💻 Lab: 🦸 Super Tech Support

Get help with your project

🥅 Learning Objectives

By the end of this lab, you should be able to: i) Make significant progress on your final project with individual support. ii) Apply professional project templates to organise your work. iii) Troubleshoot specific technical issues blocking your progress.

This lab is your dedicated project support time. There are no set exercises—this is your opportunity to:

• Get individual help with your 📦 Final Project
• Use the professional templates we provided this morning
• Troubleshoot technical issues with your data collection, database design, or analysis
• Ask questions about project scope, timeline, and requirements
• Work through specific Python errors or Git problems

If you’re making good progress, use this time to refine your work or help a classmate.

⏰ Tuesday, 29 July 2025 | Either 2:00-3.30pm or 3.30-5:00pm 📍 Check your timetable for the location of your class

What to Bring

• Your laptop with your project repository open
• Specific questions about where you’re stuck
• Any error messages you’re encountering
• Your data collection progress from NB01

Common Support Areas

Based on what we’ve seen so far, you might need help with:

NB01 - Data Collection Issues

• API authentication problems
• Rate limiting and request errors
• Data format inconsistencies
• Choosing appropriate data sources

NB02 - Database Design Challenges

• Schema design decisions
• Primary and foreign key relationships
• Data type selection
• Integration errors when loading data

NB03 - Analysis Direction

• Formulating analytical questions
• SQL vs pandas for different tasks
• Visualisation planning
• Connecting analysis to research goals

Project Organisation

• Using the new templates effectively
• Git workflow and commit practices
• README documentation
• File structure and naming

Project Templates Reminder

Use these templates to organise your final project work:

• NB01 Template: Data collection with proper structure
• NB02 Template: Database design and ETL workflow
  
• NB03 Template: Analysis and insights framework
• README Template: Professional project documentation

Available from this morning’s lecture downloads.

Database Schema Design Checklist

Use this checklist to validate your NB02 database design:

✅ Table Structure

Foundation of your database

• Every table has a clear primary key
• Foreign keys match their referenced primary keys (same data type/length)
• No duplicated information across tables (normalised)

✅ Data Types

Choose appropriate column types

• Text columns have appropriate lengths (VARCHAR vs TEXT)
• Numeric columns use appropriate precision (INT vs BIGINT)
• Date/time columns use proper timestamp formats

✅ Relationships

Connect your tables properly

• One-to-many relationships use foreign keys correctly
• Each foreign key references an existing primary key
• Relationship direction makes logical sense

✅ Research Alignment

Support your analytical goals

• Schema supports your analytical questions
• You can write JOIN queries to answer your research goals
• Tables separate different “entities” (users vs posts vs comments)

✅ Practical Considerations

Naming and compatibility

• Table/column names are clear and consistent
• No spaces or special characters in names
• Schema works with your actual data structure

🎯 Quick Test

Final validation

Can you sketch a simple SQL query that answers your main research question? If not, revisit your schema design.

Note

Note: During the session, your instructor will provide individual support and may type live examples to help with specific issues. The focus should be on making progress on your own project in your Git/GitHub repository.