These policies are subject to change until the beginning of the semester and throughout the remainder of the course, at the judgement of the course staff.
All times listed on the course webpage are in Eastern Standard Time (EST).
You are not alone in this course; the course staff are here to support you as you learn the material. It’s expected that some aspects of the course will take time to master, and the best way to master challenging material is to ask questions. We will use Piazza for online questions and discussions. We will also hold virtual office hours for real-time discussions.
The Barnard CS help room is a great resources as well. We have listed their times on our Office Hours page. The Zoom link is posted on Piazza.
BC COMS 1016 has no prerequisites. The curriculum and format is designed specifically for students who have not previously taken statistics or computer science courses. Students with some prior experience in either statistics or computing are welcome to enroll and will find much of interest due to the innovative nature of the course. Students who have taken several statistics or computer science courses should instead take a more advanced course.
The main text is a free online textbook called Computational and Inferential Thinking: The Foundations of Data Science. This textbook was created by instructors of data8, a popular course at Berkeley. Our course is adopted from data8.
The computing platform for the course is hosted at https://bc-coms-1016-poliak.columbiajupyter2.org/. You will login using your Barnard/Columbia credentials. Materials for all homeworks, projects, and labs will be distributed on the course schedule page.
Homework assignments are a required part of the course. Homeworks will be released at the latest Thursday evenings and will be due the following Thursday. Each student must submit each homework independently, but you are encouraged to discuss problems with other students and course staff.
Data science is about analyzing real-world data sets, and so a series of projects involving real data are a required part of the course. On each project, you may work with a single partner. Both partners will receive the same score.
To account for issues that arise in these uncertain times, each student has 10 late days for the homeworks and projects. However, you can only use at most 2 late days per assignment.
There are weekly labs. We encourage you to submit the lab after attending your lab section but the lab will be due the following Monday night. Late days can not be used for labs.
To account for issues that arise in these uncertain times, we will drop your lowest homework and and lowest lab.
Approved by the student body in 1912 and updated in 2016, the Code states:
We, the students of Barnard College, resolve to uphold the honor of the College by engaging with integrity in all of our academic pursuits. We affirm that academic integrity is the honorable creation and presentation of our own work. We acknowledge that it is our responsibility to seek clarification of proper forms of collaboration and use of academic resources in all assignments or exams. We consider academic integrity to include the proper use and care for all print, electronic, or other academic resources. We will respect the rights of others to engage in pursuit of learning in order to uphold our commitment to honor. We pledge to do all that is in our power to create a spirit of honesty and honor for its own sake.
More information about the honor code can be found at https://barnard.edu/honor-code
It is important for undergraduates to recognize and identify the different pressures, burdens, and stressors you may be facing, whether personal, emotional, physical, financial, mental, or academic. We as a community urge you to make yourself–your own health, sanity, and wellness–your priority throughout this term and your career here. Sleep, exercise, and eating well can all be a part of a healthy regimen to cope with stress. Resources exist to support you in several sectors of your life, and we encourage you to make use of them. Should you have any questions about navigating these resources, please visit these sites:
If you believe you may encounter barriers to the academic environment due to a documented disability or emerging health challenges, please feel free to contact me and/or the Center for Accessibility Resources & Disability Services (CARDS). Any student with approved academic accommodations is encouraged to contact me during office hours or via email. If you have questions regarding registering a disability or receiving accommodations for the semester, please contact CARDS at (212) 854-4634, cards@barnard.edu, or learn more at barnard.edu/disabilityservices. CARDS is located in 101 Altschul Hall.
All students deserve to be able to study and make use of course texts and materials regardless of cost. Barnard librarians have partnered with students, faculty, and staff to find ways to increase student access to textbooks. By the first day of advance registration for each term, faculty will have provided information about required texts for each course on CourseWorks (including ISBN or author, title, publisher, copyright date, and price), which can be viewed by students. A number of cost-free or low-cost methods for accessing some types of courses texts are detailed on the Barnard Library Textbook Affordability guide. Undergraduate students who identify as first-generation and/or low-income students may check out items from the FLIP lending libraries in the Barnard Library and in Butler Library for an entire semester. Students may also consult with their professors, the Dean of Studies, and the Financial Aid Office about additional affordable alternatives for having access to course texts. Visit the guide and talk to your professors and your librarian for more details.