Logistics

The Third Cohort of the ESDS in the Cloud course is slated to begin on February 12, 2024 the first week of February and run through May with a one (full-time) week on/two week off schedule. The course supports in-person and remote participation. The course will be a significant time commitment; the team projects can be designed to accommodate and accelerate existing research projects.

Schedule

Pre-Course Preparation

January 2024-February 2024

During January and February 2024, we will be preparing you for this course. This involves discussions with each participant, formation and initial meetings of project groups, and technical configuration to support access to course resources.

Email to confirmed participants will be going out the week of January 22nd. If you are interested in taking this course, but have not yet contacted the course organizers, please do so by reaching out to Denis Willett at dwillett@cicsnc.org or Garrett Graham at ggraham@cicsnc.org to express interest, ask any questions, and enroll.

The course will run from 9 AM - 3 PM ET on the days listed, with 3 - 4 PM ET occasionally reserved for team project collabortation.

Module 1 | Scientific Programming

February 12, 2024 - February 16, 2024

Module 2 | Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA)

March 4, 2024 - March 8, 2024

Module 3 | Data Product Development

March 25, 2024 - March 29, 2024

Module 4 | Production Data Science

April 15, 2024 - April 19, 2024

Module 5 | Product Delivery

May 6, 2024 - May 10, 2024

Course Commitment

Because each module builds on itself, we expect participants to be able to fully participate in all modules. We recognize that this is a substantial time committment. In our experience, the compressed and intensive nature of this course is the most efficient and effective way to quickly build data science skills.

In-Person

Most classes will be held in Room 400 of the Federal Building. Some days we may have to move locations due to scheduling conflicts, but the bulk of our work will be located there. Half of this room will be setup in a lecture-style classroom and the other half arranged to support practical work in teams. Ample power strips will be provided for charging and the NCICS WiFi network will be available for connecting to cloud resources.

Please make sure you bring the following materials to class each day:

Materials:

• Laptop (Ideally an NCICS MacBook) with working WiFi
• Charger
• Any preferred notetaking equipment
• Water

Participation

This course is designed to be primarily in-person, although we will support hybrid and remote synchronous and asynchronous access. A critical component of this course is team interactions. We highly encourage in-person participation throughout the course, especially for team activities, but recognize that other commitments may sometimes interfere. All sessions will be hosted via Zoom and available for hybrid synchronous participation. These Zoom sessions will be recorded and the recordings made available as soon as is possible. Zoom meeting information can be accessed through the calendar invitations you will have received prior to the course.

Prerequisites

To be successful in this course, you must have an advanced scientific and technical background with experience personally conducting research. Our assumption is that you will come into this course with graduate level expertise in your specific domain and the ability to ask and answer domain relevant research questions.

In addition, you should be familiar with:

• Scientific programming in at least one of the following languages: Python, R, MatLab, SAS, Fortran, or C

• Using the Terminal

• Linux or MacOS environments

• The Scientific Method

• Scientific publishing