CS109 Data Science | Hacker News Reader

CS109 Data Science

cs109.github.io

215 pointskercker16 comments

I disagree with others here --- I wasn't a huge fan of the class.

If you took the class, you definitely had to get used to coding in python, and getting used to manipulating data in python.

However, when it came time to do anything more interesting than plotting data, the course was very shallow --- many homework assignments boiled down to "fill in this space with a function that takes this as input and outputs that". While, again, that would totally be useful to someone learning basic scientific python, you don't get a good understanding of the statistics.

As someone who already had a background in python, I didn't feel I learned as much.

Did you take 109B, the second semester course? Or did you take it when it was only one semester?

First semester course only --- so it's now two semesters? Is it better?

I think it is far more comprehensive, based on being a student in the one semester version and thrice a TF in the two semester version.

The latest material for Spring 2018 can be found at https://github.com/cs109/2018-cs109b

I was a TF and gave a couple of lectures. AMA.

What is your opinion of the Harvard CS extension programs?

I’m a huge fan of the Extension program. It enables access to great courses and if you do well and are in a degree program you can get special student status opening up the college and grad school class listings.

There is a Harvard MOOC on data science being hosted at edx.

What's your opinion on it?

How does it compare to 109?

From what I saw on edx, it's a completely different course.

Yep completely different. The EdX one seems much more high level without any python or deep learning.

How deep does your stats knowledge need to be to understand this?

I had knowledge of basic statistics and it worked fine for me (though I had some math education before the course).

I took this class last year (some variations, less material covered more deeply) and it was a great survey course for someone who had programming experience but was lacking in stats and ML background!

Discussed in 2016: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11155459.

Similarly structured course on data visualization w/ d3. covers the fundamentals of the art (mostly Tufte) alongside a pretty decent intro to using d3.

http://www.cs171.org/2017/index.html

I took this class in 2015, it's a great class. Unfortunately, the material from the course are several years old and they stopped updating it.

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