Data Science Fundamentals

This course covers the foundational aspects of data science, including data collection, cleaning, analysis, and visualization. Students will learn practical skills for working with real-world datasets.

Instructor: Prof. Data

Term: Spring

Location: Science Building, Room 202

Time: Mondays and Wednesdays, 2:00-3:30 PM

## Course Overview This course provides a comprehensive introduction to data science principles and practices. Students will: - Learn the end-to-end data science workflow - Gain practical experience with data manipulation tools - Develop skills in data visualization and communication - Apply statistical methods to derive insights from data ## Prerequisites - Basic programming knowledge (preferably in Python) - Introductory statistics - Comfort with basic algebra ## Textbooks - "Python for Data Analysis" by Wes McKinney - "Data Science from Scratch" by Joel Grus ## Grading - Assignments: 50% - Project: 40% - Participation: 10%

Schedule

Week Date Topic Materials
1 Feb 5 Introduction to Data Science

Overview of the data science workflow and key concepts.
2 Feb 12 Data Collection and APIs

Methods for collecting data through APIs, web scraping, and databases.
3 Feb 19 Data Cleaning and Preprocessing

Techniques for handling missing values, outliers, and data transformation.
4 Feb 26 Exploratory Data Analysis

Descriptive statistics, visualization, and pattern discovery.
5 Mar 4 Statistical Analysis

Hypothesis testing, confidence intervals, and statistical inference.
6 Mar 11 Data Visualization

Principles and tools for effective data visualization.