There are 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created each day (Forbes, 2018). By equipping yourself and your team with the ability to manage, sort, analyze, process, and draw conclusions from big data, you can make better decisions for your organization and the customers or communities you serve.
This eight-week course teaches you to draw key insights from complex data sets and Canadian public data using the programming language Python. It is a practical, introductory coding course focused on key applications within public policy and decision-making. You will also learn modern technologies and programming techniques that will help you use data to draw meaningful insights and stories.
Take this course individually, or as part of the three-course Data Analytics for Behavioural Insights certificate program. You will receive a certificate for each individual course you successfully complete, and then a certificate upon successful completion of the entire program. If you have successfully completed the first course in the Data Analytics for Behavioural Insights certificate program, you will have background knowledge that will be helpful for this course.
- Policymakers: Do you develop policies for any public service sector (e.g., health care or municipalities)? Understand how modern data analytics techniques can better inform your decisions.
- Public servants, non-profit and community leaders: Are you working in public service or leading a business improvement area, non-profit, or public office? Gain behavioural insights that can be used to inform your work, improve your community, and increase your chances of success when competing for funding.
- Public service organizations: Do you primarily serve the public sector or the general public? Elevate your understanding about your customers and partners and learn to make more informed decisions that better serve public interest.
- Leverage public data in ways that are applicable to public policy.
- Identify different data file types (CSV, Excel).
- Write code, read, clean, and analyze data files in Python.
- Build Ordinary Least Square (OLS) regression models using Python, Pandas, and StatsModels.
- Use Python to create visualizations of data.
Get a sample of what you'll learn in week two of Python and Public Data!
- Instruction from a professional data expert in a course designed by University of Waterloo faculty.
- Weekly live Q&A sessions via Zoom every Monday from 2 - 3 p.m. ET (also available as recordings).
- Opportunities to discuss your learning with others in the course.
- Curated case studies and content based on Canadian public data.
- Five to seven hours of online learning and independent work each week (including live sessions, graded assignments, and activities).
- Regular quizzes to test your knowledge throughout the course.
- Instructor support for an independent research assignment that showcases your learning.
- Attendance requirement: It is highly recommended that participants attend live sessions, but it is not required. Live sessions will be recorded and available for all participants to view.
Receive a certificate from the University of Waterloo
Upon successful completion of this program, you will receive a professional education certificate from the University of Waterloo.
System requirements
- Zoom is used for drop-in sessions.
- Slack is used for class discussions.
- Anaconda/Jupyter (software that you are required to install)
- Please note: You must have administrator rights to the computer you will use for this course in order to install and configure the necessary tools. If you plan to use a shared device or an employer-issued machine, make sure that you have the necessary permissions.
Elias Puurunen
President, Northern HCI Solutions
Elias Puurunen is the president of Northern HCI Solutions. He architects big data solutions for Fortune 500 companies, governments, and startups. His data warehouses enable Canada's top high-performance building researchers to produce new electric grid guidance to reduce energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions while maintaining quality of life.
At the height of the 2020 COVID pandemic, Puurunen’s firm designed a personal protective equipment (PPE) test program for the National Research Council of Canada. This program allowed researchers to perform rapid quality assurance verification on PPE. In 2019, Puurunen developed the Coding for Public Policy course (PS 627) for the University of Waterloo's Master of Public Service program. He is also a Microsoft certified solutions expert in data management and analytics, CompTIA certified technical trainer, and holds his Honours Bachelor of Computer Science from the University of Waterloo.
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