This workshop will provide a practical introduction to Python for Data Science. Across three days, students will learn to import, clean, and analyze datasets using Python to answer interesting, topical questions.

No prior knowledge of programming is expected, but enthusiasm and a willingness to experiment with (and occasionally break!) things are essential. The workshop will be fast-paced and challenging, so attendance is required across all three days.

All exercises and worked examples will be based on real-life, topical questions, including: 

• What are the strongest drivers of house prices?

•  Which UK cities have the highest crime rates?

•  Which industries have large gender pay gaps?

•  Have the topics of British political debate changed over time?

•  Can we monitor cryptocurrency prices in real-time? 

For humanities students, this workshop will add an extra string to their bow and supercharge their analysis and research skills. For maths and engineering students, this workshop will expose learners to a range of advanced techniques, from APIs to natural language processing. 

Prerequisites:

 The course assumes no prior knowledge of programming or Python. All required is a willingness to learn and a commitment to attending the entire workshop. A good baseline level of numeracy is required, so all attendees should have a strong GCSE/O-Level Maths grade. 

Who should attend:

 Undergraduates who would like to learn Python with a focus on real-world problems, interesting datasets, and new techniques. The workshop will give them a competitive edge in their careers and broaden their horizons about what's possible with code. The course is designed to be accessible to students from the sciences and the humanities. 

This workshop is not suitable for those who are already proficient in Python and have a solid understanding of libraries such as requests, pandas, and matplotlib.