CISSE Advanced Level
Big Data Analytics glossary
Every term this guide defines, A to Z, each with the chapter that teaches it. Open it when a word in a question is unfamiliar, and test yourself on it in the last week: cover the definition and say it in one sentence.
8 terms from the free first chapter
A
- Artificial intelligence (AI)
The broad field of building systems that perform tasks normally requiring human intelligence, reasoning, perception, decision-making.
Taught in Introduction to big data analytics
D
- Deep learning
A further subfield of machine learning using artificial neural networks with many layers, developed in full in the chapter on deep learning.
Taught in Introduction to big data analytics
M
- Machine learning (ML)
A subfield of AI: systems that improve their performance on a task by learning patterns from data, rather than being explicitly programmed with fixed rules, the subject of the machine learning chapters.
Taught in Introduction to big data analytics
V
- Value
The whole point of the exercise: data has no worth until analysis turns it into a decision or insight, the value this entire paper's techniques exist to extract.
Taught in Introduction to big data analytics
- Variety
Data arrives in many forms at once, structured (tables), semi-structured (JSON, logs) and unstructured (text, images, video).
Taught in Introduction to big data analytics
- Velocity
The speed at which new data is generated and must be processed, often in near real time (a stream of sensor readings, social media posts).
Taught in Introduction to big data analytics
- Veracity
The trustworthiness and quality of the data, since big data is frequently noisy, incomplete or inconsistent (developed in full in the chapter on exploring datasets).
Taught in Introduction to big data analytics
- Volume
The sheer scale of data generated and stored, often too large for a single machine's memory or a traditional relational database to process efficiently.
Taught in Introduction to big data analytics
The full glossary adds every term from the other 13 chapters, A to Z, each with the chapter that teaches it.