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Introduction to Data Science 📊 | Spring 2026

Understanding data and how it shapes the world around us

Spring 2026

PETER 110

Tues & Thurs 9:30-10:50AM

If you are joining the course late and would still like to earn full credit for assignments, please read this! Please also note that I have no control over the waitlist. Please email cogsadvising@ucsd.edu or drop in their office hours (your best bet)!

Office Hours

  • Prof. Lai:
  • TAs: During discussion section
  • PLAs:
    • Mon, 1-2pm @ CSB Courtyard ↗ (in-person only!) with Alex Nieto
    • Mon, 4-5pm @ Zoom ↗ with Gabriel Lopes
    • Mon, 7-8p @ Zoom ↗ with Yash Date
    • Tues, 2-3pm, @ HDSI 155 + Zoom ↗ with Amelia Oo + Tanvi Vidyala
    • Tues, 5-6pm, @ HDSI 155 + Zoom ↗ with Michael Yang

Week 1 - Intro to Data Science
📘 Read Syllabus & Course Policies
📘 Read R1: 50 Years of Data Science

🧑‍🏫  Tue Mar 31

LEC 1 Course overview & what is data science?
slides

MISC 💡 Webclicker 101

🧑‍🏫  Wed Apr 1

DISC NO SECTION IN WEEK 1!

🧑‍🏫  Thu Apr 2

LEC 2 Data science questions
slides

Week 2 - Ethics & Data
📘 Read R2: Ethics Readings

🧑‍🏫  Tue Apr 7

LEC 3 Ethics and privacy
slides

MISC Pre-Course Survey DUE @ 11:59pm submit here

QUIZ Syllabus Quiz DUE @ 11:59pm submit here

QUIZ R1 Quiz DUE @ 11:59pm submit here

🧑‍🏫  Wed Apr 8

DISC 9am & 11am sections (Fuling)
slides

DISC 10am & 12pm sections (Tony)
slides

DISC 1pm & 2pm sections (Jiesen)
slides

🧑‍🏫  Thu Apr 9

LEC 4 Data & data types
slides

Week 3 - Data Collection and Wrangling
📘 Read R3: Data Organization Readings

🧑‍🏫  Tue Apr 14

LEC 5 Obtaining data
slides

QUIZ R2 Quiz DUE @ 11:59pm submit here

🧑‍🏫  Wed Apr 15

DISC 9am & 11am sections (Fuling)
slides

DISC 10am & 12pm sections (Tony)
slides

DISC 1pm & 2pm sections (Jiesen)
slides

PROJ Project Group-Finding Form DUE submit here

🧑‍🏫  Thu Apr 16

GUEST [ZOOM] Guest lecture: Steven Zhang - Co-Founder, Interconnection.fyi & ClimateTechList (see details on Canvas)

Week 4

🧑‍🏫  Tue Apr 21

LEC 6 Data wrangling

QUIZ R3 Quiz DUE @ 11:59pm submit here

🧑‍🏫  Wed Apr 22

DISC ALL Sections — Exam 1 Review (Practice questions linked below)
slides

🧑‍🏫  Thu Apr 23

EXAM EXAM 1 (In-class, 50-60 MC questions, 80 mins; Please contact Prof. Lai if you will require accommodated testing. If you miss the exam for any other reason, please contact your section TA/PLA ASAP!)
slides

Week 5 - Data Visualization & EDA
📘 Read R4: Data Visualization Readings

🧑‍🏫  Tue Apr 28

LEC 7 Data visualization

PROJ P1 Group Project Checkpoint 1 DUE @ 11:59pm submit here

🧑‍🏫  Wed Apr 29

DISC ALL Sections — Post-exam review

🧑‍🏫  Thu Apr 30

LEC 8 Exploratory data analysis

Week 6 - Statistical Inference & Machine Learning

🧑‍🏫  Tue May 5

LEC 9 Statistical inference & hypothesis testing

QUIZ R4 Quiz DUE @ 11:59pm submit here

🧑‍🏫  Wed May 6

DISC 9am & 11am sections (Fuling)

DISC 10am & 12pm sections (Tony)

DISC 1pm & 2pm sections (Jiesen)

🧑‍🏫  Thu May 7

GUEST Guest lecture: Eshed Margalit — Director of Machine Learning Research, Noetik

Week 7 - Machine Learning

🏠  Tue May 12

LEC 10 Machine learning I - Supervised Learning

HW A1 Data Visualization DUE @ 11:59pm submit here

🧑‍🏫  Wed May 13

DISC 9am & 11am sections (Fuling)

DISC 10am & 12pm sections (Tony)

DISC 1pm & 2pm sections (Jiesen)

🧑‍🏫  Thu May 14

LEC 11 Machine learning II - Supervised Learning Model Evaluation

Week 8 - Machine Learning & Reproducibility
📘 Read R5: Machine Learning Readings

🏠  Tue May 19

LEC 12 Machine learning III - Unsupervised Learning & Reinforcement Learning

HW A2 p-values DUE @ 11:59pm submit here

🧑‍🏫  Wed May 20

DISC ALL Sections - Exam 2 Review

🧑‍🏫  Thu May 21

LEC 13 Algorithmic Bias & Fairness

Week 9

🧑‍🏫  Tue May 26

GUEST Guest lecture: Emily Jones — Senior Data Scientist, Epic Games

QUIZ R5 Quiz DUE @ 11:59pm submit here

🧑‍🏫  Wed May 27

DISC Post-exam reflection (all sections)

🧑‍🏫  Thu May 28

EXAM EXAM 2 (In-class, 50-60 MC questions, 80 mins; Please contact Prof. Lai if you will require accommodated testing. If you miss the exam for any other reason, please contact your section TA/PLA ASAP!)

Week 10 - Applications & Future of Data Science

🏠  Tue Jun 2

LEC 14 Data science applications

HW A3 Machine Learning DUE @ 11:59pm submit here

🧑‍🏫  Wed Jun 3

DISC 9am & 11am sections (Fuling)

DISC 10am & 12pm sections (Tony)

DISC 1pm & 2pm sections (Jiesen)

🧑‍🏫  Thu Jun 4

LEC 15 Future of data science

Week 11 - Final Project
🎥 Final project due this week. **NO FINAL EXAM!**

🏠  Tue Jun 9

PROJ P2 Group Project Checkpoint 2 DUE @ 11:59pm submit here