LSE ME204
Data Engineering Principles for the Social Sciences (2026)
Data is everywhere in social science research, but it is rarely ready to analyse. Before you can draw any real conclusions, you first need to collect it, check it, and organise it into something usable. AI tools can now write code for many of these steps, but they can’t decide which data sources to trust, how to structure your database, or whether your analysis answers your question.
ME204 teaches you to make those calls yourself. Over three weeks, you’ll build a complete data system from scratch: collecting data from the web and APIs, storing it efficiently, and turning it into visualisations and a dashboard that communicate what you found, while staying in control of every step an AI tool helps you with.
What you’ll build
By the end of the course, you’ll be able to:
- Collect data automatically from websites and REST APIs
- Check data quality and catch errors and inconsistencies before they reach your analysis
- Organise raw data into tables ready for analysis, including flattening nested JSON
- Process data efficiently with vectorised pandas operations instead of slow loops
- Design and query a database using SQL and relational principles
- Track your work with Git so your analysis is reproducible and shareable
- Build interactive visualisations and a dashboard that communicate your findings clearly
- Use AI tools strategically, from chat assistants to agentic coding tools, while keeping the important decisions in your own hands
Is ME204 for you?
We recommend some familiarity with programming basics: variables, if-else logic, loops, and functions. Complete beginners have done well in past editions of this course, but expect a steep first week. If you’d like to prepare in advance, focus on Python basics; Chapters 1-5 of Automate the Boring Stuff with Python are a good free starting point.
👥 Meet the Teaching Team
Dr Jon Cardoso-Silva LECTURER
Assistant Professor (Education)*
LSE Data Science Institute**
AI and Education Fellow
* Becoming Associate Professor from 1 Aug 2026.
** Moving to Dept. Methodology from 1 Sep 2026.
Jonas Weinert CLASS TEACHER
PhD Candidate
Department of Health Policy, LSE
See the full Course Information page for rooms and times, communication channels, and assessment policy, or go straight to the Syllabus for the day-by-day plan.