Program overview

This Professional Certificate gives you a new lens to explore the issues and problems that you care about. You’ll learn how to combine data with Python programming skills to ask questions and explore problems that you encounter in any field of study, in a future job, and even in everyday life.

This program will help you become a data scientist by teaching you how to analyze a diverse array of real data sets including economic data, geographic data and social networks. Typically, the information will be incomplete and there will be some uncertainty involved. You will then study inference, which will help you quantify uncertainty and measure the accuracy of your estimates. Finally, you will put all of your knowledge together and learn about prediction using machine learning.

The program focuses on a set of core concepts and techniques that have broad applicability. Unlike “bootcamps” for programmers, it presents data science as a way of thinking, in which interpretation and communication are as important as computation and statistical methods.

We all have to be able to think critically and make decisions based on data. Thus, the program aims to make data science accessible to everyone.

It is designed specifically for students who have not previously taken statistics or computer science courses. No prior programming experience is needed. The program is based on Data 8, Berkeley’s fastest-growing class, taken by 1,000+ students each semester.

You don’t have to download any software – a browser is all you need. Open up a window and prepare to have some fun.

What you will learn

• How to think critically about data and draw robust conclusions based on incomplete information.
• Computational thinking and skills, including the Python 3 programming language for visualizing and analyzing data.
• How to make predictions based on machine learning.
• How to interpret and communicate data and results using a vast array of real-world examples.