts

In the absence of clear management directives, human nature will take over, and data scientists will focus on what they’re good at. They will create and calibrate models. This value-added activity is important, but it should represent only about 10% of the entire work.

The teams should direct half of their efforts at interpreting the results and creating actionable insights. The rest of the project involves the hard work of selecting, preparing and cleaning the data.

Successful companies are helping their data scientist see beyond the numbers. And they’re helping members from other departments make sense of data science’s results.

The post 5 Easy Ways to Get the Most Value from Data Science appeared first on Business Opportunities.

from http://www.business-opportunities.biz/2017/06/28/data-science-value/

from Kristina Storey's Blog - Home http://kristinastorey.weebly.com/home/5-easy-ways-to-get-the-most-value-from-data-science

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kristinastorey27 · 7 years

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5 Easy Ways to Get the Most Value from Data Science

Data Science Is a Tool, Not an End Goal

The first and most important aspect any organization needs to grasp is that data science is not a miracle cure for your company’s underlying problems, just a gauge.

Hiring the best data scientists without giving them direction is akin to acquiring a fancy sports car without having a driver’s license.

RELATED ARTICLE: SMALL BUSINESS BUDGETS: HOW TO SAVE BIG BUCKS ON THE BEST TECHNOLOGY

Define Your Business Strategy

Answers are usually no better than the questions asked. Therefore, data science should be part of a coherent business strategy.

A data science project needs to have clearly defined goals, metrics, and milestones. This should be no different from opening a new branch or buying new equipment.

Sidestep Common Communication Breakdowns

Misunderstandings and other communication difficulties can result in a lack of trust between the two groups.

A possible solution to this problem is to create cross-functional teams. The first rule is that the teams should establish a common language with clearly defined terms.

Additionally, invest in helping the data scientists develop some business acumen.

youtube

Imperfect Management Is Perfect

It is not the most beautiful or interesting model that matters, but the one that solves the problems with the fewest resources.

Data scientists are highly intelligent individuals who are not all that interested in climbing the hierarchical ladder. However, models they can refine into thought diamonds fascinate them.

Understand That Less Is More

Analysts should focus on speed and pick big data’s low-hanging fruit. You want them to develop simpler models, test those models against diverse data sets and pick only the most relevant sets.

Final Thoughts

Successful companies are helping their data scientist see beyond the numbers. And they’re helping members from other departments make sense of data science’s results.

The post 5 Easy Ways to Get the Most Value from Data Science appeared first on Business Opportunities.

from Business Opportunities http://www.business-opportunities.biz/2017/06/28/data-science-value/

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naivelocus · 7 years

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17 years of systems biology

I know that 17 years is not a very round number. It is also fairly arbitrary as I am assuming systems biology started around 2000 (see below). I was last week in Portugal, where every year for the past 8 years I have been teaching a week long course on Systems and Synthetic Biology to the GABBA PhD program. This might be the last year I take part in this course and so I felt it would be a good time to try to put some thoughts in a blog post. This course has been jointly co-organised from the beginning with Silvia Santos and we had several guests throughout the years including Mol Sys Bio editors Thomas Lemberger and Maria Polychronidou and other PIs: Julio Saez-Rodriguez, Andre Brown,Hyun Youk and Paulo Aguiar. Some of what I write below has been certainly influenced by discussions with them. This is not meant as an extensive review so apologies in advance for missing references.

Where did systems biology come from?

It is not contentious to say that systems biology came about in response to the ever narrower view of reductionist approaches in biology. Reductionism is still extremely important and I assume that, as a movement, it was an opposition to the idea that biology was animated by some magical force that could never be comprehended. Since the beginning of the course we have asked students to read the assay “Can a biologist fix a radio?” by Yuri Lazebnik (2002). The article captures well the limitations of reductionist research. The more we know about a system, apoptosis in Yuri's case, the more complex and non-intuitive some observations may seem. Yuri's description of how a biologist would try to understand how a radio works is comical and still very apt today:

We would “remove components one at a time or to use a variation of the method, in which a radio is shot at a close range with metal particles. In the latter case radios that malfunction (have a “phenotype”) are selected to identify the component whose damage causes the phenotype. Although removing some components will have only an attenuating effect, a lucky postdoc will accidentally find a wire whose deficiency will stop the music completely. The jubilant fellow will name the wire Serendipitously Recovered Component (Src) and then find that Src is required because it is the only link between a long extendable object and the rest of the radio.”

