There are multiple CSE6242 sections. This is the course homepage for online CSE6242OAN,O01,O3.
This course will introduce you to broad classes of techniques and tools for analyzing and visualizing data at scale. It emphasizes on how to complement computation and visualization to perform effective analysis. We will cover methods from each side, and hybrid ones that combine the best of both worlds. Students will work in small teams to complete a significant project exploring novel approaches for interactive data & visual analytics.

Course Goals

  • Learn visual and computation techniques and tools, for typical data types
    • Learn how to complement each kind of methods
    • Gain a breadth of knowledge
  • Work on real datasets and problems
  • Learn practical know-how (useful for jobs, research) through significant hands-on programming assignments

Acknowledgement

We thank the generous support of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure for free cloud credits, Intel for curriculum development of the memory mapping module (scaling up algorithms with virtual memory), and Tableau for data visualization software.

Announcements and Discussion

The fastest way to get help with homework assignments is to post your questions on Piazza. That way, not only our TAs and instructor can help, your peers can too.

If you prefer that your question addresses to only our TAs and the instructor, you can use the private post feature (i.e., check the "Individual Students(s) / Instructors(s)" radio box).

While we welcome everyone to share their experiences in tackling issues and helping each other out, but please do not post your answers, as that may affect the learning experience of your fellow classmates.

For special cases such as failed submissions due to system errors, missing grades, failed file uploads, emergencies that prevent you from submitting, personal issues, you can contact the staff using a private Piazza post.

Course Staff & Office Hours

TAs plan to hold office hours starting week 2, except on Georgia Tech holidays (e.g., thanksgiving, MLK day, spring break). Each office hour session will be run by at least one TA, and is 1 hour long. See GT’s academic calendar for the full list of holidays (https://registrar.gatech.edu/calendar). We will spread the office hours across weekdays, and across time of the day. We will announce the office hour times.

We will hold office hours via Slack, where the TA running the office hour will be responsive. We will share information about how to join the appropriate Slack group.

Please note that you are always welcome to ask questions on Piazza. Office hours supplement Piazza, and do not replace it.

Course Schedule

For all dates used in this course, their times are 23:59 Anywhere on Earth (11:59 pm AoE). For example, a due date of "January 8" is the same as "January 8, 23:59pm AoE". Convert the times to your local times using a Time Zone Converter.


Wk Dates Topics Homework (HW) Project
1 Jan 10-14 * Course Introduction
* Analytics Building Blocks
* Data Science Buzzwords
HW1 out
Fri, Jan 14
 
2 17-21 * MLK (National Holiday on Jan 17)
* Data Collection
* SQLite
* Data Cleaning
* Class Project Overview
* Code Back-up & Version Control
   
3   24-28 * Data Integration
* Data Analytics, Concepts and Tasks
   
4 Feb 31-4 * Visualization 101
* Fixing Common Visualization Issues
HW1 due
Fri, Feb 4
(Sat, 06:59 ET)

HW2 out
Fri, Feb 4
5 7-11 * Data Visualization for Web (D3)   Form project teams by
Fri, Feb 11
6 14-18 * Scalable Computing: Hadoop
* Scalable Computing: Pig
* Scalable Computing: Hive
   
7   21-25 * Scalable Computing: Spark
* Scalable Computing: HBase
HW2 due
Fri, Feb 25

HW3 out
Fri, Feb 25
 
8 Mar 28-4 * Classification
* Visualization for Classification
  Proposal Document due
Fri, Mar 4

Proposal Presentation Slides and Video due
Fri, Mar 4
9 7-11 * Introduction to Clustering    
10 14-18 * Graph Analytics
* Ensemble Method
* Scaling up Algorithms with Virtual Memory
HW3 due
Fri, Mar 18
(Sat, 07:59 ET)
HW4 out
Fri, Mar 18
 
11   21-25 Spring break    
11 Apr 28-1 [Work on Project]   Progress Report due
Fri, Apr 1
12   4-8 * Text Analytics
 
13 11-15 [Work on Project] HW4 due
Fri, Apr 15
 
15 18-22 [Work on Project]   Poster Presentation Video due
Fri, Apr 22

Final Report due
Fri, Apr 22
16   25-26 Wrap up, peer assessment   Poster Presentation Video grading starts
Tue, Apr 26

Poster Presentation Video grading due
Fri, Apr 29

This course can be very tough for many!

