Intro to Computational Thinking & Data Science
(Spring 2026)

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Announcements

Lectures

Mon and Wed
11-12:30pm in 26-100
Materials in calendar below
Slido for questions during lecture

Office Hours
in 38-370

Start Feb 4
Mon,Tue,Wed: 5-9pm
Fri: 3-7pm

AI Tutor for independent learning

This Week's Pset

Problem Set 1
Due: Feb 18 at 09:00PM
Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
2/2: Lecture 1
Intro to computational modeling, optimization problems, knapsack problems
Readings: Ch 14.1
Lec 1 Finger Ex. out Pset 0 out
2/3
2/4: Lecture 2
Solving knapsack, trees, brute force, exponential complexity, greedy algorithms
Readings: Ch 14.1
Lec 1 Finger Ex. due at 4PM Lec 2 Finger Ex. out
2/5
Microquiz 0 not graded, demonstrates microquiz mechanics, available during 4:30-9:30PM
2/6 Pset 0 due at 9PM No checkoff for Pset 0
2/9: Lecture 3
Dynamic programming, top-down, bottom-up, applied to knapsack, applied to spelling correction, wrapup optimization
Readings: Ch 15
Lec 2 Finger Ex. due at 4PM No Lec 3 Finger Ex. Pset 1 out
2/10
2/11: Optional recitation 1
(held instead of normal class)
2/12
2/13
2/16
2/17
Microquiz 1 35 minutes at the beginning of class
Last day we accept adds.
2/18: Lecture 4
Stochastic thinking, simulation models, Monte Carlo simulation, roulette, law of large numbers, gambler's fallacy, regression to the mean
Readings: Ch 17
Pset 1 due at 9PM No checkoff for Pset 1
2/19 Lec 4 Finger Ex. out
2/20
2/23: Lecture 5
Standard deviations, empirical rule, birthday problem, random walks
Readings: Ch 19, 16
Lec 4 Finger Ex. due at 4PM Lec 5 Finger Ex. out
2/24
2/25: Lecture 6
Random walks, ideal gas law simulation, estimating pi, numerical integration
Readings: Ch 18
Lec 5 Finger Ex. due at 4PM No Lec 6 Finger Ex. Pset 2 out
2/26
2/27
3/2: Optional recitation 2
(held instead of normal class)
3/3
3/4
Microquiz 2 35 minutes at the beginning of class
3/5
3/6
3/9: Lecture 7
Graphs, shortest path problems, Dijkstra's algorithm
Readings: Ch 14.2
Lec 7 Finger Ex. out Pset 2 due at 9PM No checkoff for Pset 2
3/10
3/11: Lecture 8
A*, graphs as a modeling tool, other graph problems
Readings: no reading
Lec 7 Finger Ex. due at 4PM No Lec 8 Finger Ex. Pset 3 out
3/12
3/13
3/16: Optional recitation 3
(held instead of normal class)
3/17
3/18
Microquiz 3 35 minutes at the beginning of class
3/19
3/20
3/23 Spring break, no class or OH
3/24 Spring break, no class or OH
3/25 Spring break, no class or OH
3/26 Spring break, no class or OH
3/27 Spring break, no class or OH
3/30: Lecture 9
Understanding data, curve fitting, linear regression, R^2, over fitting, training, validation and test
Readings: Ch 20
No Lec 9 Finger Ex. Pset 3 due at 9PM No checkoff for Pset 3
3/31
4/1: Lecture 10
Central limit theorem, sampling, standard error, pandas library
Readings: Ch 20
No Lec 10 Finger Ex. Pset 4 out
4/2
4/3
4/6: Optional recitation 4
(held instead of normal class)
4/7
4/8
Microquiz 4 35 minutes at the beginning of class
4/9
4/10
4/13: Lecture 11
p-values, statistical fallacies
Readings: Ch 21, 22
Lec 11 Finger Ex. out Pset 4 due at 9PM No checkoff for Pset 4
4/14
4/15: Lecture 12
Machine learning, evaluating classifiers, decision trees
Readings: Ch 24
Lec 11 Finger Ex. due at 4PM Lec 12 Finger Ex. out
4/16
4/17 Lec 12 Finger Ex. due at 4PM
4/20 Holiday, no class or OH
4/21
4/22: Lecture 13
Random forests, ensemble methods, logistic regression, k-means clustering, wrapup
Readings: Ch 26
No Lec 13 Finger Ex. Pset 5 out
4/23
4/24
4/27: Optional recitation 5
(held instead of normal class)
4/28
4/29: Lecture 14
Quiz
Readings: no reading
Microquiz 5 35 minutes at the beginning of class
No Lec 14 Finger Ex.
4/30
5/1
5/4 No class, pset work
5/5
5/6 Pset 5 due at 9PM No checkoff for Pset 5
5/7
5/8
5/11
5/12
5/13
5/14
5/15