A visualization of clusters found by a clustering algorithm.
By Joe Pickett, OCW Publication Director
Back in February we told you about a new OCW course in computer science, 6.0001 Introduction to Computer Science and Programming in Python. It’s a true introduction, for students with little or no programming experience.
Now you can develop your newly acquired skills further with the 2nd module in the sequence, 6.0002 Introduction to Computational Thinking and Data Science. It picks up where 6.0001 left off, providing you with “an understanding of the role computation can play in solving problems and to help students, regardless of their major, feel justifiably confident of their ability to write small programs that allow them to accomplish useful goals.”
The OCW site has full video lectures, featuring Professors John Guttag and Eric Grimson, along with lecture slides and supporting code, problem sets (so you can try out what you’ve learned), and files to install the latest version of Python, version 3.5.
Topics include Optimization Problems, Stochastic Thinking, Monte Carlo Simulation, Understanding Experimental Data, Introduction to Machine Learning, and Clustering.
This module offers a fresh approach to teaching how to think like a computer scientist. It joins our collection of Introductory Programming courses from MIT’s Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department, and is sure to join 6.0001 as one of OCW’s most visited courses.
