EDSS

Dear learner,

We are excited to get to know all of you this semester and are here to support your success in data science. We welcome your insights and values, cultural backgrounds and life experiences. Each of you brings a unique perspective to science and to the world. Exploratory Data Science for Scientists (EDSS) is an inclusive learning community and we look forward to all of us learning and growing together. 

We acknowledge that we are on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Ramaytush Ohlone peoples. As the original stewards of this land, the Ramaytush Ohlone understood the interconnectedness of all things and maintained harmony with nature for millennia. We honor them for their enduring commitment to Wahrep, Mother Earth; and we will continue to pay our respects as guests on this land by continually striving to find wisdom, knowledge, and truth through our studies.

Lots of warm wishes to all of you in the journey ahead! 🎉

Select any of the five topics below to get started!

Animal Behavior

Learn about animal behavior and how data science and analytics are used to understand these behaviors.

Learning Outcomes

  • Be able to think critically about how to evaluate data on signals and signal transmission.
  • Be able to use apply methods to test for whether communication is occurring.
  • Be able to go from data analytics (gathering and organizing data) to data science (visualizing data in a meaningful way where interpretations can be made). 
  • Be able to describe the pros and cons of using AI for collecting behavioral data

Labs 

  • Data Analysis Cycle
  • Hurricanes
Animal Behavior Module

Species Diversity

Learn about species diversity and how this can be computed and analyzed over time.

Learning Outcomes

  • Be able to discuss the challenges of collecting field data of highly mobile organisms
  • Be able to compute species diversity indices for use in visualizations 
  • Be able to develop and share insights about the variability of ecological data
  • Be able to understand how a data index as a time series can be used for describing changes of community composition across time

Labs

  • Ocean Acidification
  • Golet Data on Shorebirds
Species Diversity Module

Telomeres & Ethics

Here, we learn about telomeres and how ethics play a role in human subjects research, privacy, and social justice.

Learning Outcomes

  • Be able to discuss the implications of data ethics and human subjects research
  • Think critically about the implications of privacy and social justice with the use of big data
  • Report accurate descriptions of data sets and its values, as well as analysis of data sets through data visualizations

 

Labs

  • Telomeres
  • NHANES Project
Telomeres & Ethics Module

TCGA

Learn about genomic information and the databases that hold this big data!

Learning Objectives for TCGA

  • Identify examples of databases with genomic information
  • Find different types of analysis that can be generated from secondary data 
  • Visualize and analyze data using basic statistics and unsupervised analysis

Labs for TCGA

  • TCGA
  • PCA Heatmaps
TCGA Module

AI and Machine Learning

Here, you can learn about AI Machine Learning and how this process can be used in Biology.

Learning Objectives for AI/Machine Learning

  • Understand what machine learning is
  • Determine the uses of machine learning in Biology

Labs for AI/Machine Learning

  • Classifying Images

 

AI/Machine Learning Module