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Data Science Boot Camp

Fall 2026

Sep 14, 2026

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Dec 18, 2026

Tu/Th 1:30pm - 3:00pm ET

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Lecture 00: Orientation / Computer Setup Day

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Registration Deadlines

Sep 14, 2026

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All Erdős Fall 2026 Career Launch Cohort or Alumni Club members who are not participating in another Launch bootcamp

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Category

Launch, Core Program, Boot Camp, Projects, Certificates

Overview

In this bootcamp, we will develop the skills needed to complete a data science project from start to finish. This includes defining a problem in quantitative terms, identifying key performance indicators (KPIs), acquiring and cleaning data, exploring patterns and trends, and transforming raw data into meaningful variables. We will then build models for prediction and inference, focusing primarily on supervised learning methods for regression and classification.

Slack

Click here to be invited to the slack organization: The Erdős Institute

Click here to access the slack cohort channel: #slack-cohort-channel

Click here to access the slack program channel: #slack-program-channel

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Click here to download the Events & Deadlines .ics calendar file

Organizers, Instructors, and Advisors

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Steven Gubkin, PhD

Lead Instructor

Office Hours:

By appt. only

Email:

Preferred Contact:

Slack

Please feel free to message me on Slack with any questions!

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Alec Clott, PhD

Head of Data Science Projects

Office Hours:

By appt. only

Email:

Preferred Contact:

Slack

Participants are welcome to reach out to me via slack or email. I normally work standard EST hours (9am-5pm), but can always find time to meet folks via Zoom too after work. Let me know how I can help!

Objectives

The goal of our Data Science Boot Camp is to provide you with the skills and mentorship necessary to produce a portfolio worthy data science/machine learning project while also providing you with valuable career development support and connecting you with potential employers.

Project Examples

TEAM 12

Guard-railing sensitive data

Ammar Eltigani,Aditya Priya,Erick Padilla,Padi Fuster Aguilera

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github URL

This research project investigates methods for privacy-preserving data release, focusing on survey microdata, de-anonymisation risk, synthetic data generation, and statistical disclosure guarantees. Our goal is to enable open science while safeguarding individual privacy.

TEAM 7

AI Faithfulness in Scientific Reasoning

Awndre Gamache, Hayden Everett

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github URL

This project asks whether we can predict when a vision language model (VLM) will fail a scientific chart-reasoning question. The data is the CharXiv benchmark which consists of 1,000 charts drawn from arXiv papers, each with a single reasoning question and a pre-graded record of whether a given VLM answered it correctly. For every question-chart pair, we produce a model-agnostic DeLeAn annotation with scores for twelve cognitive-demand dimensions that range from 0 to 5, produced by a verdict-blind process that never sees the correct answer. We predict failure for the GPT-4o, Sonnet 3.5, and GPT-4o random models, with a separate classifier for each.

First Steps/Prerequisites

Python Prerequisites Quiz
Please download the python prerequisites quiz and X.txt. If this quiz presents any difficulty to you whatsoever, please complete the Python Prep course before starting the Data Science Boot Camp.
 
Course Orientation / Computer Setup Day
I will give a brief orientation to the course. The remainder of the time will be spent on the following very simple goal: to clone the repo, install the conda environment, and use that conda environment to run a Jupyter notebook. It is impossible to participate in the course without these abilities, so it is important to attend this session. If you can do these things, please show up to help the other participants!
 
Detailed instructions (created by teaching assistant Ness Mayker Chen) can be found at this link.
 
We will test your ability to do these things by having you submit a "secret code". You will obtain this code by successfully running the notebook
 
lectures/00_orientation/computer_setup_day/find_secret_code.ipynb
 
When you have obtained the code put it in the textbox at https://www.erdosinstitute.org/ds-boot-camp-prep
 
If you can do these things independently please show up to help your colleagues!
If you cannot do these things independently please show up to get help from your colleagues!
 
