Class Notes: Data Science
1. Introduction
Data Science is an interdisciplinary field that uses statistics, mathematics, programming, and
domain knowledge to extract insights and knowledge from structured and unstructured data.
2. Components of Data Science
• Data Collection: gathering raw data from multiple sources.
• Data Cleaning: handling missing values, removing duplicates.
• Data Exploration: understanding patterns, trends.
• Data Analysis: applying statistical and ML models.
• Data Visualization: presenting insights with graphs.
• Decision Making: using insights for business/engineering decisions.
3. Data Science Workflow
1. Define the problem.
2. Collect and prepare data.
3. Explore and visualize data.
4. Build predictive/analytical models.
5. Evaluate model performance.
6. Deploy and monitor the solution.
4. Tools & Technologies
Programming: Python, R, SQL.
Libraries: Pandas, NumPy, Scikit-learn, TensorFlow, PyTorch.
Visualization: Matplotlib, Seaborn, Power BI, Tableau.
Big Data: Hadoop, Spark.
Databases: MySQL, MongoDB.
5. Statistical Foundations
• Descriptive Statistics: mean, median, variance, standard deviation.
• Probability distributions: Normal, Binomial, Poisson.
• Hypothesis Testing: t-test, chi-square test, ANOVA.
• Correlation & Regression analysis.
6. Machine Learning in Data Science
• Supervised Learning: regression, classification.
• Unsupervised Learning: clustering, dimensionality reduction.
• Reinforcement Learning for decision-making.
• Deep Learning for unstructured data (images, text).
7. Data Visualization
• Charts: bar, line, histogram, scatter.
• Heatmaps, pairplots.
• Dashboard tools: Tableau, Power BI.
8. Applications of Data Science
• Business Intelligence and Analytics.
• Predictive maintenance in engineering.
• Healthcare diagnostics.
• Fraud detection.
• Recommendation systems.
• Natural Language Processing.
9. Challenges in Data Science
• Data quality and availability.
• High computational cost.
• Model interpretability.
• Data privacy and ethics.
• Integration with existing systems.
10. Future of Data Science
• Automated Machine Learning (AutoML).
• Edge and real-time analytics.
• Explainable AI (XAI).
• Integration with IoT and Cloud computing.
