ACCRA TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF APPLIED SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT: COMPUTER SCIENCE
PROGRAMME: COMPUTER SCIENCE
COURSE OUTLINE
Course Title INTRODUCTION TO DATA SCIENCE WITH
PYTHON
Course Code / Credits / Contact Hours BCS 404 3
Offer in Academic Year / Semester/Level 2024-2025 2 100
NAME OF ACADEMIC STAFF DR. NANA YAW DUODU
[email protected]COURSE DESCRIPTION
This course provides an overview of Data Science, covering key challenges and methodologies
for working with big data. Topics include data collection, integration, management, modelling,
analysis, visualization, prediction, and data-driven decision-making, along with data security
and privacy considerations. This introductory course integrates core disciplines of Data
Science, including databases, data warehousing, statistics, data mining, data visualization,
high-performance computing, cloud computing, and business intelligence.
Additionally, professional skills such as communication, presentation, and storytelling with
data will be emphasized. Students will gain hands-on experience through projects and case
studies in diverse domains such as business, engineering, social sciences, and life sciences.
Ethical considerations, leadership, and teamwork will also be explored throughout the course.
COURSE OBJECTIVES
At the end of the course, it is expected that students acquire competency in:
1. Fundamentals of data science and its applications.
2. Using Python programming for data manipulation and analysis.
3. Implement data visualization techniques to interpret datasets effectively.
4. Apply statistical analysis and machine learning concepts to real-world problems.
5. Evaluate model performance and optimize data-driven solutions.
WEEK COURSE CONTENT
1. Introduction to Data Science and Python
2. Python Fundamentals for Data Science
3. Data Manipulation with Pandas and NumPy
4. Data Visualization with Matplotlib and Seaborn
5. Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) Techniques
6. Statistical Analysis and Data Pre-processing
7. Introduction to Machine Learning
8. Machine Learning Basics with Scikit-Learn
9. Working with Real-World Datasets
10. Model Evaluation and Performance Metrics
11. Big Data and Cloud Computing in Data Science
12. Ethics and Responsible AI in Data Science
COURSE DELIVERY METHODOLOGY
1. The course consists of classroom instruction including lectures using classical lecture
style, power point slides.
2. Home work will be assigned using a take-home procedure to increase students' skills in
network security.
3. A group project will be assigned in which members will be required to implement a
network security configuration and present their work to the class.
COURSE ASSESSMENT METHODS
Assessment Method Description Weight
1. Continuous Assessment 1. Assignments / Practical Report 10
2. Attendance 10
2. Mid Semester Exams 3. Mid Semester Written Exam 20
Total 40%
3. End of Semester 4. Written Exams 60%
Grant Total 100%
READING LIST
1. Alex, J. G. & Jordan, G. (2021). Becoming a data head: How to think, speak, and
understand data science, statistics, and machine learning. 1st Edition, Wiley, ISBN-
13:978-1119741749.
2. Efron, B., & Hastie, T. (2021). Computer age statistical inference, student edition:
Algorithms, evidence, and data science (Vol. 6). Cambridge University Press.
3. Nathan, G. (2021). Practical data science with python: Learn tools and techniques from
hands-on examples to extract insights from data, Packt Publishing, ISBN-13: 978-
1801071970.
4. Nield, T. (2022). Essential math for data science: Take control of your data with
fundamental linear algebra, probability, and statistics. 1st Edition, O'Reilly Media,
ISBN-13: 978-1098102937.
5. Timbers, T., Campbell, T., & Lee, M. (2022). Data science: A first introduction. CRC
Press.
SOFTWARE & TOOLS 1. Jupyter Notebook
2. Google Colab
3. VS Code / PyCharm