WARNING! You are expected to quickly learn many things simultaneously, and for some materials you will need to learn them on your own (e.g., Linux commands, for working with MS Azure/Amazon AWS). This can be very intimidating for many students.

The amounts of time students spend on this class greatly vary, based on their backgrounds, and what they may already know. Some former students told us they spent about 40-60 hours on each homework assignment (we have 4 big assignments, and no exams), and some reported much less. For example, for the homework assignment about D3 visualization programming, students who are completely new to javascript, css, and html likely will spend significantly more time than their peers who have already tried them before. Some former students who do not have a computer science background found the homework assignments challenging, would take significant time and effort, but were rewarding, fun, and "do-able."

Students have at least 3 weeks to complete each homework assignment. Some students waited until the last week, and could not finish. It is critical to plan ahead and prepare for the significant time needed.

Almost all homework assignments involve very large amount of programming tasks (which naturally means likely a lot of debugging will be needed, thus can be time consuming). You should be proficient in at least one high-level programming language (e.g., Python, C++, Java), and is efficient with debugging principles and practices. If not, we recommend first taking introductory computing course(s) before taking this course. For exmaple, CSE 6040 for (OMS) Analytics students; CS 1301, CS 1331, CS 1332, CS 1371, etc. for an campus students.

Some programming assignments involve high-level languages or scripting (e.g., Python, Java, SQL etc.). Some assignments involve web programming and D3 (e.g., Javascript, CSS, HTML). For example, an assignment on Hadoop and Spark may require you to learn some basic Java and Scala quickly, which should not be too challenging if you already know another high-level language like Python or C++. It is unlikely that you all know tools/skills needed in the programing tasks, so you are expected to learn many of them on the fly.

Basic linear algebra, probability and statistics knowledge is also expected.

Minimum Computer Requirements

  • 8GB RAM (16GB recommended)
  • 512GB disk (SSD recommended). Some assignments use data files that are more than a few GBs, and some uses virtual machines that can easily take up more than tens of GBs. It is typical for some project teams to use large datasets that are more than a few or tens of GBs.
  • Dual-core Core i5 (8th generation or better recommended)

Accessing Course Materials Outside of US

You may need to use Georgia Tech's VPN. We also recommend checking out some solutions that seem to be working well for OMS students in different countries.

Homework

We have 4 big assignments in total (subject to change). Visit this course's Canvas site for the assignment documents. See the schedule table above for deliverable due dates.
  • [10%] HW1: Collecting & visualizing data, SQLite, D3 warmup, OpenRefine
  • [15%] HW2: D3 Graphs and Visualization
  • [15%] HW3: Hadoop, Spark, Pig and Azure
  • [10%] HW4: Scalable PageRank via Virtual Memory (MMap), Random Forest, Scikit-Learn
We do not release solutions for homework.
Can you release homework early? We understand that some students may prefer that homework assignments be released as soon as possible. Behind the scenes, our course staff work diligently to develop new questions, which means testing new datasets, new instructions, new auto graders, solution code, and more! Unfortunately, this means we likely cannot release assignments well in advance. We will release them as early as possible, hopefully some days before the scheduled release dates on our course schedule. When we release an assignment, we always announce it on Piazza.

Project

See project description. See the schedule table above for deliverable due dates.

Grading Policy

  1. There will be 4 homework assignments. Together, they are worth 50% (10%, 15%, 15%, 10%) of the course grade.
  2. There will be one course group project worth 50% of the course grade. The project components are:
    1. Proposal (7.5% of course grade)
    2. Proposal presentation (5%) (video recording)
    3. Progress report (5%)
    4. Final poster presentation (7.5%) (video recording)
    5. Final report (25%)
  3. You must achieve an overall weighted average of 60% to pass the course.
  4. All deliverables will be graded by our TAs, except the project poster presentation, which will be peer-graded.
  5. When assigning course grades, I will start with the standard grade thresholds (90, 80, etc.). I may lower (and never raise) the thresholds (i.e., to your benefits). For example, I may use 88 instead of 90.

