Programming with Data

• Credit value: 15 credits at Level 7
• Module convenor: Stelios Sotiriadis
• Module tutors: Stelios Sotiriadis, Dimitrios Airantzis
• Prerequisites: Data Analytics using R and Principles of Programming
• Assessment: a coding-based assignment with report on building a data science pipeline (30%) and written examination (70%)

This module builds on the material taught in the modules Data Analytics using R and Principles of Programming on the MSc Data Science programme. It furthers your ability to program in Python, by leveraging the specific Python modules that are designed for data science. Moreover, it introduces the Relational Data Model and the SQL language for managing and querying databases. Finally, you will study and discuss ethical issues raised by data science applications.

Indicative module content

• The Relational Data Model
• The SQL language for data manipulation/querying in-memory databases and No-SQL data repositories
• Using the cloud to run data analytics
• Building data pipelines with Python
• Key algorithmic techniques to analyse data with Python

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• demonstrate satisfactory knowledge of Python modules that are specific to data science
• deal with different data formats and data sources (e.g. spatial data, time series data)
• understand the organisation of data in the relational data model, and show fluency in writing SQL queries
• understand and apply basic Python/SQL techniques for quantitative data analysis/visualisation.