Intro to Data Science (Udacity)

The class will focus on breadth and present the topics briefly instead of focusing on a single topic in depth. This will give you the opportunity to sample and apply the basic techniques of data science.

This course is also a part of our Data Analyst Nanodegree.

What You Will Learn

Lesson 1

Introduction to Data Science

- Pi-Chaun (Data Scientist @ Google): What is Data Science?

- Gabor (Data Scientist @ Twitter): What is Data Science?

- Problems solved by data science.

Lesson 2

Data Wrangling

- What is Data Wrangling?

- Acquiring data.

- Common data formats.

Lesson 3

Data Analysis

- Statistical rigor.

- Kurt (Data Scientist @ Twitter) - Why is Stats Useful?

- Introduction to normal distribution.

Lesson 4

Data Visualization

- Effective information visualization.

- An analysis of Napoleon's invasion of Russia!

- Don (Principal Data Scientist @ AT&T): Communicating Findings.

Lesson 5

MapReduce

- Introduction to Big Data and MapReduce.

- Learn the basics of MapReduce.

- Mapper.

Prerequisites and Requirements

The ideal students for this class are prepared individuals who have:

Strong interest in data science

Background in intro level statistics

Python programming experience

Or understanding of programming concepts such as variables, functions, loops, and basic python data structures like lists and dictionaries

If you need to brush up on your programming, we highly recommend Introduction to Computer Science: Building a Search Engine. If you need a refresher on statistics, enroll in Intro to Descriptive Statistics and Intro to Inferential Statisitics. All three are on Udacity!

Why Take This Course

You will have an opportunity to work through a data science project end to end, from analyzing a dataset to visualizing and communicating your data analysis.

Through working on the class project, you will be exposed to and understand the skills that are needed to become a data scientist yourself.