Plagiarism, Collaboration Policy, and Student Honor Code

  • All course participants (myself, teaching assistants, and learners) are expected to know and abide by the Georgia Tech Academic Honor Code.
  • Ethical behavior is extremely important in all facets of life.
  1. Plagiarism is a serious offense. You are responsible for completing your own work. You are not allowed to copy and paste, or paraphrase, or submit materials created or published by others, as if you created the materials. All materials submitted must be your own.
  2. You may discuss high-level ideas with other students at the "whiteboard" level (e.g., how cross validation works, use hashmap instead of array) and review any relevant materials online. However, each student must write up and submit his or her own answers.
  3. You must not put your code on public domain (e.g., public GitHub), because a (future) student could copy your code. That student obviously violates the honor code, and you may also be implicated.
  4. All incidents of suspected dishonesty, plagiarism, or violations of the Georgia Tech Honor Code will be subject to the institute’s Academic Integrity procedures (e.g., reported to and directly handled by the Office of Student Integrity (OSI)). Consequences can be severe, e.g., academic probation or dismissal, grade penalties, a 0 grade for assignments concerned, and prohibition from withdrawing from the class.

Late Policy and Due Dates

  1. All homework and project deliverables are due at the times shown in the Course Schedule. These times are subject to change so please check back often. Convert the times to your local times using a Time Zone Converter.
  2. Every homework assignment deliverable and every project deliverable comes with a 48-hour "grace period".
    1. The grace period is a lenient buffer. Do not use the grace period to begin new work or modify existing work (e.g., submit revised code to Gradescope). In other words, your official final submission must complete before the grace period begins (e.g., fully uploaded, code finished running).
    2. If a student decides to make a submission during the grace period, they are responsible for all issues associated with that submission (e.g., any Gradescope errors, including those triggered by student’s syntax errors that crash Gradescope).
    3. Course staff support is not guaranteed during the grace period; we provide help only when available.
    4. You do not need to ask before using the grace period.
    5. Any submission that does not complete by the end of the grace period will receive 0 point. Submit your work before the grace period begins.
  3. For Canvas, a submission made during the grace period will be marked as "late", without point deduction. Canvas automatically appends a "version number" to files that you re-submit. You do not need to worry about these version numbers, and there is no need to delete old submissions. We will only grade the most recent submission.
  4. For Gradescope, a submission made during the grace period will be marked as "late", without point deduction. Each submission and its score will be recorded and saved by Gradescope. By default, Gradescope uses your last submission for grading. To use a different submission, you must "activate" it prior to the end of the grace period (click “Submission History” button at bottom toolbar, then “Activate”).
  5. We will not consider late submission of any missing parts of a deliverable. To make sure you have submitted everything, download your submitted files to double check. If your submitting large files, you are responsible for making sure they get uploaded to the system in time. You have 48 hours to verify your submissions!
  6. No penalties for medical reasons or emergencies. And should they arise, you must contact the Dean of Students office. Any sensitive information, doctor's notes, medical documentation, explanation of emergencies, etc. should be submitted to the Dean’s office. After their office receives the information, they will notify us on your behalf. Do not share any sensitive information with us.

Timing Policy

  • The course videos follow a logical sequence that includes knowledge-building and experience-building (assignments).
  • Assignments should be completed by their due dates, in order for timely peer assessment. Peer assessments should also be completed by their due dates, to give timely feedback.
  • You will have access to the course content for the scheduled duration of the course.

Attendance Policy

  • This is a fully online course.
  • Login on a regular basis to complete your work, so that you do not have to spend a lot of time reviewing and refreshing yourself regarding the content.

