Ciência de Dados

Overall: It’s a hard course, but genuinely great for learning the basics of data science. The content is super interesting, even if the logistics can be frustrating.

Teaching: Honestly, you can skip most theory classes after the classification module—they get pretty irrelevant. Definitely go to the classification ones, though, because you'll need them for the project. Practical classes are a must-attend; they show you exactly how the exam questions are phrased and the "tricks" to watch out for. As for the TAs, they’re just students and seem afraid to contradict the professor. Because of this,...

Theorectical part (50%) is very doable, don't need to go to class, the MOOC videos and exercises the teacher recorded are mostly enough with the lab classes to do the exercises the way the teacher wants. The problem is the project (40% or 50% if labs don't help) didn't have good grades, the average was 12-13 for a lot of work, the weekly deliveries (10%) are easy and have good grades 19-20 and are supposed to be for the project but do not in any way allign with the projects good results. You should do this course if you want to wait a million years to know that you got an 11 on the project....

Data Science was by far the most poorly organized and useless course I took in the 1st year of MEIC.

Theoretical classes

The lectures were given by Professor Cláudia Antunes, who makes it painfully clear that she couldn't care less about the course or the students.

The theoretical classes are essentially superfluous. They follow a 'flipped classroom' model, where you watch MOOC videos that cover a ridiculous range of topics without diving into any of them. Then you come to class to look at the professor’s slides...

What is it about?

The Data Science course focuses on teaching the principles and approaches used to solve problems related to analyzing and extracting information from data. There are several phases in such a problem (which includes model training but not only that), and the course tries to cover all of them, which is why it tackles a massive amount of content, which can feel quite overwhelming. However, it’s a very practical course and, as such, doesn’t go into deep details.

Theoretical lectures

The theoretical classes start with 30-minute videos where the professor gives an...

After completing CD, you’ll walk away with some light statistical knowledge applicable to the emerging data economy. But more importantly, you’ll come out a more resilient human being, from all the bullshit you’ll have to endure along the way. I pray for you.