This course will provide an introduction to data science by covering the basics methods and practices of a data science project. The course is designed around the data science lifecycle to show the techniques for handling a data science project. You will be exposed to basic programming skills in Python and learn how to select, clean, analyse, visualise and interpret data.
By following this course you will have knowledge and insight into: i) differentiating the steps of the data science life cycle; ii) formulating a data research question iii) using Python as the programming language, how data can be analysed; iv) know how basic data analysis algorithms work; v) draw conclusions with regard to the data question/hypothesis by interpreting the data.
This course will make use of lectures and practical assignments organised as follows:
- Lecture: Introduction to data science.
- Practical: Introduction to programming in Python: This session will give you the basic skills to program in Python. By the end of this session the student will have gained familiarity with programming and will be able to perform simple data processing in Python.
- Lecture: Introduction to data, data manipulation and visualization.
- Practical: Data manipulation and visualization: During this session, the steps of data exploration, selection, cleaning and transformation will be performed via a hands-on assignment.
- Lecture: Introduction to Machine Learning.
- Practical Machine Learning: In this session students will be shown hands on examples on how to perform a Logistic Regression and how to use Naive Bayes Classifiers.
- Lecture: Responsible Data Science.
- Practical: Responsible Data Science: This session will cover how to apply the principles presented in the associated lecture to create data analysis processes that are well- structured, that can be replicated, and that treat sensitive data appropriately.
- Assessment.
ECTS
The number of credits earned after successfully concluding this course is the equivalent of 4 ECTS according to Maastricht University’s guidelines. For further information see the MSS terms and conditions.
Goals
- Getting familiar with the data science lifecycle;
- Using Python as a programming language to perform data analysis tasks;
- Becoming familiar with the data manipulation process and how to achieve this in Python;
- Getting introduced to basic machine learning algorithms and in their application;
- Understanding data interpretation and visualization tools;
- Understanding responsibly principles in data science projects.
Coordinator and Tutors
Dr. Visara Urovi is your course coordinator. The course is delivered with the support of tutors: Dr. Linda Rieswijk and Thales Bertaglia.
Prerequisites
- Familiarity with datasets (e.g., in Excel)
- Being Tech-savvy
Recommended literature
The course is entirely self-contained. A reading list, slides and python notebooks will be provided. To make use of Python Notebooks you will be instructed how to set up python using google Colab.
Teaching methods
- Assignments
- Lectures
- Skills
- Work in groups
Assessment methods
Assignment and Attendance
For further information, please click the "LINK TO ORIGINAL" button below.