Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Core Principles of Data Science
Fall 2023

Schedule

Note: The schedule will be updated throughout the semester to add homework assignments, labs, due dates, etc.

Week
Event
Date
Description
Course Material
01
Lecture
08/28/2023
Monday
Introduction to Course, R and RMarkdown
[lecture slides]

Lecture Materials:

Recommended Readings:

Lecture
08/30/2023
Wednesday
Introduction to Git, GitHub, and homework submission

HW1 Assigned

R files:

GitHub and RStudio

Homework
08/30/2023
Wednesday
Homework #1 released!
[Homework #1]
Lab
09/01/2023
Friday
Lab #1

Location: Kresge LL6

02
Holiday
09/04/2023
Monday
Labor Day - No Class
Lecture
09/06/2023
Wednesday
Basic R, data types and vectors

R files: If you have the course repository set up, they should already have them on your laptop.

Lab
09/08/2023
Friday
Lab #2 - part 1

Location: Kresge LL6

R files:

  • lab_02 Q1 and Q2
  • If you have the course repository setup, you can just “pull” to get the lab materials
    • TF will show you during the lab
03
Lecture
09/11/2023
Monday
Sorting, vector arithmetic, and indexing

R files: If you have the course repository set up, they should already have them on your laptop. Go to the directory of our course repository on your local folder and click on the .Rproj file to open the directory.

Lecture
09/13/2023
Wednesday
Basic data wrangling

R files: If you have the course repository set up, they should already have them on your laptop. Go to the directory of our course repository on your local folder and click on the .Rproj file to open the directory.

Lab
09/15/2023
Friday
Lab #2 - part 2

Location: Kresge LL6

R files:

  • lab_02 Q3 and Q4
  • If you have the course repository setup, you can just “pull” to get the lab materials
    • TF will show you during the lab
04
Lecture
09/18/2023
Monday
Basic plots and importing data

R files: If you have the course repository set up, they should already have them on your laptop. Go to the directory of our course repository on your local folder and click on the .Rproj file to open the directory.

Lecture
09/20/2023
Wednesday
Programming basics

R files: If you have the course repository set up, they should already have them on your laptop. Go to the directory of our course repository on your local folder and click on the .Rproj file to open the directory.

05
Lecture
09/25/2023
Monday
Introduction to ggplot2

HW2 Assigned

R files: If you have the course repository set up, they should already have them on your laptop. Go to the directory of our course repository on your local folder and click on the .Rproj file to open the directory.

Homework
09/25/2023
Monday
Homework #2 released!
[Homework #2]
Lecture
09/27/2023
Wednesday
Gapminder

R files: If you have the course repository set up, they should already have them on your laptop. Go to the directory of our course repository on your local folder and click on the .Rproj file to open the directory.

Due
09/28/2023 23:59
Thursday
Homework #1 due
Lab
09/29/2023
Friday
Lab #3

Location: FXB G03

R files:

06
Lecture
10/02/2023
Monday
Gapminder - continued

R files: If you have the course repository set up, they should already have them on your laptop. Go to the directory of our course repository on your local folder and click on the .Rproj file to open the directory. Click on “pull” under the Git tab on your r studio.

Lecture
10/04/2023
Wednesday
Gapminder and Data Viz Principles

R files:

Lab
10/06/2023
Friday
Lab #3

Location: FXB G03

R files:

07
Holiday
10/09/2023
Monday
Indigenous People’s Day - No Class
Lecture
10/11/2023
Wednesday
Data viz principles - continued and Maps

R files:

08
Lecture
10/16/2023
Monday
Maps and Advanced data wrangling

R files:

Lecture
10/18/2023
Wednesday
Advanced data wrangling - continued

HW3 to be released on Friday

R files:

Homework
10/19/2023
Thursday
Homework #3 released!
[Homework #3]
Due
10/22/2023 23:59
Sunday
Homework #2 due
09
Lecture
10/23/2023
Monday
Date and times, advanced wrangling practice, regression motivation

R files:

Lecture
10/25/2023
Wednesday
Regression

R files:

Lab
10/27/2023
Friday
Lab #4

Location: Kresge LL6

R files:

10
Lecture
10/30/2023
Monday
Regression

R files:

Lecture
11/01/2023
Wednesday
Regression - continued and ML intro

R files:

maching learning module

Due
11/05/2023 23:59
Sunday
Homework #3 due
11
Lecture
11/06/2023
Monday
Introduction to machine learning

R files:

Lecture
11/08/2023
Wednesday
Introduction to machine learning

R files:

12
Lecture
11/13/2023
Monday
Machine learning - continued (intro)

R files:

Lecture
11/15/2023
Wednesday
Machine learning - continued (lda, qda)

R files:

Lab
11/17/2023
Friday
Lab #5

Location: Kresge LL6

R files:

13
Lecture
11/20/2023
Monday
Machine learning - continued (roc, auc)

R files:

Holiday
11/22/2023
Wednesday
Thanksgiving Recess this Wednesday, Nov 22 - No Class
Exam
11/22/2023 23:59
Wednesday
Midterm Due

Topics:

  1. R basics and data visualization
  2. Advanced data wrangling
Homework
11/25/2023
Saturday
Homework #4 released!
[Homework #4]
14
Lecture
11/27/2023
Monday
Machine learning - continued (decision trees)

R files:

Lecture
11/30/2023
Thursday
Machine learning - continued (random forest)

R files:

Lab
12/01/2023
Friday
Lab #6

Location: Kresge LL6

R files:

15
Lecture
12/04/2023
Monday
Machine learning - continued (regularization)

R files:

Lecture
12/06/2023
Wednesday
Machine learning - continued (regularization)

R files:

Lab
12/08/2023
Friday
Lab #7

Location: Kresge LL6

R files:

16
Lecture
12/11/2023
Monday
Machine learning - continued (PCA, cross validation)

Final Project Due R files:

Due
12/11/2023 23:59
Monday
Homework #4 due
Exam
12/11/2023 23:59
Monday
Final Project Due

Topics:

  1. Final project
  2. Peer evaluation form
Lecture
12/13/2023
Wednesday
Machine learning - cross validataion and Next steps

Final Project Due R files:

Next steps: -07-next-steps