Theoretical Foundations of Data Science I
DSC 40A, Winter 2026 at UC San Diego 👋
Winter 2026
PCYNH 106
TUE & THUR 5:00PM - 6:20PM
Read the syllabus! Extra credit questions on the Midterm and Final will come from the syllabus. Check it out here. Office hours are listed under the Calendar tab.
Waitlist students: You are expected to attend from Day 1 and keep up with all course material. I accept all qualified students (those who meet prerequisites and have departmental approval). Only HDSI and the registrar can officially enroll you.
Week 1 - Modeling, Loss Functions, & Simple Linear Regression
📘 Read Chapter 1, Pages 1-12.
🍿 Watch Ahmed's Calc Review.
Week 2 - Loss Functions & Simple Linear Regression
📘 Read Chapter 2, Pages 1-7.
📘 Read the spread notes.
Week 3 - Linear Algebra & Regression
🍿 Watch Owen's Matrix Multiplication Review Pt.1.
🍿 Watch Owen's Matrix Multiplication Review Pt.2.
- 🧑🏫 Tue Jan 20
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DEMO Demo 1 - Linear Regression
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TALK Applications of Linear Regression
blank -
HW Homework 2 Released (due Feb 1, 11:59 pm)
problems template code solutions -
LEC 5 Simple Linear Regression, Continued
blank filled recording - 🏠 Wed Jan 21
- 🧑🏫 Thu Jan 22
- 🧑🏫 Fri Jan 23
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DISC Groupwork 1 Review
Week 7 - Gradient Descent
📘 Read Chapter 1, Pages 16-17.
📘 Read Notes on Convexity.
Week 8 - Probability & Combinatorics
📘 Read Janine's probability roadmap (in order):
Roadmap with Questions - Roadmap with Answers - Summary
📘 Read Chapters 1 and 2 of this online Probability Textbook.
🍿 Watch Suraj's combinatoric problems.
Week 9 - Probability & Independence
💪 Build intuition for probability.
💪 Build intuition for conditional probability.
Week 10 - Naïve Bayes & Course Conclusion
📘 Read Notes on Conditional Independence.
- 🏠 Mon Mar 9
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HW Homework 6 - Bonus Homework Released (due Mar 12, 11:59 pm)
- 🧑🏫 Tue Mar 10
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DEMO Demo 7 - Multi-Armed Bandit (Bayesian Updating)
- 🧑🏫 Thu Mar 12
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LEC 19 Conclusion (LIVE)
- 🧑🏫 Fri Mar 13
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DISC Final Exam Review