๐Ÿ—“๏ธ Week 02 - Basic blocks of data: getting familiar with the most common data types and file formats

2025/26 Autumn Term

Author

What does data look like? And how do we organise it? This weekโ€™s lecture will discuss what a dataset is and what is data. It will briefly discuss ways to store datasets and introduce the concept of tidy data and how to organise data, even if in a spreadsheet. We will also discuss the different data types and how to deal with them as well as get to grips with the most common types of file formats.

๐Ÿ‘ฉ๐Ÿปโ€๐Ÿซ Lecture Slides

Either click on the slide area below or click here to view it in fullscreen. Use your keypad to navigate the slides. You can also find a PDF version on Moodle.

๐ŸŽฅ Looking for lecture recordings? You can only find those on Moodle.

โœ๏ธ Coursework

Prepare for the ๐Ÿ’ป W03 class by following the instructions on this page

โœ๏ธ Summative: worth 30%

  • Each group within the class selects an article to present on the Week 05 class (the groups need to be formed by class time on Oct 8th or theyโ€™ll be randomly assigned)
  • The articles to be presented should be vetted by October 13th.
  • Every member of the group will have to take part in the presentation (15 minutes)
  • A discussion will follow the presentation (5-7 minutes)
  • For details on the content of the presentation and marking criteria, refer to this page

๐Ÿ“Ÿ Communication

  • Post your reflections, questions, and links on Slack (depending on your purpose, use either of the #social or #help channels - you might also want to use the #interesting-materials channel).