UCSD Data Science Course Websites
This site contains course websites for many of the courses in and adjacent to UCSD’s data science curriculum.
This is not intended to be used as a list of all courses that HDSI offers, and the information here may be out of date. For official information about all of our course offerings, please refer to the Undergraduate and Graduate program pages on the official HDSI website.
A related list, compiled by Jason Fleischer, contains descriptions of all ML/AI-adjacent courses at UCSD as of 2020/2021.
Undergraduate DSC courses Undergraduate COGS courses Graduate DSC courses
Undergraduate DSC Courses
Some of these courses are required for the data science major, while others are not. See the major requirements page for more details.
DSC 10 Principles of Data Science
Most recent offering: Summer Session 1 2024 (Kheterpal)
Previous offerings: Spring 2024 (Tiefenbruck) • Winter 2024 (Tiefenbruck) • Fall 2023 (Albuyeh, Rampure, Tiefenbruck) • Spring 2023 (Rampure) • Winter 2023 (Tiefenbruck) • Fall 2022 (Rampure, Tabaghi, Tiefenbruck) • Summer 2022 (Lau) • Spring 2022 (Tiefenbruck) • Winter 2022 (Rampure) • Fall 2021 (Rampure, Tiefenbruck)
Previous offerings: Spring 2024 (Tiefenbruck) • Winter 2024 (Tiefenbruck) • Fall 2023 (Albuyeh, Rampure, Tiefenbruck) • Spring 2023 (Rampure) • Winter 2023 (Tiefenbruck) • Fall 2022 (Rampure, Tabaghi, Tiefenbruck) • Summer 2022 (Lau) • Spring 2022 (Tiefenbruck) • Winter 2022 (Rampure) • Fall 2021 (Rampure, Tiefenbruck)
This introductory course develops computational thinking and tools necessary to answer questions that arise from large-scale datasets. This course emphasizes an end-to-end approach to data science, introducing programming techniques in Python that cover data processing, modeling, and analysis. Prerequisites: none.
DSC 20 Programming and Data Structures for Data Science
Most recent offering: Summer Session 1 2024 (Tayeb)
Previous offerings: Spring 2023 (Langlois) • Winter 2023 (Langlois) • Fall 2022 (Langlois)
Previous offerings: Spring 2023 (Langlois) • Winter 2023 (Langlois) • Fall 2022 (Langlois)
Provides an understanding of the structures that underlie the programs, algorithms, and languages used in data science by expanding the repertoire of computational concepts introduced in DSC 10 and exposing students to techniques of abstraction. Course will be taught in Python and will cover topics including recursion, higher-order functions, function composition, object-oriented programming, interpreters, classes, and simple data structures such as arrays, lists, and linked lists. Prerequisites: DSC 10. Restricted to students within the DS25 major. All other students will be allowed as space permits.
DSC 30 Data Structures and Algorithms for Data Science
Builds on topics covered in DSC 20 and provides practical experience in composing larger computational systems through several significant programming projects using Java. Students will study advanced programming techniques including encapsulation, abstract data types, interfaces, algorithms and complexity, and data structures such as stacks, queues, priority queues, heaps, linked lists, binary trees, binary search trees, and hash tables. Prerequisites: DSC 20. Restricted to students within the DS25 major. All other students will be allowed as space permits.
DSC 40A Theoretical Foundations of Data Science I
Most recent offering: Summer Session 1 2024 (Shannon)
Previous offerings: Spring 2024 (Rampure) • Winter 2024 (Li) • Summer 2023 (Albuyeh) • Spring 2023 (Tiefenbruck) • Fall 2022 (Hy, Soleymani) • Winter 2022 (Tiefenbruck) • Fall 2021 (Rampure)
Previous offerings: Spring 2024 (Rampure) • Winter 2024 (Li) • Summer 2023 (Albuyeh) • Spring 2023 (Tiefenbruck) • Fall 2022 (Hy, Soleymani) • Winter 2022 (Tiefenbruck) • Fall 2021 (Rampure)
This course, the first of a two-course sequence (DSC 40A-B), will introduce the theoretical foundations of data science. Students will become familiar with mathematical language for expressing data analysis problems and solution strategies, and will receive training in probabilistic reasoning, mathematical modeling of data, and algorithmic problem solving. DSC 40A will introduce fundamental topics in machine learning, statistics, and linear algebra with applications to data analysis. DSC 40A-B connect to DSC 10, 20, and 30 by providing the theoretical foundation for the methods that underlie data science. Prerequisites: DSC 10, MATH 20C or MATH 31BH, and MATH 18 or MATH 20F or MATH 31AH. Restricted to students within the DS25 major. All other students will be allowed as space permits.