One of the driving forces for the advent of systems biology was this limitation, so brilliantly captured by Yuri, that reductionism can fail when we are overwhelmed with large systems of interconnected components.

Around the time that Yuri wrote this article our capacity to make measurements of biological objects was undergoing a revolution we generally call omics today. In 2001 the first drafts of the human genome were published (Lander et al. 2001; Venter et al. 2001). Between 2000 and 2002 we had the first descriptions of large scale protein-protein (Uetz et al. 2000; Ito et al. 2001; Gavin et al. 2002) and genetic interactions mapping (Tong et al. 2001). The capacity to systematically measure all aspects of biology appeared to be within our grasp. The interaction network representation of nodes connected by edges is now an icon in biology, even if not as recognisable as the double helix. This ever increasing capacity to systematically measure biology was, alongside the complexity of highly connected components, the second major driving force for the advent of systems biology.

What is systems biology?

So around 2000 biology was faced with this upcoming flood of data and highly complex nonlinear systems. Reductionism was failing because mental models were insufficient to cope with the information available. The reaction was a call for increased formalism, better ways to see how the sum of the parts really works. Perspectives were written (Kitano 2002) and institutes were born (Institute for SystemsBiology). Within the apparent complexity of biology there might be emergent principles that we were not seeing simply because we were looking too narrowly and could not combine information in a formal way. Whatever the system of interest (e.g. proteins, cells, organisms, ecosystems) there must ways to take information from one level of abstraction (e.g. proteins) and understand the relevant system's features of the abstraction layer about it (e.g. cell behaviours). This comes closest to a definition of systems biology put forward by Tony Hyman (Hyman 2011) but many others have defined it in vaguely similar ways, or maybe in similarly vague ways.

Power laws and the perils of searching for universal principles

When introducing systems biology I have been giving two examples of work that illustrate some of the benefits (network motifs) but also some of the perils (power law networks) of trying to find universal principles in biology. One of these examples was the research on the organisation of biological networks. As soon as different networks were starting to be assembled, such as protein-protein, genetic and metabolic networks, an observation was made that the distribution of interactions per gene/protein is not random (as studied by Paul Erdös). Most proteins have very few interactions while some rare proteins have a disproportional large amount of interactions – dubbed “hubs”. Barabasi and many others had a series of papers describing these non-random distributions, called power-law networks (Jeong et al. 2000), in all sorts of biological networks. Analogies were drawn to other non-biological networks with similar properties and it is not an understatement to say that there was some hype around this. The hope was that by thinking of the common processes that can give rise to such networks (e.g. preferential attachment) we would know, in some deep way, how biology is organised. I will just say that I don’t think this went very far. Modelling biological networks as nodes and edges allowed the application of graph theory approaches to biology, which has indeed been a very useful inheritance from this work. However, we didn't find deep meaning in the analogies drawn between the different biological and man-made networks, although I am sure some will disagree.

Network motifs, buzzers and blinkers

Around the same time, the group of Uri Alon published very influential work describing recurring network motifs in directed networks (Milo et al. 2002; Shen-Orr et al. 2002). For example, in the E. coli transcriptional network they found some regulatory relationships between 3 different genes/operons that occurred more often than expected by chance. One example, illustrated to the right, was named a coherent feedforward loop where an activating signal was sent from an “upstream” element X to a “downstream” element Z both directly and indirectly via an intermediate third element. The observation begs the question of the usefulness of such an arrangement (Mangan and Alon 2003; Kalir et al. 2005). This has been generalised to studying the relation between any set of such directed interactions with specific reaction parameters – defined as the topology - and their potential functions. In a great review Tyson, Chen and Novak summarise some of these ideas of how regulatory networks can act, among other things as “sniffers, buzzers, toggles and blinkers” (Tyson et al. 2003).

