Introduction to Data Science

Catalog description

Data Science is a new discipline. This brings challenges and opportunities. On the one hand, its boundaries are poorly defined; on the other hand, this very fact provides unusual latitude for us to establish its intellectual core in real time. This course is about that core. That is, we aim to provide students with an overview of Data Science as an endeavor: its origin, scope, techniques, debate and future. Consequently, this course is both broad and deep. It is broad in that it covers considerable ground in statistics and computer science in a short space of time. The central goal therein is to provide a basic and common vocabulary for students coming from multiple disciplines, enabling them to understand work in the field and to communicate their own work. The course will provide practical hands-on experience with Python and its associated data analysis libraries for this purpose. The course is deep in that we will cover some fundamental Data Science ideas in some detail—both technically and philosophically. This extends to the ethics of Data Science work.