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It ’ s DJ Patil ’ s job to change the world . The stakes are no more and no less as Patil , a boardriding maverick whom Silicon Valley tech giants at one time “ didn ’ t know what to do with ,” is now in charge of bringing our country into the future . And that future begins and ends with one word : data .
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To call the data in question “ big ” is a bit of an understatement ; it may very well be the largest cache in the history of mankind . As the White House ’ s first-ever chief data scientist , Patil ’ s job is to harness the unfathomable — and perhaps unquantifiable — amount of data at the government ’ s fingertips to change how our world operates .
The possibilities are endless : A new generation of medicine that could transform the quality and capabilities of our national healthcare system . Disaster relief that could save thousands of lives and exponentially more dollars . Improved governmental processes , faster federal services — the stuff of dreams and hopes we haven ’ t even begun to dream or hope for yet .
Yet the challenges are just as numerous . The government is years behind the private sector in utilizing data , and growing public concern about privacy and data leaks has reached a fever pitch that has bled into headlines and newscasts for years .
It ’ s all a momentous task for any data scientist , yet a fitting one for Patil , considering he ’ s the one credited with coining the term “ data scientist ” in the first place . His take on the job before him ? “ I try and look at it as an opportunity .” For someone who has spent his life fighting expectations and forging his own path , it ’ s hardly a surprise he would relish the challenge . After all , Patil had to fight just to get in to UC San Diego .
“ My first experience was getting the thin envelope , the bad envelope ,” he recalls . “ I was rejected . But I thought UCSD was fantastic , so I appealed . The process was so that you just keep pushing until you make something work .”
As he would later become known as a risk-taker and iconoclast in his career , perhaps the long road to UC San Diego was the only way Patil could ’ ve become who he is today . His backstory is characterized by a slacker past checkered with suspension and low SAT scores , but Patil buckled down at UC San Diego . After a stint double-majoring in computer science and political science , he settled into mathematics and supplemented a ledger of required courses with those that seemed more interesting . Calling UC San Diego ’ s catalog “ an incredible bounty ,” Patil says he signed up for “ the fun classes ,” including ethics , Chicano theater and abstract algebra .
32 TRITON | FALL 2015