DS205: Week 09 Update

Problem Set 2 Extension and Course Adjustments

Author

Published

20 March 2025

Hello everyone,

Here’s a quick update on a few important matters based on feedback from your course representative (thanks, @Michele Silvestri) and discussions with several of you.

✍️ Problem Set 2 - Deadline Extension

New deadline: Friday, 4 April 2025, 8pm UK time (1-week extension)

Many of you are struggling with the setup and/or the various pieces of the jigsaw puzzle I threw at you. You’re not alone. I want you to continue practising on a real project, with complex and sometimes imperfect design choices that need reconsideration. The extra week should help everyone overcome this hurdle and complete the rest of the project to a satisfactory level.

🔄 Week 10 Lecture → Setup Clinic

I am changing our Week 10 lecture to a hands-on setup clinic and project support session.

I initially planned to cover more on data pipelines for RAG, but I believe it’s more beneficial right now to:

Help troubleshoot your specific ✍️ Problem Set 2 issues
Focus on practical implementation
Assist you in overcoming any difficulties

Please bring your code, questions, and problems. We’ll sort them out together, and if there are solutions that could be useful for others, I’ll update the common codebase.

👂 Problem Set 1 Feedback Status

I have completed marking all the API submissions. Everyone who opted for Option A in the ✍️ Problem Set 1 should have received feedback via their GitHub repositories by now. I have also curated bespoke additional tasks for each of you to either bring the strong parts of your project to the common repository or practice some of your weaker abilities. These additional tasks are optional, but completing them will earn you extra +15 marks.

👉 Even if you were not in the API group, you can view these tasks by visiting the lse-ds205/tpi-apis repository (formerly known as lse-ds205/ascor-api).

I am still working through the web scraping submissions. With the extension on the Problem Set 2 deadline, I will take a bit more time to provide everyone with a similar level of detailed feedback.

🧭 A Note on Course Adjustments

As this is the first time we are running DS205, it is natural that we are determining the right pace and complexity for certain topics.

I am very pleased to have all of you in this initial cohort. I do not wish to remove any complex elements, but I want to ensure we are all progressing at a sustainable pace that allows for maximum learning.

Please continue using the #help channel on Slack for specific questions, and I look forward to seeing you in class next week.

Best,
Jon