My Curriculum

To view projects, visit my Github page: github.com/ejw-data

Common Subjects	Content
Statistics	Master’s Content Taught as a traditional instructor-centered course with content that only covers basic concepts - central tendency and dispersion, distributions, correlation, OLS regression, multiple regression, chi-squared tests, and similar concepts. My Content Formal education content includes courses at Purdue University in Statistical Modeling and Quality Enhancement for chemical engineers and Intro Political Analysis and emphasized quantitative and qualitive analysis, respectively. These courses covered most if not all the content of a standard data science masters program but also included topics like DOE, PCA, and optimization. During my engineering career, I also gained experience using Six-Sigma methodologies and the finer details of statistics.
Mathematics	Master’s Content Covers basics of Calculus, Linear Algebra, Probability, and maybe Discrete Mathematics depending on how you define that field. My Content Formal education content includes Calculus, Multivariate, Linear Algebra, and Ordinary Differential Equations. I still enjoy doing math but it is almost always related to statistics or part of a simulation. Recently, I made a RSA encryption tool so I could better understand how the mathematics of that common operation.
Coding	Master’s Content Programming courses are usually offered as a pre-program or zero credit coursework. Even though R and Python are both offered, it seems like many of the classes still emphasize R My Content One of my main preferences was to use a language like Python for the work I was doing since the structure is analogous to other languages and Python is more general purpose than R. I have experience with Python, SQL, Javascript, Matlab, R, VBA, and several more.
Database & ETL	Master’s Content Typically taught with limited projects and mostly through weekly assignments. Content is typically not integrated with other technologies like automated report generation, web dashboards, or data cleaning pipelines. Topics covered from programs varied but often included database design, normalization, SQL, ETL, and basic concepts of NoSQL. My Content In 2022, I dedicated some time to gain experience with fundamental and advanced SQL queries including Window Functions, Common Table Expressions, and Recursive Queries. I also revisited projects using NoSQL with a project using MongoDB and pyMongo. My SQL experience includes a sports data ETL project, converting census data from Microsoft Access to Postgres, cleaning Associated Press News releases of election data into a Postgres Database, creating a gradebook with flask server and bootstrap frontend, analyzing weather data with SQLAlchemy, and making a news aggregator by scraping information and storing it in MongoDB. I also attend some of the Chicago-area PostgreSQL Meetups and review LinkedIn content.
Machine Learning	Master’s Content • Survey course that covers a broad range of supervised, unsupervised, neural network, and deep learning algorthims. Often 3-4 electives cover each type of machine learning individually. My Content I have run multiple regression models (OLS, Ridge, Lasso, ElasticNet, SVR), classification models (Logistic, KNN, SVC, Decision Trees, Ensemble Extremely Random Trees, Ensemble AdaBoost, Random Forests), Clustering (K-means, DBScan, Hierarchical), and have some experience in Neural Networks (Keras). In July and August of 2022, I plan on doing more work with neural networks and model building. I am also working to finish some documentation about my experiences evaluating and tuning a model - Scores/Metrics, Confusion Matrices, Classification Reports, GridSearchCV, RandomizedSearchCV, ROC Curves, AUC, feature selection, Elbow Curves, PCA, TSNE.
Decision Analytics	Master’s Content Covers methods of optimization, simulation and decision analysis techniques for prescriptive analytics in business. My Content This is the one class that I would be interested in learning more. I think this is probably very similar to my earlier engineering work that involved Six Sigma where I did the technical work but before much of that could take place it involved deciding what is the right question, is it valuable, and can we actually solve it. Then forecasting the outcomes, evaluating risks, and mapping potential consequences could be done. My current goal is to incorporate some continuous simulations and discrete event simulations into my portfolio.
Leadership & General Content	Master’s Content Almost every program had a vague course related to project management which seems to be a high level, jargon rich, discussion-based class that proposes scenarios. This course or an associated course also look at ethics, project framing and not very common subjects like survey development and execution. My Content So I have an odd background but one that I appreciate because with each experience, I gained something I lacked severely. As an process engineer, I learned systematic approaches, make quick, meaningful decisions, and appease multiple stakeholders. As an automation engineer, I learned to manage ambiguous situations, develop mutual trust with clients, and set expectations. As a education coordinator, I learned to model a positive behaviors, develop collaborative environments, and communicate and teach effectively. As a program coordinator, I proposed, discouraged, and executed a variety of projects across multiple unrelated organizations. Luckily over my career I have experience with Six Sigma, project management, StageGate methods, scrum, scoping, framing, proof-of-concept, costing, timing, contingency analysis, risk analysis, root-cause, hold-the-gap.

Specialty Topics

Common Subjects	Content
API	Master’s Content I did not see any programs that specifically discussed using or creating API Cotent. Maybe this is covered in a class about databases and the backend or like many other topics, this subject is not covered. My Content I like working with API’s. I have exerpience using a variety of APIs that return json and xml. Some of the API’s were public but many required authetication with an API key or token and a few required complicated header and body content submissions. I have made API’s typically for the purpose of connecting interactive Javascript graphics to a database or submitting web forms.
Visualizations	Master’s Content This is sometimes an elective or part of another class. It does not seem to be a popular topic in most programs. My Content I have experience using a variety of Python and Javascript libraries. To my surprise, I actually enjoy and have become quite proficient using Javascript. Some of the Javascript libaries I have used include D3.js, Leaflet.js, and Plotly.js. I have also been using Tableau for over a year and am starting to compare the functionality of it with Qlik and Power BI. Finally, I have also read a several books about visualization including The Truthful Art by Alberto Cairo, which I have seen included in several data science programs as required reading.
Big Data	Master’s Content I don’t remember dedicated classes for big data from a handful of years back so this seems like a new topic or at least a topic that went from beging an elective to a core class. My Content Starting about a year ago (2021), I began exploring pySpark and Databricks. It is an ongoing learning process but I am trying to become as familiar with common services as possible.
WebDev	Master’s Content I have not seen a course that really goes into depth about website design, frameworks, and best practices My Content I think I would be considered fairly well rounded when it comes to webdev. I can create static pages with HTML, CSS, and vanilla javascript but prefer to use a content management system that allows for templating. I have used two templating languages - Jinja and Liquid. This website is built with Jekyll so that the static website is generated based on logic, Liquid, and HTML/CSS/JS. I think I have been able to create everything on the site without needing to call on external libraries.