PyConDE & PyData Berlin 2024

Lose your fear of equations!
2024-04-24 , A03-A04

The skill of quickly judging what a formula does and how changing a parameter will affect the result is crucial when dealing with real-life data science - but it's a skill not easily acquired if you don't come from a STEM background. In this tutorial we'll work on guesstimating what complex mathematical expressions do so that you, too, can lose your fear of math!


If you transitioned into data science from "soft" sciences, you've already had a steep learning curve. Coding, data engineering, statistics... There is a lot to catch up on. And while there are plenty of true black box models in machine learning, just as many can and should be described in mathematical terms.

This tutorial is for everyone who is scared by formulae. We will learn how to quickly recognize which part of an equation matters and how changing individual parameters will affect it. We will make differential equations less scary and get a "feel" for the logistic function that goes beyond running Logreg in sklearn.


Expected audience expertise: Domain:

Novice

Expected audience expertise: Python:

Novice

Abstract as a tweet (X) or toot (Mastodon):

Learn to read equations like an engineer and lose your fear of math

Dr. Darina Goldin has a Ph.D. in Control Science, but secretly wishes she had pursued a degree in pure math instead. Either way, she'd probably still have ended up as a principal data scientist at Bayes Esports, where she has been modeling Esports Data for the past 8 years. When not at her desk, Darina can be found on the mats competing in Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu.