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You know what we like at TARTLE? We like talking to cool and intelligent people who are doing cool and intelligent things out there in the world. Especially if they are doing those cool and intelligent things with data. That happens to be the case with Shumin Luan, a budding young data scientist at Boston College whom Alex and Jason recently had the chance to interview for TARTLEcast. During the conversation, Shumin revealed that he has always been interested in data and the way it impacts people\\u2019s lives.

Even going back to when he was very young, he had a fascination with the world of finance. He saw how data was needed to properly operate in that world. Without it, investors might as well make their decisions by throwing darts at a board. However, that isn\\u2019t what got him thinking of moving more formally into the realm of data science.\\xa0

That part of Shumin\\u2019s journey began when he was working in Dubai, UAE (United Arab Emirates) as an analyst in sales and logistics. While working in that role, he was able to see how data science could help make the company he was working for more efficient and aid in making better decisions. One of the areas that the data scientist saw for improvement came from the shipping division. Shumin was able to identify that there was a lot of inefficiency in the loading dock and shipping warehouse.

The warehouse was not organized to quickly bring orders up the front in the best of conditions. Throw in a rush or any sort of computer problem and operations could be significantly disrupted. Here, the truckers picking up the products represented a golden opportunity. That inefficiency in bringing the product up from where it is located in the warehouse to trucks means that the truck drivers spent an inordinate amount of time just sitting around doing nothing. What\\u2019s more, the drivers are paid by the hour. The results have been a lot of time and money saved as new efficiencies have been put in place. How did a young data scientist manage to increase the efficiency of a major company operating out of one of the busiest places in the world?

One of the most important things that he did was to comb through the data and find that certain products were more likely to be sold and shipped together than others. Shumin simply recommended storing such items together and in a way that was readily accessible. That meant there was less time spent waiting around for the truck drivers and fewer stops had to be made since the biggest sellers were going together on the same truck from the same warehouse. Otherwise, one truck driver might have been making multiple stops just to fill up his truck. Now, everything could be efficiently stored in one or two warehouses so the drivers could get on the road to delivering products to the customers much more quickly. That means happier customers because they get their products faster and a more profitable company because they aren\\u2019t paying people to sit in trucks. It also has an environmental benefit in that with fewer trips getting made, there are fewer greenhouse gas emissions to be concerned with.\\xa0

Shumin also briefly touched on one of the biggest challenges confronting data scientists today \\u2013 the sheer amount of data available. One of the most important things such people have to do is sift through the mountains of information out there to find the valuable data that is needed in order to conduct a meaningful analysis. The good data is definitely out there, it just takes patience and skill to find it.\\xa0

That\\u2019s where TARTLE comes in. Through our data marketplace, we make it possible for researchers like Shumin to find the best data of all, data that comes right from the source. Instead of trying to sift through tons of third party data, we get right to the gold they are looking for, enabling them to make better and faster decisions.

What\\u2019s your data worth? www.tartle.co