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Data Science Self-study Suggestions

The holy trinity of data science fundamentals is linear algebra, statistics, and Python programming. After learning the basics, the best method of attaining mastery in the fundamentals is progressively more difficult projects. Along the way, recognizing gaps in your knowledge and filling those gaps.

Here are a handful of suggestions to guide you on the path:

• Linear Algebra:

• A 2020 Vision of Linear Algebra by Gilbert Strang

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Prompt:

It is the beginning of practicum, your industry mentor asks your practicum group to write an email to the entire the company introducing yourselves. For the sake of the activity, the organization is a hot, new start-up called Meow-Meet - Tinder for cat-lovers. Your practicum is on the Experimentation Team.

This is based on a real story. A couple of years ago, I was an industry mentor working with MSDS students. The students would not write this email. I had to ask several times and got really annoying. Let's practice now.

Steps:

1. Work together in Riseup Pad.
2. Write the subject line.

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Data Science Workflow

Step 1 - Ask

Based on domain experience, ask specific and meaningful questions.

Define all terms precisely within the context.

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# Solution for Is A Substring Problem

def is_substring(short:str, long:str) -> bool:
   for i, c in enumerate(long):
       if c == short[0]:
           if long[i:i+len(short)] == short:
               return True
   else:
       return False

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Is Substring Problem

Problem Statement

Given a short string and long string, find if the shorter string is a substring of the longer string.

Common Questions

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# Solution for Homeward Bound Robot Problem

def test_is_back_at_start(is_back_at_start_func):
    # Complete trips
    assert is_back_at_start_func("UD")       # Simple example
    assert is_back_at_start_func("ULDRLRDU") # A more complex example

    # Incomplete trips
    assert not is_back_at_start_func("LL")         # Simple example 
    assert not is_back_at_start_func("RRLUULRLRL") # A more complex 

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Problem Statement

A robot starts at position (0, 0). Given a sequence of its moves, judge if this robot makes a complete trip. A complete trip means the robot ends back at the original location.

The valid robot moves are "R" (Right), "L" (Left), "U" (Up) and "D" (down). For example, a sequence of moves could be "RRLUUD". The robot would move:

• Move 1 unit to the right
• Move another 1 unit to the right
• Move 1 unit to the left

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Career Advice Heuristics

• Time-travel - What opportunity would I be happy having completed 1 or 5 years from now?

• Largest hill to succesful climb - Most careers are a series of increasing larger hills to climb. Thus, which opportunity allows me to finish the biggest project possible?

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"Make folders based items in a file."

from pathlib import Path

names = Path("names.txt").read_text().split("\n")

for name in names:
    p = Path("/output/") / name
    p.mkdir(exist_ok=True)

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Git & GitHub Activities

In the breakout rooms, each person should individually complete following tasks. The goal is muddle your way through - git can be difficult. Let's practice in low stakes environment. When get stuck ask someone else in the breakout rooms to help you.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this session, you should be able to: