Glossary
I intend to add/revise this glossary as the semester progresses.  If you have a question or would like a term added, please send me an email.
   -  Algorithm: a set of instructions that solve a problem in a finite set of time.
   
 -  Bit: A binary digit, either a 0 or a 1.  The most basic measurement of digital data.
   
 -  Byte: A collection of 8 bits.  Most data is measured in terms of bytes.  Frequently combined with the metric prefix system to produce units such as Kilobytes, Megabytes...
   
 -  CSV: Comma Separated Values. This is a common file format for storing tabular data.  Each line normally represents a record.  The fields in a record are separated by commas.  If the data contains commas, alternative delimiters are sometimes selected or additional encoding techniques are used.  Many tools for manipulating data can read files in a CSV format.
   
 -  Data: Data is information output by a sensing device or organ that includes both useful and irrelevant or redundant information and must be processed to be meaningful (From Merriam Webster)
   
 -  Data Mining: The process of searching data sets for patterns or information. 
   
 -  Delimiter: A special character used to separate data elements.   In a CSV file the delimiter is frequently a comma.
   
 -  Field:  A field is a piece of data in a record.
   
 -  Information: Information is data that has been processed, organized, structured or presented to make them meaningful or useful.
   
 -  Machine Learning: The use of algorithms and data to produce a system which can perform a task whithout using explicit instructions.
   
 -  Record: A record is a collection of data about an individual element of the population.  This is usually a single row in a tabular data set.
   
 -  Structured Data: Structured data is generally considered data that is broken into a number of regular fields for each record.
   
 -   Unstructured Data: Unstructured data is data that can not be broken into fields easily.