University of Kentucky Department of Civil Engineering
Instructor: Greg Erhardt
Course Content and Objectives
This course is designed around the Data Science Venn Diagram, as shown below (from Drew Conway) It takes applications from the transportation realm, and introduces the practical skills needed to pursue data science both in the workplace and as a research student.
Main topics to be covered include:
- Fundamentals of programming and data wrangling in Python
- Data visualization
- Applied statistical modelling and interpretation
- Identifying and perpetuating intellectually honest analysis
The syllabus is available here, along with appendices.
Acknowledgements
Many of the exercises are based on those developed by Paul Waddell and Geoff Boeing for CP255: Urban Informatics and Visualization at the University of California at Berkeley. Those materials are available from:
https://github.com/waddell/urban-informatics-and-visualization
Updates and Modern installs with AI
This course is a few years old and some of the exercises may need updates for new versions of the packages we use. That's part of the fun! :) In 2023, I started teaching a variation of it as CE 610: Big Data and Supply Chain Analytics. In making that switch, I changed some content and began using Github Classroom for students to submit assignments. If you are interested in working through those materials and assignments, please get in touch.
In 2025, I began experimenting with AI chatbots for coding support. I took this as an opportunity to modernize my workflow. For my current recommended installs, see: