Introduction to Data Science 📊 | Winter 2026
Understanding data and how it shapes the world around us
Winter 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:
- Tues, 2-3pm (book ↗ only) @ CSB 244/Zoom
- Wed, 4:30-5:30pm (walk-in!) @ CSB 244
- Thurs, 2-3pm (walk-in!) @ CSB 244
- TAs: During discussion section
- PLAs:
- Fri, 12-2p @ Zoom ↗ (Brandon, Jayminn)
- Fri, 12-1p @ CSB 114 (Alex)
- Fri, 1-2p @ HDSI 155 (Adrian, TQ)
Week 1 - Intro to Data Science
📘 Read Syllabus & Course Policies
📘 Read R1: 50 Years of Data Science
- 🧑🏫 Mon Jan 5
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DISC NO Discussion Section
- 🧑🏫 Tue Jan 6
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LEC 1 Course overview & what is data science?
slides -
MISC 💡 Webclicker 101
- 🧑🏫 Thu Jan 8
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LEC 2 Data science questions
slides - 🧑🏫 Fri Jan 9
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OH PLA office hours
Week 2 - Ethics & Data
📘 Read R2: Ethics Readings
- 🧑🏫 Mon Jan 12
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DISC 9am & 10am sections (Fuling)
slides -
DISC 11am & 1pm sections (Ian)
slides -
DISC 2pm & 4pm sections (Jiesen)
slides -
QUIZ R1 Quiz DUE @ 11:59pm submit here
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MISC Syllabus Quiz DUE @ 11:59pm submit here
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MISC Pre-Course Survey DUE @ 11:59pm submit here
- 🧑🏫 Tue Jan 13
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LEC 3 Ethics and privacy
slides - 🧑🏫 Thu Jan 15
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LEC 4 Data & data types
slides - 🧑🏫 Fri Jan 16
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OH PLA office hours
Week 3 - Data Collection and Wrangling
📘 Read R3: Data Organization Readings
- 🧑🏫 Mon Jan 19
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DISC HOLIDAY—NO Discussion Section (everyone gets free +1pt)
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QUIZ R2 Quiz DUE @ 11:59pm submit here
- 🧑🏫 Tue Jan 20
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LEC 5 Obtaining data
slides -
MISC Project Group-Finding Form DUE submit here
- 🧑🏫 Thu Jan 22
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LEC 6 Data wrangling
slides - 🧑🏫 Fri Jan 23
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OH PLA office hours
Week 4
- 🧑🏫 Mon Jan 26
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DISC ALL Sections — Exam 1 Review (Practice questions linked below)
slides -
QUIZ R3 Quiz DUE @ 11:59pm submit here
- 🧑🏫 Tue Jan 27
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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!). Webclicker question slides are linked below.
slides - 🧑🏫 Thu Jan 29
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GUEST Guest lecture: Eddie Reyes — Co-Founder, Buoy Health & Forbes 30u30
- 🧑🏫 Fri Jan 30
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OH PLA office hours
Week 5 - Data Visualization & EDA
📘 Read R4: Data Visualization Readings
- 🧑🏫 Mon Feb 2
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DISC ALL Sections — Post-exam review
slides -
PROJ P1 Group Project Checkpoint 1 DUE @ 11:59pm submit here
- 🧑🏫 Tue Feb 3
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LEC 7 Data visualization (given by aspiring professor & PLA, Alex Nieto!)
slides - 🧑🏫 Thu Feb 5
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LEC 8 Exploratory data analysis
slides - 🧑🏫 Fri Feb 6
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OH PLA office hours
Week 6 - Statistical Inference & Machine Learning
- 🧑🏫 Mon Feb 9
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QUIZ R4 Quiz DUE @ 11:59pm submit here
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DISC 9am & 10am sections (Fuling)
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DISC 11am & 1pm sections (Ian)
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DISC 2pm & 4pm sections (Jiesen)
- 🧑🏫 Tue Feb 10
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LEC 9 Statistical inference & hypothesis testing
- 🧑🏫 Thu Feb 12
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LEC 10 Machine learning I
- 🧑🏫 Fri Feb 13
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OH PLA office hours
Week 7 - Machine Learning
- 🏠 Mon Feb 16
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DISC HOLIDAY—NO Discussion Section (everyone gets free +1pt)
- 🧑🏫 Tue Feb 17
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LEC 11 Machine learning II
- 🧑🏫 Thu Feb 19
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GUEST Guest lecture: Sundas Khalid — Principal Analytics Lead, Google Search; YouTuber & Educator
- 🧑🏫 Fri Feb 20
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OH PLA office hours
Week 8 - Algorithms & Reproducibility
📘 Read R5: Machine Learning Readings
- 🏠 Mon Feb 23
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DISC 9am & 10am sections (Fuling)
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DISC 11am & 1pm sections (Ian)
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DISC 2pm & 4pm sections (Jiesen)
- 🧑🏫 Tue Feb 24
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LEC 12 Algorithms and computability
- 🧑🏫 Thu Feb 26
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LEC 13 Reproducibility & version control
- 🧑🏫 Fri Feb 27
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OH PLA office hours
Week 9
- 🧑🏫 Mon Mar 2
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DISC ALL Sections - Exam 2 Review
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QUIZ R5 Quiz DUE @ 11:59pm submit here
- 🧑🏫 Tue Mar 3
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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!)
- 🧑🏫 Thu Mar 5
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GUEST Guest lecture: Emma Krause — Staff Machine Learning Engineer, PathAI
- 🧑🏫 Fri Mar 6
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OH PLA office hours
Week 10 - Applications & Future of Data Science
- 🏠 Mon Mar 9
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DISC 9am & 10am sections (Fuling)
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DISC 11am & 1pm sections (Ian)
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DISC 2pm & 4pm sections (Jiesen)
- 🧑🏫 Tue Mar 10
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LEC 14 Data science applications
- 🧑🏫 Thu Mar 12
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LEC 15 Future of data science
- 🧑🏫 Fri Mar 13
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OH PLA office hours
Week 11 - Final Project
🎥 Final project due this week. **NO FINAL EXAM!**
- 🏠 Tue Mar 17
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PROJ P2 Group Project Checkpoint 2 DUE @ 11:59pm submit here