Introduction to Data Science

Part I

– Course Manual –

2021-2022

Course code: E EOR1 IDS

Students: EDS
Form of tuition: Lectures, work groups
Assessment: Weekly assignments, final exam
Faculty: School of Business and Economics

Teachers
Marina Friedrich (m.friedrich@vu.nl)
Frano Karačić (franokaracic123@outlook.com)
Berkay Arslangedikli (berkayarslangedikli2002@gmail.com)
Contents

1 Administrative matters 1
1.1 Prerequisites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Course material . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.3 Assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

2 Lecture Plan 3

3 Assignments 4

4 Communication and Contact 5

1 Administrative matters

Part I of Introduction to Data Science (IDS) will set the ground for your entire study track
and your work as data scientist. The concepts that will be introduced in the upcoming
six weeks are basic elements of probability theory. They cover combinatoric methods,
axioms of probability, conditional probability, and random variables. For the latter, we
will focus on discrete random variables. We will conclude Part I with considering some
special discrete probability distributions.
The course consists of (recorded) lectures, (live) weekly Q&A meetings and (live) tu-
torials. The lectures will be made available every Monday before 9:00 in the form of
pre-recorded video clips on the Canvas Module of the week (see the lecture plan be-
low for more information). Additionally, every Wednesday there will be a live Q&A
meeting on campus for recap and to ask any questions that might arise. The live meet-
ing will take place at 13:30 in room 6A01 of the OZW building (for a campus map,
visit https://vu.nl/en/about-vu/more-about/vu-campus-map). In this
meeting, we will start with a short recap of the week’s material and there will be time to
ask all your questions. It is highly encouraged to watch both lectures before the meet-
ing. To ensure an efficient meeting with as much interaction as possible, please post your
questions before the meeting on the discussion board (Canvas Discussions).
The first meeting on Monday, 6 September 2021, at 13:30 will be a live introductory
lecture. It will take place in the usual Q& A room: 6A01 of the OZW building. Note that
in all other weeks, there will be no live lecture on Mondays.
Tutorial meetings (which are also called work groups) take place every Thursday at
15:30 in room M129 of the WN building. All tutorials of Part I will be given by Frano
Karačić. The tutorial exercises of each week will be made available together with the
lecture clips on Mondays. Please try to solve the exercises in advance. Otherwise, it will
be difficult to follow the explanations during the tutorials. We will not be able to cover all
exercises during the meeting. You can state your preferences for exercises that should be
discussed at the beginning of each meeting. This is why it is even more important to be
well prepared.

1.1 Prerequisites

This course presumes that the students are familiar with basic mathematical methods. In
the first week of the course, a recap will be provided of the most important concepts which
include sum notation and set theory.

1
1.2 Course material

The main material for the course will be the lecture slides and lecture recordings as well
as the tutorial exercises. The lecture slides are based on the following book which will
serve as additional material:

Ross (2013), A First Course in Probability, 9th edition, Pearson New International
Edition, Pearson, 2013

1.3 Assessment

Part I accounts for 50% of the whole course (Part I + Part II): final exam (45%) + group
assignments (5%). The final exam will take place on Monday, 25 October 2021, at 12:15
on campus. Details on the assignments can be found below.

2
2 Lecture Plan
Lecture Topic Section
Week 1 Introduction to the course LS
Combinatorial analysis 1.1
Basic principle of counting 1.2
Permutations 1.3
Combinations 1.4
Binomial theorem 1.4
Week 2 Introduction 2.1
Experiment, sample space, events 2.2
Axioms of probability 2.3
Some propositions 2.4
Equally likely outcomes 2.5
Week 3 Introduction 3.1
Conditional probability 3.2
Law of multiplication 3.3
Total law of probability 3.3
Bayes’ formula 3.3
Independent events 3.4
Axioms of conditional probabilities 3.5
Week 4 Random variables 4.1
Distribution functions 4.1
Discrete random variables 4.2
Probability mass function 4.2
Expected value 4.3
Expectation of a function of a random variable 4.4
Variance 4.5
Moments of discrete random variables LS
Week 5 Bernoulli and binomial random variables 4.6
Properties of Binomial random variables 4.6.1
Computing the Binomial distribution function 4.6.2
The Poisson random variable 4.7
Computing the Poisson distribution function 4.7.1
Geometric random variables 4.8.1
The negative binomial random variable 4.8.2
Hypergeometric random variable 4.8.3
Expected values of sums of random variables 4.9
Properties of the cumulative distribution function 4.10
Week 6 Recap of the first part of the course 1.1 - 4.10
Preparing for the exam LS

Table 1: Lecture plan for Part I of IDS

(LS: Lecture Slides)

3
3 Assignments

Please carefully read the following instructions:

• The assignments of Part I will count for 5% of your final grade

• The assignment of the week will additionally be announced on Canvas each Wednes-
day before the Q&A meeting

• The deadline for handing in will be the week after the announcement, Wednesdays
at 13:00 (before the next meeting will take place)

• They need to be solved in groups of 4-5 students (please select a group on the
Canvas’ People page)

• Please upload the assignments on Canvas Assignments as a single pdf document

in which the pages are all facing the right way (not upside down) and in the right
order (if you take photos of handwritten solutions you can use a pdf converter, for
example, https://jpg2pdf.com/)

• You will receive your weekly grade as well as feedback on your submission on
Canvas by Berkay Arslangedikli

• The exercises below refer to the 9th edition of the book:

Ross (2013), A First Course in Probability, 9th edition, Pearson New Interna-
tional Edition, Pearson, 2013

• Photos of the exercises will be attached to the Canvas announcements to make sure
that everyone has access to the correct exercises

• Enjoy the teamwork!

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 Exercises Deadline
Week 1 Chapter 1
Problems 9,10,30 15.09.2021, 13:00
Theoretical Exercises 2,10
Week 2 Chapter 2
Problems 15,17,18,48 22.09.2021, 13:00
Theoretical Exercises 16
Week 3 Chapter 3
Problems 22,29,30,76 29.09.2021, 13:00
Theoretical Exercises 16
Week 4 Chapter 4
Problems 20,23,30,35 06.10.2021, 13:00
Theoretical Exercises 6
Week 5 Chapter 4
Problems 58,60,74 13.10.2021, 13:00
Theoretical Exercises 13,36

Table 2: List of assignment exercises

4 Communication and Contact

Information on the course is disseminated through Canvas. Students can asks ques-
tions during the live Q&A sessions on Wednesdays. For urgent questions, please contact
m.friedrich@vu.nl. You can also contact Frano and Berkay through Canvas email.