Prerequisites
 
In addition to these computer setup steps there are also some content prerequisites:
  1. Base level familiarity with Python
  2. Differential calculus. Ideally you also know some multivariate differential calculus and linear algebra.
  3. Basic statistics and probability

Program Content

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Course materials are available on github through the following link:

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Request Access to GitHub

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Program Content

Textbook/Notes

Note: our video player does not support playback speed options. You can find a third party browser extension which will allow you to modify video playback speed. For example, this one works for Chrome: video-speed-controller. If you would prefer to avoid a browser extension you can manually modify the playback speed in the javascript console as well: Speed up any HTML5 video player!

What is Clustering?

Bonus content (prerecorded)

We take a moment to define clustering problems.

Slides
Code

Imputation

Bonus content (prerecorded)

When you are missing data, try imputing!

Slides
Code

Gradient Descent

Bonus content (prerecorded)

Taking advantage of the gradient to minimize cost functions.

Slides
Code

k Means Clustering

Bonus content (prerecorded)

Our first clustering algorithm.

Slides
Code

More Advanced Pipelines

Bonus content (prerecorded)

We demonstrate some more advanced pipeline techniques in sklearn.

Slides
Code

GridSearchCV

Bonus content (prerecorded)

We introduce a sklearn object that makes hyper parameter tuning a tad easier.

Slides
Code

Hierarchical Clustering

Bonus content (prerecorded)

Our second clustering algorithm.

Slides
Code

Regression Version of Classification Algorithms

Bonus content (prerecorded)

All of your favorite classification algorithms back for regression purposes.

Slides
Code

Project/Homework Instructions

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Project/Team Formation
Project Submission
Projects README

Project Pitch Hour

Project Pitch Hour

Recording of Project Pitch Hour

Slides
Transcript
Code

Schedule

Click on any date for more details

Orientation & Setup Week: Sep 14 - 18, 2026
Phase 1 - Instruction and Project Completion: Sep 21 - Nov 06, 2026
Project Review & Judging: Nov 09 - Nov 12, 2026
Phase 2 - Intense Interview Prep & Career Connections for Certificate Holders: Nov 13 - Dec 18, 2026

Lecture 00: Orientation / Computer Setup Day

Sep 17, 2026 at 05:30 PM UTC

EVENT

Lecture 01: Supervised Learning

Sep 22, 2026 at 05:30 PM UTC

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Lecture 02: Model Evaluation

Sep 24, 2026 at 05:30 PM UTC

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Problem Session 02

Sep 28, 2026 at 05:30 PM UTC

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Problem Session 03

Sep 30, 2026 at 05:30 PM UTC

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Problem Session 04

Oct 5, 2026 at 05:30 PM UTC

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Problem Session 05

Oct 7, 2026 at 05:30 PM UTC

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Problem Session 06

Oct 12, 2026 at 05:30 PM UTC

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Problem Session 07

Oct 14, 2026 at 05:30 PM UTC

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Problem Session 08

Oct 19, 2026 at 05:30 PM UTC

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Problem Session 09

Oct 21, 2026 at 05:30 PM UTC

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Problem Session 10

Oct 26, 2026 at 05:30 PM UTC

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Problem Session 11

Oct 28, 2026 at 05:30 PM UTC

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Math Hour 00

Sep 21, 2026 at 02:00 PM UTC

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Math Hour 01

Sep 23, 2026 at 02:00 PM UTC

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Project Pitch Hour

Sep 25, 2026 at 08:00 PM UTC

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Lecture 03: Linear Regression

Sep 29, 2026 at 05:30 PM UTC

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Lecture 04: Generalized Linear Models

Oct 1, 2026 at 05:30 PM UTC

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Lecture 05: Complexity Control