DSC 40B Theoretical Foundations of Data Science II
Most recent offering: Winter 2023 (Eldridge, Wang)
Previous offerings: Fall 2022 (Eldridge) • Spring 2022 (Mazumdar) • Fall 2021 (Eldridge, Wang) • Spring 2021 (Mazumdar, Wang)
Previous offerings: Fall 2022 (Eldridge) • Spring 2022 (Mazumdar) • Fall 2021 (Eldridge, Wang) • Spring 2021 (Mazumdar, Wang)
The sequence DSC 40A-B introduces the theoretical foundations of data science and covers the following topics: mathematical language for expressing data analysis problems and solution strategies, probabilistic reasoning, mathematical modeling of data, and algorithmic problem solving. DSC 40B, the second course in the sequence, introduces fundamental topics in combinatorics, graph theory, probability, and continuous and discrete algorithms with applications to data analysis. Prerequisites: DSC 20 and 40A. Restricted to students within the DS25 major. All other students will be allowed as space permits.
DSC 80 Practice and Application of Data Science
Most recent offering: Spring 2024 (Lau)
Previous offerings: Winter 2024 (Rampure) • Fall 2023 (Lau) • Spring 2023 (Rahman) • Winter 2023 (Rampure) • Fall 2022 (Eldridge) • Spring 2022 (Rampure) • Fall 2021 (Eldridge)
Previous offerings: Winter 2024 (Rampure) • Fall 2023 (Lau) • Spring 2023 (Rahman) • Winter 2023 (Rampure) • Fall 2022 (Eldridge) • Spring 2022 (Rampure) • Fall 2021 (Eldridge)
The marriage of data, computation, and inferential thinking, or “data science,” is redefining how people and organizations solve challenging problems and understand the world. This course bridges lower- and upper-division data science courses as well as methods courses in other fields. Students master the data science life-cycle and learn many of the fundamental principles and techniques of data science spanning algorithms, statistics, machine learning, visualization, and data systems. Prerequisites: DSC 30 and DSC 40A. Restricted to students within the DS25 major. All other students will be allowed as space permits.
DSC 90 Seminar in Data Science: History of Data Science
DSC 95 Tutor Apprenticeship in Data Science
Most recent offering: Spring 2024 (Rampure)
Previous offerings: Winter 2024 (Jemmott) • Spring 2023 (Rampure)
Previous offerings: Winter 2024 (Jemmott) • Spring 2023 (Rampure)
DSC 96 Workshop in Data Science
Most recent offering: Fall 2023 (Jemmott)
DSC 100 Introduction to Data Management
Most recent offering: Spring 2024 (Salimi)
Previous offerings: Winter 2024 (Shannon) • Spring 2023 (Salimi) • Winter 2023 (Salimi) • Fall 2022 (Salimi) • Fall 2021 (Salimi) • Spring 2021 (Salimi) • Winter 2021 (Salimi)
Previous offerings: Winter 2024 (Shannon) • Spring 2023 (Salimi) • Winter 2023 (Salimi) • Fall 2022 (Salimi) • Fall 2021 (Salimi) • Spring 2021 (Salimi) • Winter 2021 (Salimi)
This course is an introduction to storage and management of large-scale data using classical relational (SQL) systems, with an eye toward applications in data science. The course covers topics including the SQL data model and query language, relational data modeling and schema design, elements of cost-based query optimizations, relational data base architecture, and database-backed applications. Prerequisites: DSC 80 and DSC 40B. Restricted to students with upper-division standing. Restricted to students within the DS25 major. All otherstudents will be allowed as space permits.
DSC 102 Systems for Scalable Analytics
Most recent offering: Spring 2024 (Jin)
Previous offerings: Fall 2023 (Jin) • Spring 2023 (Albuyeh) • Fall 2022 (Kumar) • Winter 2022 (Kumar) • Winter 2021 (Kumar) • Winter 2020 (Kumar)
Previous offerings: Fall 2023 (Jin) • Spring 2023 (Albuyeh) • Fall 2022 (Kumar) • Winter 2022 (Kumar) • Winter 2021 (Kumar) • Winter 2020 (Kumar)
This course introduces the principles of computing systems and infrastructure for scaling analytics to large datasets. Topics include memory hierarchy, distributed systems, model selection, heterogeneous datasets, and deployment at scale. The course will also discuss the design of systems such as MapReduce/Hadoop and Spark, in conjunction with their implementation. Students will also learn how dataflow operations can be used to perform data preparation, cleaning, and feature engineering. Prerequisites: DSC 100. Restricted to students with upper-division standing. Restricted to students within the DS25 major. All other students will be allowed as space permits.
