
Harvard University – CS109 Data Science - lobo_tuerto
http://cs109.github.io/2015/
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asafira
I've taken this course, and while the instructors clearly put a lot of effort
into it, I found it missed the mark by quite a lot.

The assignments use fancy algorithms, but often with little motivation; as
such, I doubt I will remember most techniques. Furthermore, the class didn't
have enough prerequisites, and so the derivations and discussions were often
soft or missing --- again, making it harder to learn. Most importantly, the
time you spend on the class is dominated by the homework, but it suffered from
the issue a lot of online coding courses have: if you are told to write a
function, given its signature, behavior, etc, you _aren 't_ learning the
material. instead, you chug away at it like it's programming 101, pass the
tests, and move on without reading up on the methods that used that function.
and that's exactly what happens with a large portion of the homework
assignments in this class.

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bfaviero
+1 this course was very much so either a) Do this basically exactly how we
told you do do it, basically "filling in the blanks" b) Predict the midterm
elections (well fuck, this is an intro class, I'm really not sure what to do)

I found it to be quite poorly structured, and its lessons did not translate
well into being able to do data science off on your own problems

~~~
davidwihl
I agree about the homework, but that's why the project component was worth 40%
of the grade and took the final month of the semester.

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infinii
Lecture videos are in Flash. Sigh

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Gracana
FWIW I didn't allow the flash to run and it plays fine using html5 video.

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platz
you can load the mp4's in VLC as well

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theIV
Does anyone know the name for graphs like "Station Fullness Over Time of Day"
is?

I don't remember having seen one before (I don't look at many graphs) but find
it incredibly readable, even being color deficient. Also, can't say I dug
further than the homepage, but it was striking enough for me to ask.

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chaitanyav
I guess its a heat map.

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theIV
That makes sense. I guess the styling/presentation didn't make me think of it
that way.

Thanks.

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davidwihl
I took this class last semester and our team won best overall project from
approx. 100 teams. iPython notebooks and writeup can be found at
[http://project.chanceme.info/](http://project.chanceme.info/)

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hkiely
Cs50 combined both theoretical and applied principles. Are there any specific
prerequisites for this?

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asafira
not really.

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0xFFC
I live in third world country, and universities are ludicrous. I have said
this repeatedly, but I want to say that again because education is _the_
important thing in the world in my opinion, and free lectures/education is
just like discovery of fire in human history.

If I were to choose prophets for humanity, I would choose the people who
provide free _scientific_ material for humanity.

Not a bunch of schizophrenic from 14 or 20 century ago.

For those who live in developed country maybe you cannot realize how much
impact can a simple series of lectures can have on students on third world
country. I live in third world country, I can see with my own eyes how can it
change people mind.

~~~
rosadoft
I live in an underdeveloped country in the Caribbean and i couldn't agree
more.

