Register for DataLab’s 2025 Introduction to Data Science Courses

It’s time to register for Adventures in Data Science 2025! This two-quarter series taught by DataLab directors Drs. Carl Stahmer and Pamela Reynolds with engagement from the entire DataLab team, offers a hands-on introduction to data science. The series is listed in course builder as STS 115: Data Sense & Exploration: Critical Storytelling with Analysis (winter) and STS 195: Research in Data Studies (spring). While we increased the course enrollment to 72 students, space is limited so we encourage interested students to register as soon as possible.

The first course in the series (STS 115) focuses on acquiring the skills necessary for performing data-driven, interdisciplinary research, and is followed by a quarter-long immersion in applied data science for research (STS 195). Combined, this challenging two-quarter series introduces students to the basics of computer programming and data analysis using the R programming language and provides hands-on exposure to the core skills needed to work in interdisciplinary, team-research settings with complex datasets.

This series is designed for students with no prior computing background who have declared (or are intending to declare) a traditionally non-computational major and/or minor. Students from the social sciences, humanities, and arts are particularly encouraged to register for this course. Students in the life and physical sciences with no to little programming experience are also eligible to register. This series fulfills electives for the data science major. While this is an undergraduate series, graduate students are also eligible to register.

Course Descriptions

WINTER 2025 – STS 115: “Adventures in Data Science (Part 1)”
Data Sense & Exploration – Critical Storytelling with Analysis

Data science and the communication of data insights through critical analysis and storytelling. Introduction to network architecture, file system and command line basics, version control, data structures and types, webscraping, text mining, and basic programming skills in the R computing environment for data exploration, cleaning, analysis, and visualization. Attention to the historical and social contexts of data analysis emphasizing narrative. Prerequisite(s): None. Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hours, Discussion/Laboratory 1 hour. Grade Mode: Letter. 4 units. GE OL.

If you don’t see this course on Course Builder, request a PTA.

Course Schedule for STS 115 Winter 2025
Lecture/Lab: FRIDAYS 9 AM – 12 PM (Shields Library, Room 167)
Discussion sections: TUESDAYS 2:10-3 PM OR 3:10-4 PM (Shields Library, Room 360)

SPRING 2025 – STS 195: “Adventures in Data Science (Part 2)”
Research in Data Studies

Analysis of real-world data in the form of on-going active research projects. Emphasizes teamwork in the identification of problems, methods, and implementation as students are embedded into research teams with classmates, data scientists, and external research collaborators from across the University. Projects entail data gathering, cleaning, exploration, analysis, and visualization using R; and interpretation and presentation of results in oral, visual, and textual formats to a variety of researchers and community members. Prerequisite(s): STS 115 and consent of instructor. Learning Activities: Lecture/Discussion 3 hours, Discussion/Laboratory 1 hour(s). Grade Mode: Letter (or P/NP). 4 units. GE SS.