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2026-27 Catalog Under Construction

The IntroSems catalog is under construction for 2026-27! Check back for next year's seminars on August 12, 2026 when the IntroSems' VCA portal opens to applications.

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The Data Scientist as Detective

London mural of Sherlock Holmes. Keiteu Ko on Unsplash

Course Description

This seminar is about how data are used to figure things out. We will consider cases in which a standing mystery existed, a question without an answer that was subsequently solved with a crisp, clever, or comprehensive analysis of data. We will pay close attention to the reasoning used involved in getting answers from data, and together we will consider how to assess how confident to be in those answers. All of which is directed to providing a better understanding of the logic of making inferences from data, evaluating those inferences, and actually working with data. Over the quarter, students will also be asked to pose and advance a project of their own that involves answering a question with data.

Meet the Instructor: Jeremy Freese

Jeremy Freese

"I am interested broadly in the relationship between social differences and individual differences, and between social advantage and embodied advantage. This includes work differences in physical health, cognitive functioning, health behaviors, and the role of differential utilization of knowledge and innovations toward producing differences."

First-Year
SOC 11N
Units:
3

Application Deadline

Quarter

  • Winter

Seminar Type

  • First-Year

Department

  • Sociology

School

  • Social Sciences

Requirements

  • WAY-AQR,
  • WAY-SI