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COGS9 Syllabus

This document provides an overview of the COGS 9: Introduction to Data Science course for Fall 2017. The course will be taught on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 10:00-10:50am in Pepper Canyon Hall 106. The instructor is Bradley Voytek and the TAs are Richard Gao and Isaac Shamie. There will be four assignments worth 15% each, a final project worth 30%, and class participation is 10% of the grade. Topics covered include data/information, Python, data mining, text mining, visualization, statistics, machine learning and more.

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318 views

COGS9 Syllabus

This document provides an overview of the COGS 9: Introduction to Data Science course for Fall 2017. The course will be taught on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 10:00-10:50am in Pepper Canyon Hall 106. The instructor is Bradley Voytek and the TAs are Richard Gao and Isaac Shamie. There will be four assignments worth 15% each, a final project worth 30%, and class participation is 10% of the grade. Topics covered include data/information, Python, data mining, text mining, visualization, statistics, machine learning and more.

Uploaded by

antserene
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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COGS 9: Introduction to Data Science

Fall 2017, MWF 10:00-10:50a


Pepper Canyon Hall 106

Instructor: Bradley Voytek ([email protected])


Teaching Assistants: Richard Gao; Isaac Shamie ({rigao; isshamie}@ucsd.edu)
Voyteks Office hours: Mondays, 11:00a-12:00p or by appointment (CSB 169)
TA Office hours: TBA
Final exam date: NO FINAL EXAM, ONLY FINAL PROJECT DEADLINE
Grading: Four assignments (15% each) + Final project (30%) + Participation (10%)

Course Background: Who cares about data? We all should! We are experiencing an
explosion of it: 90% of all digital data didnt exist two years ago. Researchers are
leveraging this data deluge to uncover new insights into human behavior, intelligence and
culture (sometimes with surprising findings). Companies are leveraging these data to
recommend products to purchase, movies to watch, places to go, and things to do. What
are the future implications for data science? Soon, we will move beyond targeted ads and
product recommendations to profound transformations in business, science, and society.

Course Overview: In order to understand data science, we first need to talk about data:
what counts as data and what doesn't? How do you visualize 1,000,000,000 Facebook
friendships? How can you turn numbers on the screen into something meaningful? And
how can data lead us astray?

Topics Covered: In this class I will introduce you to the following topics:
. Data and Information
. Python
. Data-mining
. Text-mining and analytics
. Communication theory
. Human-based computation
. Automated science
. Data visualization and storytelling

Grades: NOTE THIS IS STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS. DETAILS MAY CHANGE


BUT, IF THEY DO, YOU WILL BE GIVEN PLENTY OF ADVNACE NOTICE.

There will be four assignments worth 15% each and a final project worth 30%. 10% of
your grade is for class participation (attendance taken during guest lectures). Late
assignments earn fractional credit (75% within one week late; 50% otherwise up until
assignment answers have been posted after which no late credit can be earned).

A rough guide to what is in each assignment:


. Introduction to Python and handling data
. Exploring data using descriptive statistics, and how not to get fooled
. Visualizing data, and how not to get fooled
. How to get fooled: p-hacking your way to the results you want
. Turn in a draft of the final project, get back comments on it to move you in the
right direction

Final project: The final project is a research report on how you would handle a
complicated analysis from front to back telling us all about the nitty gritty, whys, and
hows of the analysis you choose. Youll write about the problems and issues with data
handling and the analysis, and why you choose to overcome the problems in this
particular way. If its appropriate to the problem (e.g., hypothesis testing) youll write
about the expected results, but even if not youll at least mention the different kinds of
outcomes you might see. You WONT have to actually perform the analysis, just write
about it. But if you do make it that far, and can present results, thats great and will be
taken into account.

Readings:
. Donoho D, 50 Years of Data Science
. Tukey JW, Exploratory Data Analysis
. Buchanan M, Depths of Learning, Nature Physics 2015
. Krzywinski M & Cairo A, Points of view: Storytelling, Nature Methods 2013
Course Calendar:

Date Title Assignment Due


09-29 Hello world!
10-02 What is Data Science?
10-04 Data and information
10-06 Python
10-09 Culturomics and text-mining
10-11 Geospatial Analysis
10-13 Tentative guest lecture
10-16 Data visualization
10-18 No class!
10-20 Data journalism
10-23 Tentative guest lecture
10-25 Probability and statistics
10-27 Statistical inference
10-30 Algorithms and computability
11-01 Hypothesis-testing vs. exploratory data analysis
11-03 Tentative guest lecture
11-06 Inference errors
11-08 Data extraction
11-10 Veterans Day - No class!
11-13 No class!
11-15 Signals and noise
11-17 Version control and reproducability
11-20 Tentative guest lecture
11-22 Machine learning
11-24 Cross validation and bootstrapping
11-27 Thanksgiving - No class!
11-29 Databases
12-01 Tentative guest lecture
12-04 Wisdom of the crowds and crowdsourcing
12-06 Privacy and ethics
12-08 The future of Data Science

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