A leading data scientist offers some inspiringly unscientific advice for startups

Hilary Mason is often described as a big data expert, but she also calls herself a hacker, though she insists she’s one of the good ones.

The former chief data scientist of URL shortening service Bit.ly and data scientist in residence at Accel Partners is the keynote speaker at this Friday’s CODE 2014 Inspiration Day at the University of Waterloo’s campus in Stratford, Ont. CODE, or the  Canadian Open Data Experience (CODE) event, is a three-day hackathon for students, entrepreneurs and innovators. Mason will be discussing the visualization of big data, or unstructured information that is presenting new opportunities for companies and researchers to find valuable insights. Open data, meanwhile, refers to the release of digitized public sector information that could redefine the user experience of citizens.

In an interview with the University published Tuesday, Mason offered her take on how to achieve success with big data:

Mason says the startup community needs people who can solve problems and create and work without a step-by-step plan. “You also need the ability to play – to know how to go from the data you have to an interesting question that is relevant,” says Mason . . . “when we start to play with it and think about it we can learn about things we never would have had the opportunity to learn. There are applications in both business and science.”

Get more information on the CODE Inspiration Day program on Feb. 28 and watch the clip below to learn more about Mason’s approach to data science.