Overview

This inaugural UCD Study Abroad Programme will now take place in Summer 2023 over a four-week period from 22 May.  The programme - which involves a combination of lectures, tutorials, lab work and guided thematic tours - is hosted by University College Dublin, Ireland’s premier University and leading Study Abroad Destination. It is worth 10 ECTS credits and contains enough statistics and programming to be considered a quantitative elective for non-quantitative majors.

This exciting new course addresses the three core themes of Design, Data Science and Discovery.  The program is ideal for computer science and technical students interested in design; life science students interested in data science & machine learning; and creative design students interested in computer science and statistics.

University College Dublin is Europe's largest urban campus with world-class teaching and laboratory facilities and 325 acres of walking trails, woodlands and sports facilities to explore and enjoy! Our fabulous location on the East coast of Ireland within 30 minutes of Dublin Airport allows our students the opportunity not only to explore Ireland, but to explore other popular European cities during their visit.

Academic Programme

The UCD Design, Data Science and Discovery course consists of a four-week academic programme with a mixture of lecture, team-based project work, and self study, as well a many thematic guided tours related to the themes of the course. Led by Course Directors Prof. Patricia Maguire and Prof. Scott Rickard the course offers a truly interdisciplinary programme where data science, machine learning, medical sciences, and creativity intercept.Cultural And Social Programme

Cultural & Social Programme

An essential element of the UCD Design, Data Science and Discovery is for students to experience Irish society and culture. As part of this Programme, a series of excursions are planned to enable you to explore and immerse yourself in Irish culture. Attendance of some of the trips is mandatory, as the trips form part of the course. Other trips and organized social activities are optional, but strongly encouraged. This will provide you with firsthand experience of the historic and cultural sites that surround you.

Curriculum

Information is beautiful, when presented well. This course has three themes:

• Theme 1: Design --- How should we think about information presentation? How can information be presented for best impact & understanding?
• Theme 2: Data Science --- What are the most important data science tools and skills that every college graduate should have?
• Theme 3: Discovery --- We will apply our newly acquired data science skills to both historically important as well are currently cutting edge data problems to re-discover and discover new results (and we will focus on how the presentation of the results is an important part of the discovery & understanding process). 

Topics touched on in the course:

• Methods and strategies for impactful information presentation;
• History of Information Presentation and Museum Design;
• Interpretive Design and Visual Storytelling;
• Celtic Symbols and Icons (including Troubled Symbols);
• Introduction to the Computational Beauty of Nature;
• Self-Similarity and Fractals;
• Matrices and Matrix Computations;
• L-Systems & Natural Design;
• Introduction to Python;
• Self-Organized Systems & Emergent Design;
• Data and Computational Journalism;
• Introduction to Probability and Statistics;
• Random Variables and Dependence;
• Conditional Probability and Bayes Theorem;
• Law of Large Numbers & The Central Limit Theorem;
• Estimation, Confidence Intervals & The Student-t Distribution;
• Regression;
• Clustering & Unsupervised Learning;
• Dimensionality Reduction;
• Neural Networks and Deep Learning;
• Epic Visualizations (e.g., The Work of Edward Tufte);
• Visualizing Data in Python;
• Building Dashboards in Dash

Stories of Discovery:

• How to Brew Better Beer Using Math
• What is Life & How Schrodinger Inspired Watson & Crick
• How Saliva is Used to Determine your Irish Ancestors
• Rock Formations and Oil Discovery
• Geoffery Dean: Ireland’s First Medical Data Scientist
• How a Drop of an Expectant Mother's Blood can save her Pregnancy

Student Support

We look forward to welcoming you to our vibrant University campus. For more information on the state of the art facilities that our campus has to offer our summer students, check out the Summer at UCD information below;
UCD Contact 
If you’d like to apply or find out more about this unique new course, please contact Course Coordinator, Dr. Elva O’Sullivan at elva.osullivan@ucd.ie