This program teaches the foundational concepts, theory, and techniques you need to know to become an effective data scientist. Participants will analyze various datasets, built a handful of applications, and applied machine learning algorithms in meaningful ways to get real results. Along the way, participants learn the best practices and computational techniques used by professional data scientists. Finally, participants learn to acquire data that is openly accessible on the Internet by working with APIs and parse XML and JSON data build a relational database.

The Data Science Fundamentals program is designed to prepare students to function as a Data Analyst, Data Scientist, and Data Engineer. Students are eligible for an optional externship with a local employer after successful course completion.

Program Objectives

After completing this program, learners will be able to:

• Get up and running with a Python data science environment
• Understand the essentials of Python 3, including object-oriented programming
• Employ the basics of the data science process and what each step entails
• Build a simple (yet powerful) recommendation engine for Airbnb listings
• Find high-quality data sources and how to scrape websites if no existing dataset is available
• Work with APIs programmatically, including (but not limited to) the Foursquare API
• Employ strategies for parsing JSON and XML into a structured form
• Build data models and work with database schemas
• Understand the basics of relational databases with SQLite and how to use an ORM to interface with them in Python
• Employ best practices of data validation, including common data quality checks
• Query data in a database, including joining data tables and aggregating data
• Understand the fundamentals of exploratory data analysis
• Find and handle missing or malformed data
• Understand the importance of creating reproducible analyses and how to share them effectively

Optional Volunteer Externship Opportunity

Learners who complete this program are eligible to participate in an optional volunteer externship opportunity with a local company/agency/organization whose work aligns with this area of study in order to gain valuable hands-on experience.  As learners progress through their eLearning program, an Externship Coordinator will reach out to coordinate placement.

Note: Additional documentation including health records, immunizations, drug-screening, criminal background checks, etc. may be required by the externship facility.