CSC8001

Introduction to
Data Science and Visualisation
 Course Team
Ms Shelly Grist
Examiner
Lecturer (Computing) – School of ACES
BSciElectEng University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana
MDigitalDesign Griffith
Phone +61 7 4631 1280 Office D103
Email Shelly.Grist@usq.edu.au Location Toowoomba

Dr Rachel King
Moderator
Senior Lecturer (Statistics) – School of ACES
PhD Griffith
Phone +61 7 4631 5547 Office D108C
Email Rachel.King@usq.edu.au Location Toowoomba
 What will you learn?
• Foundational data science concepts, tools,
methodologies and visualisation.
• How to extract knowledge from data through
hands-on experience with common data
science programming tools and
methodologies.
• How to create data visualisations to conduct
exploratory and confirmatory data analysis.
• Gain an appreciation of the breadth of data
science applications and their potential value
across disciplines.
 Course Objectives
On successful completion of this course students will be able
to:
1. differentiate between data science algorithms and
interpret their appropriate application across disciplines.
2. apply data visualisations and written communication,
tailored to specific discipline audiences, to report a data
science project’s central problem, data analysis, reasoning
and conclusions.
3. identify and apply the appropriate technical processes
and problem-solving skills for the successful completion of
a data science project.
4. plan and execute a data science project.
 Course Topics
Description Weighting(%)
1. Basic data science algorithms and their applications, such as 20.00
recommender systems, online advertising, and others depending on
selected case studies

2. Common tools for programming, development and data 20.00

management
3. Creating data visualisations for exploratory and confirmatory 20.00
analysis
4. Data wrangling 15.00
5. Creating and presenting visualisation models 15.00
6. Mining text from the social web 10.00
 Assessments
Description Marks out of Wtg (%) Due Date Notes
Assignment 1 100 20 28 Aug 2019
Assignment 2 100 30 23 Oct 2019
Exam 100 50 End S2

Requirements for student to be awarded a passing grade in the course:

To be assured of receiving a passing grade a student must obtain at least 50% of the
total weighted marks available for the course (i.e. the Primary Hurdle), and have
satisfied the Secondary Hurdle (Supervised), i.e. the end of semester examination by
achieving at least 40% of the marks available for that assessment item.
 Required Textbooks
• Cairo, A, 2016, The Truthful Art, New Riders

• VanderPlas, J 2016, Python Data Science

Handbook, O'Reilly Media
– Jupyter notebooks available on github site:
https://github.com/jakevdp/PythonDataScienceH
andbook
 Recommended References
• VanderPlas, J 2016, A Whirlwind Tour of
Python, O'Reilly Media.
– Free pdf:
http://www.oreilly.com/programming/free/files/a
-whirlwind-tour-of-python.pdf
– Jupyter notebooks available on github site:
https://github.com/jakevdp/WhirlwindTourOfPyth
on
 Workshops
• Will cover selected chapters from
– Whirlwind Tour of Python,
– Python Data Science Handbook
– The Truthful Art
• Jupyter notebooks, other resources:
– Available from Study Blocks folders on Study Desk, or
– Links to relevant sites
• Exercises
– Available from Study Blocks folder on Study Desk
– Selected solutions will typically be posted two weeks later
• Where relevant, workshop recordings will be posted.
• Toowoomba: On campus Workshops:
– D114
– Mon: 10am – 12pm; Tue: 8-10am