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DSC 40A

Theoretical Foundations of Data Science I

DSC 40A, Spring 2024 at UC San Diego

Suraj Rampure
he/him

rampure@ucsd.edu

Lecture(s): TuTh 12:30-1:50PM (A), 2-3:20PM (B), Center Hall 212

Jump to the current week Assignment Solutions

Here’s what you need to know:

  • The Final Exam is on Saturday from 8-11AM. There are several logistical details, which you should read about here. You will be assigned a seat, either in Center Hall 212 or 214, which you can look up here.
  • If at least 90% of the class fills out both the End-of-Quarter Survey and SETs by 8AM on Saturday, then the entire class will have 2% of extra credit added to their overall grade. We’re only around 80% as of now!
  • There’s a study session on Friday from 4-9PM in HDSI 123.
  • We’ve released a few review videos on combinatorics and Naïve Bayes.
  • The recordings and solutions from this week’s review sessions can be found at the bottom of this page.

Week 1 – Modeling and Loss Functions
📘 Read Note 1, Pages 1-12.

Tue Apr 2

LEC 1 Introduction to Modeling
                       

SUR Welcome Survey

Thu Apr 4

LEC 2 Empirical Risk Minimization
                       

EX HW Example Homework (not due!)
                       

Week 2 – Simple Linear Regression
📘 Read the spread notes and Note 2, Pages 1-7.

Mon Apr 8

DISC 1 Groupwork 1
                  

Tue Apr 9

LEC 3 Comparing Loss Functions
                       

Thu Apr 11

LEC 4 Simple Linear Regression
                           

HW 1 Homework 1
                     

Week 3 – Linear Algebra Review
📘 Read Note 2, Pages 7-13 and take a look at the Week 2 Lecture FAQs.

Mon Apr 15

DISC 2 Groupwork 2
                     

Tue Apr 16

LEC 5 Simple Linear Regression, Continued
                         

Thu Apr 18

LEC 6 Dot Products and Projections
                       

HW 2 Homework 2
                     

Week 4 – Regression and Linear Algebra
📘 Read Note 2, Pages 10-19.

Mon Apr 22

DISC 3 Groupwork 3
                     

Tue Apr 23

LEC 7 Orthogonal Projections
                       

Thu Apr 25

LEC 8 Regression and Linear Algebra
                         

Sat Apr 27

HW 3 Homework 3 (note the later deadline!)
                     

Week 5 – Multiple Linear Regression, Feature Engineering
📘 Read Note 1, Pages 16-17.

Mon Apr 29

DISC 4 Groupwork 4
                     

Tue Apr 30

LEC 9 Multiple Linear Regression
                         

Thu May 2

LEC 10 Feature Engineering, Gradient Descent
                           

HW 4 Homework 4
                     

Fri May 3

REV Midterm Review Session (Center Hall 109, 2-5PM)
                       

Week 6 – Midterm Exam, Gradient Descent
📘 Optionally, see these notes on convexity.

Mon May 6

DISC 5 Midterm Exam Review (no worksheet, no required attendance)

Tue May 7

EXAM Midterm Exam (in person, during assigned lecture)

Thu May 9

LEC 11 Gradient Descent, Continued
                         

Week 7 – Probability
📘 Read Janine's probability roadmap and Chapters 1 and 2 of this probability textbook.

Mon May 13

DISC 5 Groupwork 5
                     

Tue May 14

LEC 12 Foundations of Probability
                       

Thu May 16

LEC 13 Combinatorics
                           

HW 5 Homework 5
                     

Week 8 – Combinatorics, Independence

Mon May 20

DISC 7 Groupwork 6
                     

Tue May 21

LEC 14 More Combinatorics Examples
                       

Thu May 23

LEC 15 Bayes' Theorem and Independence
                       

HW 6 Homework 6
                     

Week 9 – Conditional Independence, Naïve Bayes
There will not be live lecture on Tuesday. Instead, a pre-recorded video and annotated slides have already been posted below. Along with Tuesday's lecture, read this note on conditional independence.

Mon May 27

DISC 8 No discussion section (Memorial Day); solutions on Ed
                     

Tue May 28

LEC 16 Independence and Conditional Independence (no live lecture!)
                       

Thu May 30

LEC 17 Naïve Bayes
                       

HW 7 Homework 7
                     

Week 10 – More Classifiers, Conclusion

Mon Jun 3

DISC 9 Groupwork 7
                     

Tue Jun 4

LEC 18 More Naïve Bayes, Review
                         

REV 1 Review: ERM and Linear Algebra (Center Hall 216, 5-7PM)
                       

Thu Jun 6

LEC 19 Review, Final Thoughts
                       

REV 2 Review: Gradient Descent and Probability (Center Hall 216, 5-7PM)
                       

HW 8 Homework 8 (no slip days!)
                     

Sat Jun 8

SUR End-of-Quarter Survey + SETs (due 8AM)

EXAM Final Exam (8-11AM, in person, Center 212+214)