Organizational aspects, syllabus and evaluation criteria
A first example from Reuters
COVID-19 Mortality in the US
Can we make bold statements about the time-series of numbers of COVID-19 deaths in the US? Do we need more data? The complete article from Reuters is available here. To better understand this chart and the conclusion we can draw, more details are provided here.
About this course
📝 Organizational details
- Teaching Language: English
- ECTS Credits: 1
- Duration:
- 15 hours lectures and tutorials (i.e. $3\times 5h= 15h$)
- 10 hours personal work
- Teaching material: See the plan of the course
- "Slides"
- Practical work
- Working examples
- Corrections
✅ Prerequisites
- Basics on Python
- (secondary) Fundamental statistics and mathematics
- (secondary) Understanding of data structures (mostly
numpy.arrays,pandas.DataFrames)
These two secondary aspects will be presented in the course, but not covered in depth.
🛠️ Technologies used in this course
Programming language: Python
Focus on the libraries:
- Matplotlib
- Bokeh
Other recommended technologies:
- Pyenv
- Jupyter Notebook
📊 Learning Outcomes
- Notions in graphic semiology to be able to choose the relevant visualization.
- Creation of interactive diagrams, cartographic or otherwise, to represent datasets, in Python.
🎯 Subjects Covered
Data visualization is a fundamental ingredient of data science as it "forces us to notice what we never expected to see" in a given dataset. Dataviz is also a tool for communication and, as such, is a visual language. Throughout the course, we will focus on methods and strategies to represent datasets, using dynamic and interactive tools.
📝 Evaluation
The evaluation consists of a data visualization project where students will create interactive visualizations using the Bokeh library. While building a Bokeh-based website is the recommended approach, students may alternatively use a Jupyter Notebook format, though this option offers only partial Bokeh interactivity. Since this course does not cover web development concepts, students should note that Bokeh makes website creation straightforward and accessible, even without prior web development experience.
