Data Science Archives

30Jul 2018 by Nic

Data Science Week 12 Fun with Python

Well I fell off the data science wagon for a couple weeks and jumped back on to have some fun with Python. Python thankfully is not a new language for me. However, prior to this course the last program I wrote in Python was for a programming class back in 2012. There was some serious dusting off the cobwebs for me as I was going through the Python lessons. Most of my prior Python experience was unrelated to data science. One thing about this challenge course is that the Python portion isn't super specific to data science. It's a general Python course with an overview of data types and operators, control flow (if, elif, for and while statements). The challenge course has instructions on setting up Python with Anaconda and…

19Jun 2018 by Nic

Data Science Week 7

Data Science

The last couple weeks I've played catch up on the Data Science lessons. I'm 51% through the course. So far the entirety of the statistics topics have been review which I'm very thankful for as they go by quickly. Honestly I can't believe how much old statistics and math knowledge (that I rarely use) is still bouncing around in my head after all these years. It was a very nice surprise to have remembered so much from a class I took probably 10 years ago. Pulling out my old statistics text book I can now see why. The image for this post is my old statistics book. Check out all those reference tabs... Though I had initially planned to go back later and complete the optional sections - I went…

20May 2018 by Nic

Data Science Week 2 Visualizing data

Data Science

Visualizing data This week I focused on getting through Visualizing Data. At the time of this post I'm over halfway through Visualizing Data with 55% left to complete on the the second half of the lessons. In the interest of time and getting to items that I'm less familiar with, I've decided to focus on the mandatory sections and then come back later to complete the optional (OPT) sections. As I am doing both this and the FEND at the same time I need to make the best use of my time. Once I finish the core concepts I'll go back and complete anything optional if I have the time. Back onto the topic of Visualizing Data. The items that I've covered this week are: Bin sizes Frequency Histograms Distribution…

10May 2018 by Nic

Data Science Week 1

Data Science

This week I focused mainly on getting set up and all the course intro stuff out of the way. I've taken statistics in the past as it was a math requirement for me to finish my associates in business years ago. Though it's been many years, I'm thankful that I still remember the basics and this isn't all brand new to me. Most of the course sections I've completed so far consist of short videos with multiple choice quizzes after each video. Some of the key topics covered so far... constructs, operational definition, data, sample average, randomness, casual inference, benefits/downsides of surveys, control groups, blind & double blind experiments and drawing conclusions. At the bottom of this post is a list of all the lessons. Within most of the lessons…

06May 2018 by Nic

Data Science Challenge Scholarship

Data Science, Learning Resources, Python

While I was waiting to find out whether or not I would be accepted into phase 2 of the FEND I applied for the Bertelsmann Data Science Challenge scholarship. I figured it was worth a shot. Apparently it was because on May 2nd I received an email congratulating me on being accepted into the Data Science scholarship program. This scholarship opportunity is the first time I ever heard of the company Bertelsmann. I don't even know what they do. Even so I'm grateful for the opportunity to learn a new topic. The data science challenge program doesn't officially start until May 8th. In the meantime, I joined the programs Facebook community which has been... interesting. There's all sorts of different people. Some even in the FEND program like me. Some stay at…