COMP326Data Science Foundations

Module 5 · 3 units · 25 tutorials · Weeks 11–13

Applied Analytics

Analytics in context: business performance, public and social data, and time series. Applying the foundations to real domains with real constraints.

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Module overview

What this module covers

Module 5 moves from method to application. It examines how data science is practised in three distinct contexts — commercial organisations, public and social sectors, and temporal data — each with its own conventions, stakeholders and ethical considerations.

The emphasis is on context: what makes a good KPI, how public data differs from commercial data, and why time series require their own analytical techniques.

Domain judgement matters

The same method can be appropriate or misleading depending on context. This module teaches you to ask the domain-specific questions first.

At a glance

Units
3 (U13–U15)
Tutorials
25
Weeks
11–13
Assessment
3 unit quizzes · Assignment 4 due Week 13 · Assignment 5 released Week 13
Key tools
pandas, Matplotlib, Seaborn, statsmodels

Learning outcomes

By the end of Module 5 you will be able to

Commercial analytics

  • Define and interpret meaningful KPIs.
  • Build decision-support analyses.
  • Communicate findings to business stakeholders.

Public and social analytics

  • Work with public and demographic datasets.
  • Analyse healthcare, education and social data responsibly.
  • Recognise equity and bias issues in public data.

Time series

  • Decompose series into trend, seasonality and residual.
  • Apply and interpret moving averages.
  • Explain the concepts behind forecasting.

Units

Three units in this module

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