These and other similar works showed that, within the complexity of regulatory networks, design principles can be found that encapsulate the core relationships giving rise to a behaviour. Once these rules are known, an observed behaviour will constrain the possible space of topologies that can explain it. This has led researchers to search for missing regulatory interactions that are needed to satisfy such expected constraints. For example, Holt and colleagues searched for a positive feedback that would be expected to exist for the switch-like dissolution of the sister-chromatid cohesion at the start of anaphase (Holt et al. 2008). This mapping between regulatory networks and their function can be applied to any system of interest and at any scale. The same types of regulatory interactions are used for termites building spatially organised mounds and for growing neurons seeking to form connections (as illustrated in a review by Dehmelt and Bastiaens). Different communities of scientists can come together in systems biology meetings and talk in the same language of design principles. This elegance of finding “universal” rules that seemingly explain complex behaviours across different systems and disciplines has been a great gift of systems biology. It is of course important to point out that such ideas have a much longer history from homoeostasis in biology and control theory in engineering.

Bottom-up network models

Alongside the search for design principles in regulatory interactions the formal mathematical and computational modelling of biological systems gained prominence (e.g. Bhalla and Iyengar 1999). Mathematical models are much older than systems biology but they started to be used more extensively and visibly with the rise of systems biology. Formalising all of the past knowledge of a system was shown to be a useful way to test if what is known was sufficient to explain the behaviour of the system. Models were also perturbed in silico to find the most relevant parameters and generate novel hypothesis to be tested experimentally. This model refinement cycle has been used with success for example in the modelling of cell cycle (Novak and Tyson 1993, Tyson Noval 2001; among many others) or circadian clock (Locke et al. 2005; Locke et al. 2010; Pokhilko et al. 2012). However, this iteration between formal modelling and experiments has not really taken off across many other systems. The reason for the lack of excitement is not clear to me although I have the impression that often the models are not used extensively beyond asking if what we know about a system sufficiently explains all of observed outcomes and perturbations.

Top-down systems biology and everything in between

From the start, there has been a division between the researchers that identified themselves as part of the systems biology community. Bottom-up researchers have been focused on the formal modelling of systems, the discovery of design principles and emerging behaviours. Top-down researchers would argue that a truly comprehensive view of a system is needed. These scientists have been more focused on further developing and applying methods to systematically measure biological systems. The emphasis in this camp has been on developing generalizable strategies that can take large-scale observations and identify rules, regardless of the system of interest. I would say that these works, my own included, have been less powerful in identifying elegant universal rules. By this I mean, for example, those initial attempts to find common principles across biological and man-made networks. Instead of principles, what have been readily transposed across systems have been approaches such as machine learning methods. Drug screens with behavioural phenotypes, genetic interaction networks or developmental defect screens with gene knock-downs can all be analysed in the same ways. Such systematic studies have driven costs down (per observation) and contrary to “representative” experiments in small scale studies, the large-scale measurements tend to be properly benchmarked for accuracy and coverage.

What is still missing are ways to bridge the divide between these two camps. Ways to start from large-scale measurements that result in models that can be studied for design features. Studies that include perturbation experiments come closer to achieve this. Examples for network reconstruction methods have shown that it should be possible to achieve this but we are not quite there yet (Hill et al. 2016).

From systems biology to systems everything

As scientific movement systems biology started in cell biology, as far as I can tell, but has since then permeated many other areas of research. As examples, I have heard of systems genetics, systems neuroscience, systems medicine, evolutionary systems biology and systems structural biology. In 2017 we still face a flood of data and highly complex nonlinear systems. However, the reductionist approaches now typically go hand-in-hand with attempts to formalise knowledge in quantitative ways to identify the key relationships that explain the function of interest. In a sense, the movement of systems biology has succeeded to such an extent that it seems less exciting to me as field in itself. It is a fantastic approach that is currently being used across most of biology but there is less developments that alter how we do science. I am curious as to what other researchers that identify themselves with doing systems biology think - What have been great achievements of systems biology? What are the great challenges that are not simply applications of systems biology? Questions to think about for the (equally arbitrary) celebration of the 20 years of the field in 2020.

— Evolution of Cellular Networks

#Evolution of Cellular Networks #17 years of systems biology

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