A collection for the 2022 Summer workshop on Python for Managers (of all scholarly stripes).
© Colin Conrad, 2022
This is a public repository of exercises used in the SummerPy workshop, Faculty of Management, Dalhousie University. The workshop will take place over six Wednesdays in May through July, though participants will be welcome to go at their own pace and will have opportunities to connect asynchronously. Nobody at this group aspires to be a professional software developer, though we all want to learn Python so that we can do more complex data work. Participants are not expected to have any prior programming experience, though should come with an open mind and a willingness to learn. This workshop is free of charge and will leverage old materials that I used to teach with. All of the files contained in here are Juypter notebooks, which are best accessed using Anaconda. This is also a completely independent initiative, though I would hope it will one day become a regular thing for our faculty. I plan to update this folder before each of the live sessions stated below.
Credit must also be given to Al Sweigart for creating supporting material for some of the early labs. You can purchase his book at https://automatetheboringstuff.com/
I recommend cloning this folder as a whole and opening it in Jupyter using Anaconda. You can learn how to download and configure Anaconda here: https://www.anaconda.com/products/individual
- May 4th - So... what is Python anyways and why should we care?
- May 18th - Clean Halifax's messy housing data with
Python - May 25th - Visualize the best Airbnb digs with
PandasandMatplotlib - June 29th - Build and manage a digital bookstore collection with
PythonandSQL - July 6th - Analyze a survey on the use of dating apps during the Covid lockdown with
SciPy - July 13th - Detect heart disease in anonymous patients using
Scikit-Learn
I used to jokingly refer to my data science course as "scrappy data science for managers". It's "scrappy" in the sense that I take an as needed approach to teaching, rather than a theoretical approach. We do not cover theoretical math or the like, and only employ statistics and machine learning to solve tangible problems. In fact, each week is structured around a tangible problem to help keep the otherwise abstract concepts tangible and relevant to people in managerial professions (of all scholarly stripes: Technology, Information Management, Business, Libraries, Education, etc.). I have no idea whether the SummerPy format will work, but I wanted to hang out with you all anyways, so why not also do some code together?
Many of these exercises will feel like they ramp up quickly. My hope is that you will be able to use the time between the workshop sessions to research the gaps in your knowledge. If you aren't getting it, it isn't because you are dumb-- it's because it goes quite fast. Don't ever hesitate to reach out to me or some of the other participants; I want this to be an inclusive place where we can learn this useful skill together in a less-intimidating way.
August is the best month in Halifax. Go outside and enjoy it before it's gone!