Oct 6, 2026 at 05:30 PM UTC

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Lecture 06: Inference I

Oct 8, 2026 at 05:30 PM UTC

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Lecture 07: Inference II

Oct 13, 2026 at 05:30 PM UTC

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Lecture 08: Time Series I

Oct 15, 2026 at 05:30 PM UTC

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Lecture 09: Time Series II

Oct 20, 2026 at 05:30 PM UTC

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Lecture 10: Ensemble Learning I

Oct 22, 2026 at 05:30 PM UTC

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Lecture 11: Ensemble Learning II

Oct 27, 2026 at 05:30 PM UTC

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Lecture 12: Introduction to Neural Networks

Oct 29, 2026 at 05:30 PM UTC

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Problem Session 00

Sep 21, 2026 at 05:30 PM UTC

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Problem Session 01

Sep 23, 2026 at 05:30 PM UTC

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Math Hour 02

Sep 28, 2026 at 02:00 PM UTC

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Math Hour 03

Sep 30, 2026 at 02:00 PM UTC

EVENT

Math Hour 04

Oct 5, 2026 at 02:00 PM UTC

EVENT

Math Hour 05

Oct 7, 2026 at 02:00 PM UTC

EVENT

Math Hour 06

Oct 12, 2026 at 02:00 PM UTC

EVENT

Math Hour 07

Oct 14, 2026 at 02:00 PM UTC

EVENT

Math Hour 08

Oct 19, 2026 at 02:00 PM UTC

EVENT

Math Hour 09

Oct 21, 2026 at 02:00 PM UTC

EVENT

Math Hour 10

Oct 26, 2026 at 02:00 PM UTC

EVENT

Math Hour 11

Oct 28, 2026 at 02:00 PM UTC

EVENT

Project/Homework Deadlines

Sep 18, 2026

03:59 AM UTC

Last chance to switch bootcamps

Email Amalya Lehmann at amalya@erdosinstitute.org if you would like to switch to a different bootcamp.

Sep 23, 2026

03:59 AM UTC

Watch 3 Previous Top Projects

Consult the project database, and watch at least 3 previous top projects from Erdos Alumni.

Sep 23, 2026

03:59 AM UTC

Watch video about Project Formation

This should help answer any Q's you may have going into project formation

Sep 25, 2026

08:00 PM UTC

Project Pitch Hour

Opportunity to meet with other Erdős Fellows and form teams and propose topics.

Sep 30, 2026

03:59 AM UTC

Finalized Teams with Preliminary Project Ideas

Teams need to be finalized by this point. If you proposed or created a project, you must have others in your group. If you did not propose or create a project, you must join an open group.

Oct 2, 2026

03:59 AM UTC

Data gathering and defining stakeholders + KPIs

Find the dataset you will be working with. Describe the dataset and the problem you are looking to solve (1 page max). List the stakeholders of the project and company key performance indicators (KPIs) (bullet points).

Oct 2, 2026

03:59 AM UTC

Last day to defer enrollment to a future cohort

Contact Amalya Lehmann (amalya@erdosinstitute.org) if you would like to unenroll from this cohort and defer to a future cohort.

Oct 9, 2026

03:59 AM UTC

Data cleaning + preprocessing + EDA

Look for missing values and duplicates. Basic data manipulation & preliminary feature engineering. Exploratory data analysis.

Oct 16, 2026

03:59 AM UTC

Written proposal of modeling approach [Checkpoint]

Describe your planned modeling approach, based on the exploratory data analysis from the last two weeks (< 1 page, bullet points).

Oct 23, 2026

03:59 AM UTC

Modeling and Preliminary Results

Results with visualizations and/or metrics. List of successes and pitfalls.

Oct 30, 2026

03:59 AM UTC

Clean your repository and start working on final presentation

Clean up your repository so that an outsider can easily follow your work. Convert notebooks into scripts where possible. Confirm that the whole pipeline from data ingestion all the way to prediction or inference works without fuss.

Nov 6, 2026

04:59 AM UTC

Final Project Deadline

Submit your final project by this time.

©2017-2026 by The Erdős Institute.

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