DSC 106 Introduction to Data Visualization
Most recent offering: Spring 2024 (Wilber)
Previous offerings: Winter 2024 (Lau) • Spring 2022 (Liao)
Previous offerings: Winter 2024 (Lau) • Spring 2022 (Liao)
Data visualization helps explore and interpret data through interaction. This course introduces the principles, techniques, and algorithms for creating effective visualizations. The course draws on the knowledge from several disciplines including computer graphics, human-computer interaction, cognitive psychology, design, and statistical graphics and synthesizes relevant ideas. Students will design visualization systems using D3 or other web-based software and evaluate their effectiveness. Prerequisites: DSC 80. Restricted to students with upper-division standing. Restricted to students within the DS25 major. All other students will be allowed as space permits.
DSC 140A Probabilistic Modeling and Machine Learning
DSC 140B Representation Learning
DSC 148 Introduction to Data Mining
DSC 180AB Capstone Sequence
Most recent offering: Fall 2023 + Winter 2024 (Rampure)
Previous offerings: Fall 2022 + Winter 2023 (Rampure) • Fall 2021 + Winter 2022 (Fraenkel)
Previous offerings: Fall 2022 + Winter 2023 (Rampure) • Fall 2021 + Winter 2022 (Fraenkel)
In this two-course sequence students will investigate a topic and design a system to produce statistically informed output. The investigation will span the entire lifecycle, including assessing the problem, learning domain knowledge, collecting/cleaning data, creating a model, addressing ethical issues, designing the system, analyzing the output, and presenting the results. 180A deals with research, methodology, and system design. Students will produce a research summary and a project proposal. Prerequisites: DSC 102 and MATH 189 and CSE 151A or COGS 188 or CSE 158, DSC 106. Restricted to students with upper-division standing. Restricted to students within the DS25 major.
DSC 190 Advanced Algorithms
Most recent offering: Winter 2022 (Eldridge)
DSC 190 Algorithms for Data Science
Most recent offering: Winter 2021 (Mazumdar)
Undergraduate COGS Courses
Of these, COGS 9 is the only course that is required for the data science major.
COGS 9 Introduction to Data Science
Concepts of data and its role in science will be introduced, as well as the ideas behind data-mining, text-mining, machine learning, and graph theory, and how scientists and companies are leveraging those methods to uncover new insights into human cognition.
COGS 18 Introduction to Python
Most recent offering: Spring 2024 (Ellis)
This class will teach fundamental Python programming skills and practices, including the “Zen of Python.” Students will focus on scientific computing and learn to write functions and tests, as well as how to debug code using the Jupyter Notebook programming environment. Students may receive credit for one of the following: COGS 18, CSE 8A, or CSE 6R. Recommended preparation: students with limited computing experience may take COGS 3.
COGS 108 Data Science in Practice
Most recent offering: All offerings
Data science is multidisciplinary, covering computer science, statistics, cognitive science and psychology, data visualization, artificial intelligence and machine learning, among others. This course teaches critical skills needed to pursue a data science career using hands-on programming and experimental challenges. Prerequisites: CSE 11 or CSE 8A or COGS 18 or DSC 10 or MAE 8.
COGS 137 Practical Data Science in R
Most recent offering: Winter 2023 (Ellis)
Learn coding for data analysis using the R programming language. Course focus will be on practical and applied skills in asking data-informed questions, data wrangling, data visualization, building statistical learning models, and communicating your findings to advance your career. Prerequisites: COGS 14B or MATH 11 or PSYC 60.
Graduate DSC Courses
Only a small fraction of our graduate course offerings are listed here; see the course offerings page for more.
DSC 204A Scalable Data Systems
Most recent offering: Spring 2023 (Jin)
DSC 253 Advanced Data-Driven Text Mining
Most recent offering: Spring 2023 (Shang)
DSC 291 Trustworthy Machine Learning
Most recent offering: Spring 2023 (Weng)
DSC 291 Privacy-Preserving Data Systems
Most recent offering: Winter 2023 (Jin)
DSC 291 Mobile and Ubiquitous Computing
Most recent offering: Winter 2023 (Rahman)
DSC 291 Coding Theory
Most recent offering: Fall 2022 (Mazumdar)