THE UNIVERSITY of EDINBURGH

DEGREE REGULATIONS & PROGRAMMES OF STUDY 2019/2020

University Homepage
DRPS Homepage
DRPS Search
DRPS Contact
DRPS : Course Catalogue : School of Geosciences : Earth Science

Undergraduate Course: Geophysical Data Science (EASC08025)

Course Outline
SchoolSchool of Geosciences CollegeCollege of Science and Engineering
Credit level (Normal year taken)SCQF Level 8 (Year 2 Undergraduate) AvailabilityNot available to visiting students
SCQF Credits10 ECTS Credits5
SummaryIn Geophysical Data Science you will learn the basics of scientific computing using Python. The course balances the development of fundamental computing skills and the application of these for data presentation and analysis. You will work with a range of solid earth and climate + met datasets in order to practice these data analysis skills. These skills will prepare you for data analysis in project work, set you up to understand computational modelling and give you transferable coding skills in a computing language that is highly sought after in industry.
Course description Syllabus
Week 1: Introduction to Python for Data Science and Scientific Computing
Week 2: Intermediate Python for Data Science
Week 3: Data Visualisation with Python
Week 4: Data Ingestion and Cleaning
Week 5: Geospatial Data Analysis
Week 6: Statistical and Trend Analysis
Week 7: Understanding Data using Probability
Week 8: Geophsical Time Series Data
Week 9: Meteorological and Climate Data
Week 10: Assessment - Climate Data Analysis
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
Pre-requisites Co-requisites
Prohibited Combinations Other requirements None
Course Delivery Information
Academic year 2019/20, Not available to visiting students (SS1) Quota:  None
Course Start Semester 1
Timetable Timetable
Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) Total Hours: 100 ( Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2, Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours 98 )
Assessment (Further Info) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %
Additional Information (Assessment) Written Exam 0 %, Coursework 100 %, Practical Exam 0 %

This course will be assessed solely with coursework and ongoing assessment.
The assessment focusses on providing you with opportunities to practice your coding skills in your own time.

There are three elements that are assessed:
¿ You are required to complete each of the DataCamp courses in your own time.
o Completion is tracked by the software.
¿ The first assessment will be analysis of a dataset in small groups and the hand in will be individual reports
o This exercise will look for creative analysis of data to meet an objective
o You will use the data analysis and coding skills you have been developing
o The write up will be in the form of a Jupyter Notebook
o Submission 12noon Wednesday Week 7
¿ The final assessment with be individual analysis of a dataset in the week 10 class with the hand in being a report
o The details of this assessment will come in due course
o Submission 12noon Wednesday Week 12

100% Coursework
- 5% for each of the 5 DataCamp courses
- 40% for the group data analysis and project writeup (Week 7 deadline)
- 35% for the Met and Climate assessment (Week 12 deadline)

Assessment deadlines
¿ There is a requirement to complete the weekly DataCamp courses after class with a 2 week turn-around.
¿ There will a project working in small groups running through most of the semester with a deadline in week 7 for individual reports. This will build on the skills learnt in class and you will work in groups to support each other learning coding skills, so you can critically discuss the limitations of data and the analysis. Your submissions will be written as a Jupyter notebook.
¿ The final assessment will be the analysis of a climate or meteorological dataset with individual write ups. Your submissions will be written as a Jupyter notebook.
Feedback - Feedback from lecturers and demonstrators during the interactive computing sessions
- Ongoing feedback from the online python learning environment
- Class discussion on the geophysics graph gallery contributions
- Written feedback on the assessed coursework
No Exam Information
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
  1. Understand the role of coding in geophysical data analysis and modelling
  2. Build a foundation for scientific computing using Python
  3. Build confidence in using Python to model geophysical data
  4. Be able to undertake exploratory data analysis using a range of geophysical data, including choosing how to present data and extract statistical properties
  5. Learn how to use the internet to find appropriate pieces of code to hack to solve a new problem
Reading List
DataCamp: www.datacamp.com
Edina's Noetable server: noteable.edina.ac.uk
Additional Information
Graduate Attributes and Skills - Data literacy: Scientific computing and data analysis
- Computer literacy: competency in Python
- Working in small groups
Additional Class Delivery Information One weekly 3 hour combined lecture and practical class.
KeywordsGeophysics,data science,python,coding
Contacts
Course organiserDr Mark Naylor
Tel: (0131 6)50 4918
Email: Mark.Naylor@ed.ac.uk
Course secretaryMs Katerina Sykioti
Tel: (0131 6)50 5430
Email: Katerina.Sykioti@ed.ac.uk
Navigation
Help & Information
Home
Introduction
Glossary
Search DPTs and Courses
Regulations
Regulations
Degree Programmes
Introduction
Browse DPTs
Courses
Introduction
Humanities and Social Science
Science and Engineering
Medicine and Veterinary Medicine
Other Information
Combined Course Timetable
Prospectuses
Important Information