Big News from Big Tech and the Semiconductor Shortage

March 10, 2021

by Alex Ng

The Colgate Data Society is wishing you all the best of luck through midterm season! Remember to take care of yourselves – go out for a walk, watch some Netflix, listen to some Nickleback(?), etc. A lot has happened in the past week: Big Tech showing more concern for user’s privacy, further supply-chain problems regarding semiconductors, and more news about the push in AR technology. Before we get into the newsletter, here’s some announcements:

• We are holding a Q&A webinar this afternoon with Anh Lê. She’s a data scientist at TMX, a clearing house in Toronto, who’s also working on starting her own quantitative hedge fund. Tune in today at 5pm via Zoom to attend!
• We’re holding a Data Science competition. Read all about it in this information sheet and register your interest in participating. 

Big Tech retracting their claws:

• On Wednesday (3/3), Google announced that they would no longer sell ads based on an individual’s browsing history across websites. Citing this as a reason to preserve consumers’ trust, Google’s move could dramatically shift the direction of the digital ad industry, as Google itself accounts for 52% of the global digital ad spending. 
• Similarly, Apple, on 1/21/21, announced that they would make an increased effort to help users’ take more control of their privacy. They’ll do this by having the App Store display “developer’s privacy practices,” as well as roll out a feature called App Tracking Transparency, which “require apps to get the user’s permission before tracking their data.”
• Other tech companies followed suit, as LinkedIn announced on Thursday (3/4) that they would stop collecting  “Identifier for Advertising (IDFA) data.”
• Facebook, on the other hand, was not a fan. $8.6Bn of their revenue comes from targeted ads, which makes Apple’s announcement (and now Google’s!) a threat to their business model.
• Step Back:
  • The number of antitrust lawsuits against Apple, Google, and Facebook in late 2020 shows that their data collection processes have been a huge concern. However, with Apple and Google allowing their users more awareness over their privacy, perhaps smaller tech companies will have the opportunity to take some control.
  • Clearly, businesses still are high in demand for this type of tracking. Yesterday (3/9), T-Mobile announced that it will “automatically enroll its phone subscribers in an advertising program informed by their online activity.”
  • How much control is really being given up by Google? In February, it was found that Google’s Gmail tracked a lot of data through their Apple app – to what extent is data collected by Gmail and other services offered by Google?
  • “If digital advertising doesn’t evolve to address the growing concerns people have about their privacy and how their personal identity is being used, we risk the future of the free and open web” David Temkin, Product Manager.

A not-so-semi semiconductor shortage:

• Despite the recent boom in EVs (electric vehicles), many manufacturers have had to slow down production, for one common reason. Auto-makers that produce EVs, like Ford and GM, announced production cuts, specifically due to a semiconductor shortage.
• The semiconductor shortage is mostly due to the pandemic: the increased demand for electronics (EVs, gaming systems, TVs, etc.) has not been met due to factories being closed. 
• The recent push into 5G has also contributed to an increased demand for semiconductors, as they are required to build 5G enabled smartphones, IoTs, etc. 
• It’s so bad that President Biden issued an executive order to review the domestic semiconductor industry’s supply chain, where the US contributes to 12% of global semiconductor manufacturing. 
• Step Back:
  • With the demand for electronics being higher than ever, the lack of supply will almost certainly drive up prices. For instance, Microsoft has expressed difficulty in producing the Xbox X until June, which has resulted in the Xbox X to be out of stock and the resale market to markup the price by hundreds of dollars.  
  • Given the new emphasis put on the domestic semiconductor industry, relevant US companies could see high growth in the long term. 
  • Tesla, whose stock had risen over 33X it’s IPO price (3/8), has apparently lost market share in 2020 in the EV space, according to Morgan Stanley. Clearly, the EV space is getting more competitive – it will be interesting to see how the decrease in supply will contribute to this and how Tesla’s dominance evolves over time.

Augmented reality to augment the tech world

• On Sunday (3/7), Ming-Chi Kuo, an apple enthusiast who’s had a successful track history of calling Apple’s product announcements, claimed that Apple is planning on releasing mixed reality devices. First will be a “helmet type” device by 2022, a “glasses type” by 2025, and a “contact lens type” by 2030-40.
• Step Back
  • Augmented reality has been all the rage in Big Tech:
    • In February, Qualcomm announced the XR chipset, which would support AR systems.
    • On 3/6, Sony announced 6 new games for their VR headset. 
    • Google is actively working on building their AR software for Android phones
    • Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel states in February that “AR is the next major shift in computing and we are committed to leading the way”
    • Microsoft’s Hololens 2 is proposed to help integrate users into mixed-reality workspaces, adding a whole new dimension to WFH (working from home).

How To Pivot Into Data Science

The one unifying piece of advice I received in all my conversations was the importance of crafting a narrative for my journey.

David A. Gelman, Senior Data Scientist at VMware, Colgate Class of 07′

About 1/3 of all college students change their major within three years. A lot can happen within those three years. You got Legacies and Modernity out of the way, you write detailed research papers and go through some intensive lab sessions, and maybe along the way you try out new clubs: perhaps the Colgate Data Society.

So you join our club and you ask yourself: Is this something I can afford to do?

And the answer to that is yes! You’ve laid out the framework no matter what major or career path you were in initially. That’s because you’ve spoken in seminars, critically analyzed the works of scholars in your field, and no matter what you have interacted with data. Gathering, modeling, and presenting data is the core idea of data science: you just need to be outfitted with the tools and let your experience shine.

One example of leveraging this rich background is how Colgate graduate David A. Gelman went from getting his PhD in Political Science to being a senior data scientist at VMWare. To think of it, David was farther into his career than any of us can imagine. David describes in a blog post that Yet, he didn’t see a future in that field for himself so he looked into the core idea of what he had done so far: “using data to answer questions.”

That sounds a whole lot like data science. Because of this, David did his research and he made that transition in three main steps:

• “Network and reach out to whomever I could to learn more about how to better market my skills and position myself”
• Built his “technical know-how” in a Data Science bootcamp
• Realize that “grad school had given me the ability to do clear and effective analysis and present my findings in a intelligible manner”

Breaking into data science isn’t about abandoning everything you’ve done for a fancy Data Science major. It’s about leveraging your curiosity, your storytelling skills, and the network of people you meet at Colgate. That’s why the Colgate Data Society is here to help you with the three steps David went through. Specifically we:

• Network with data science professionals through webinars and mock interviews. You can see detailed notes from some of these events here
• Build technical know-how by letting you know which courses to pursue at Colgate , what resources you can use to pick up a new data science tool such as SQL, and hosting technical skills workshops like our one in the data visualization tool Tableau
• Conduct out own data science projects and present our findings in a clear analysis (New for this spring semester)

You’ll realize that you can leverage your previous coursework, clubwork, and experience to make your own unique narrative. Become a storyteller and help win the Fed Challenge (please we need to win sometime), use your summer research as the basis for an innovative data science project, or take your internship to the next level by automating simple tasks using code. Whatever it is, the Data Society is a community that will be there for you every step of the way.