Netiquette

  • Netiquette refers to etiquette that is used when communicating on the Internet. Review the Ground Rules for Online Discussions. When you are communicating via email, discussion forums or synchronously (real-time), please use correct spelling, punctuation and grammar consistent with the academic environment and scholarship.
  • We expect all participants (learners, faculty, teaching assistants, staff) to interact respectfully. Learners who do not adhere to this guideline may be removed from the course.

Dataset Ideas (may need API, or scraping)

Resources

Office of Disability Services

The Office of Disability Services offers accommodations for students with disabilities. Please contact the office should you need help.

Support Services

Academic support, and personal support: Office of the Dean of Students, Counseling Center, Health Serivces, Women's Resource Center, LGBTQIA Resource Center, Veteran's Resource Center, Georgia Tech Police.

Recommended Reading

All content and course materials can be accessed online. There is no textbook for this course.

All Georgia Tech students have FREE access to https://www.oreilly.com, where you can find a huge number of highly rated and classic books (e.g., the "animal" books) from O'Reilly and Pearson covering a wide variety of computer science topics, including some of those listed below. Just log in with your official GT email address, e.g., jdoe3@gatech.edu.

Software engineering; become a better programmer and developer

D3 Visualization; Javascript

Big Data

Python

Data science, machine learning, data mining

Visualization

SQL

Probability

Human Computation

How to manage multiple versions of Python packages?

To get started, we recommend the excellent article on Which Python package manager should you use?

If you've decided to go with pyenv, I recommend Managing Multiple Python Versions With pyenv.

If you use Mac, we recommend to also check out The right and wrong way to set Python 3 as default on a Mac.

Students in my reserach group said that Poetry seems to be fast replacing conda envs, and may even replace setuptools for pypi packages in the future.

Prerequisites

Review Polo's "warnings" before taking this course.

Additional formal prerequisites for CSE 6242

None, but you should have taken courses similar to those listed in the next section, at Georgia Tech or at another school.

If you are an Analytics (OMS or campus) degree student, you should first take CSE 6040 and do very well in it; if necessary, please also first take CS 1301.

Additional formal prerequisites for CX 4242

(Undergraduate Semester level MATH 2605 Minimum Grade of D or
Undergraduate Semester level MATH 2401 Minimum Grade of D or
Undergraduate Semester level MATH 24X1 Minimum Grade of D) or
and
(Undergraduate Semester level MATH 3215 Minimum Grade of D or
Undergraduate Semester level MATH 3225 Minimum Grade of D or
Undergraduate Semester level ECE 3077 Minimum Grade of D or
Undergraduate Semester level ISYE 2027 Minimum Grade of D)
and
(Undergraduate Semester level CS 1371 Minimum Grade of C or
Undergraduate Semester level CS 1372 Minimum Grade of C or
Undergraduate Semester level CX 4010 Minimum Grade of C or
Undergraduate Semester level CX 4240 Minimum Grade of C)

Course offerings and Registration

Auditing & Pass/Fail

Due to the large class size, we are not offering auditing and pass/fail option.

Cannot Register for This Course?

This course is currently offered to students in OMS CS (as an elective) and OMS Analytics (a required course), and it is taught as one class. Due to the large combined class size, we are not able to increase the enrollment capacity. During the first week of class, there is usually a lot of movement in the course registration waitlist. Unfortunately, we do not have an estimate about the extent of the movement. We hope you will be able to enroll, and we will see you in class!

Previous offerings

See https://poloclub.github.io/#cse6242 for all past course offerings.

Acknowledgment & Related Classes

We thank Intel's support in curriculum development for the memory mapping module (scaling up algorithms with virtual memory).

We thank Amazon Educate for providing free cloud credit for Amazon Web Services. We are excited to be am AWS partner university and part of AWS Educate's private beta.

We thank Microsoft Azure's special grant for providing free cloud credit.

We thank Tableau for Teaching program's data visualization software.

Many thanks to my colleagues for sharing their course materials:
  • Prof. John Stasko - Information Visualization - Fall 2012
  • Prof. Jeff Heer - Research Topics in Interactive Data Analysis - Spring 2011
  • Prof. Christos Faloutsos - Multimedia Databases and Data Mining - Fall 2012