How Can Computer Science Help With Business: How can computer science help your business? If you’re not entirely sure, the answer may surprise you. In fact, the intersection of computer science and business goes far beyond just technical needs.
How Can Computer Science Help With Business?
It also includes some of the most fundamental aspects of how business works. What’s more, if you’re already in business, you may already be benefitting from this integration without even realizing it! Take a look at how your computer science skills can help boost your business in these areas
The Importance of Computer Science
While computer science has been taught in high schools for decades, it’s only become an increasingly relevant part of modern business over time. Today, most offices run on software and rely on computers to function. In fact, one survey found that approximately 91% of all companies have their own computer network. Of course, all businesses don’t necessarily need a full IT department and tech staff to design their websites and systems from scratch; but more.
And more companies are starting to hire freelancers or contract workers who specialize in coding to do some of their IT work for them. So how can computer science help with business? Here are just a few ways. First, your company will be able to build better software and websites—which is good news if you want customers to stay on your site longer or use your app. For example, Google uses search algorithms called PageRank and Pagerank 2.0 to rank web pages in its search results.
These algorithms look at things like popularity (i.e., number of links) as well as keywords so that users can find what they’re looking for quickly and easily. The beauty of Google’s algorithms is that they constantly learn about user behavior—if users click on certain results over others (or go straight back to Google), those pages will eventually rise higher in search rankings than others without clicks or traffic history behind them.
Programming Is a Tricky Skill
Using your computer is easier than ever with touch interfaces, voice-activated assistants, and augmented reality. However, learning how to code still involves lots of abstract thinking—and that can be tricky for business students. Learning even a simple language takes dedication and practice, so jumping right into Java or Python isn’t always an option for business students.
Luckily, there are plenty of introductory courses available online that don’t require a full commitment: Codecademy teaches multiple programming languages via interactive games and lessons from experts; Coursera offers MOOCs from top schools on topics ranging from programming fundamentals to real-world use cases like artificial intelligence.
And Udacity has both free and paid courses in popular languages like Java and JavaScript. Each one has its own perks and drawbacks, but all offer bite-sized introductions to programming skills you can add to your resume.
Get Started with Microcontrollers
Whether it’s for automation, prototyping or just a fun project, there are several good reasons to get started with microcontrollers. They’re inexpensive, small and easy to program, especially if you already have some familiarity with programming languages like Python or C++. Plus they offer an inexpensive way to collect sensor data that can be visualized in a web app.
So whether you want to automate your home appliances or create your own Internet of Things (IoT) device, we’ve got you covered on everything from Micro: bit, Spark Core, and Arduino boards to Mongoose OS, Node-RED, and JavaScript frameworks that can help you build projects at any level. You don’t need a degree in computer science to work with these technologies—but having one certainly doesn’t hurt.
In fact, many software developers are switching over to hardware development because it gives them a whole new set of skills to apply toward IoT projects. If you’re interested in learning more about how computer science can impact business, check out our Coding For Entrepreneurs section.
There’s even more information available through our Introduction To Computer Science section. Also, see A Few Words On Programming Languages for more information on which language is best suited for different types of applications.
Learn What Machine Learning Means
There are so many different types of machine learning out there, with more and more popping up every day. Some focus on natural language processing while others are great at facial recognition. Before diving into a computer science-related business, it’s important to first understand what machine learning means. The truth is that machine learning has become so ubiquitous that you probably use it without even realizing it—it’s even in your Gmail!
For example, face detection is an AI technology commonly used by Google for its Photo Search. If you want to know how to start a business using computer science, it all starts with understanding what machine learning really means and how you can use it for your business benefit. To learn more about machine learning, check out our previous post: Machine Learning.
A Guide to Your Future More Ideas About How To Start A Business Using Computer Science: If you’re interested in exploring ways to incorporate artificial intelligence (AI) into your business model, check out our guide on deep learning. Also, consider leveraging these helpful APIs.
Finally, take a look at these five articles about what top tech companies like Facebook and Microsoft are doing with AI. You might also be interested in exploring some real-world examples of businesses that have incorporated AI into their workflows. This video highlights 10 companies that have done just that!
Code in Python
Python is a general-purpose programming language that is great for data science. There are a variety of libraries for doing statistics, linear algebra, signal processing, natural language processing, machine learning, and more in Python. Check out SciPy’s tutorials to get started with any of these fields. You can also use Python to create visualizations or scrape web pages if you want to do some quick projects at home.
And once you’re ready to enter the workforce, knowing how to code will set you apart from other candidates as it’s one of very few in-demand skills that can be learned on your own time. There are plenty of free resources online if you want to learn Python; check out PyData’s tutorial videos and start coding today. Or consider taking an online course like Udacity’s Intro to Computer Science.
If you’re feeling really ambitious, sign up for Hack Reactor—the largest coding Bootcamp in San Francisco—and take their 12-week full-stack developer program where students get hands-on experience building real applications using HTML5, CSS3, Javascript, Ruby on Rails, and Node.js. Plus they have a strong job placement rate!
How to Use Analytics as a Data Scientist
Data is a business’s lifeline. The more you can learn about your users, customers, and potential leads, the better decisions you can make about sales or when to call it quits on a project. That’s where analytics comes in. The tools are out there to help you learn what your customers really want and use that information to create more effective marketing campaigns and products they’ll love.
Here’s how to harness them as a data scientist Keep your metrics simple at first. Pick three metrics at most—you don’t want to overwhelm yourself with too much data right off the bat! Set up dashboards for these metrics so you can quickly see whether something needs immediate attention or isn’t an issue at all. For example, one dashboard could show average daily signups while another shows retention rates over time.
You should also add any key performance indicators (KPIs) specific to your business: maybe units sold per month, the average number of payments processed per day, or even profits made per quarter. Experiment with different ways of viewing those KPIs—pie charts might be great for showing how many payments have been made by country while line graphs may work best for showing user acquisition trends from year to year over time.
Keep Yourself Focused on the Main Goal
If you need to build a big-picture business plan, then it’s even more important to stay focused on your long-term goals and not lose sight of them in favor of incremental tasks. It can be easy to get sidetracked from a larger project by smaller ones that could potentially lead to revenue down the road. Whether you’re launching a startup or expanding an existing company, identifying and prioritizing your long-term objectives is critical for success.
It may be easier said than done but finding ways to make sure your organization’s focus remains unchanged can pay off massively in terms of overall growth. When you take time to examine your strategy and adjust as needed, there’s no telling how far you can go. We hope these professional writing prompts have been helpful! Let us know if we should do another post like this one!
No matter what type of business you run, you’ll need to ensure that you and your team are always on target. To accomplish that, look for opportunities to involve everyone in important meetings where goals are discussed and decisions are made.
Creating a template for prioritizing tasks can help streamline workflow, which can keep projects moving smoothly. It’s also wise to take stock of your progress at regular intervals so that you don’t lose sight of long-term objectives or become too reliant on short-term gains.
Also Read: How Can a Student Start a Business?
Conclusion
There are a number of different ways that computer science can help businesses, whether you’re a small local coffee shop or a global retailer. If you’re thinking about how to improve your business, there’s no need to limit yourself to traditional methods.
The technical nature of running businesses today means that advanced software is an essential part of doing business; it has become just as important as having trained staff on hand.
We now live in an online world where computers play a large role in our daily lives and careers. Using information technology can make life easier for customers and employees alike and provide significant benefits over time with little cost involved.
