Spring 2024

PUBPOL 290 001 - LEC 001

Special Topics in Public Policy

Data Science for Public Policy

Avi I Feller

Jan 16, 2024 - May 03, 2024

10:30 am - 12:29 pm

GSPP 105

Class #:32902

Units: 4

Instruction Mode: In-Person Instruction

Offered through Richard and Rhoda Goldman School of Public Policy

Current Enrollment

Total Open Seats: 5

Enrolled: 25

Waitlisted: 0

Capacity: 30

Waitlist Max: 15

Open Reserved Seats:

4 unreserved seats

1 reserved for Graduate Students in the Goldman School of Public Policy

1 to 4 hours of instructor presentation of course materials per week, 2 to 8 hours of outside work hours per week, and 0 to 2 hours of the exchange of opinions or questions on course material per week.

Other classes by Avi I Feller

+ 1 Independent Study

STAT 299 006 006IND

Course Catalog Description

Course examines current problems and issues in the field of public policy. Topics may vary from year to year and will be announced at the beginning of the semester. Open to students from other departments.

Class Description

This course is intended for (1) first-year MPP students who are concurrently enrolled in PP240B or PP240C and (2) second-year MPP students who have already completed the first-year sequence. Data and analytics have become essential for tackling real-world social and policy problems. This course will cover key tools in this setting: data wrangling and description with (often messy) data sets, including data aggregation and manipulation; static and interactive visualization; and introductory methods in prediction and machine learning. Students will explore these topics via individual- and group-based applied data projects, including hands-on assignments during class. Overall, the goal is for students to “get their hands dirty” with data and to produce workable—rather than ideal—solutions to problems. Data sets will be drawn from governments, non-profits, and other partner organizations. The course will be taught using the open-source programming language, R; familiarity with statistical programming (in R or another language) is strongly recommended, though knowledge of R is not required.

Class Notes

Enrollment Guidelines:

All Goldman School of Public Policy graduate level courses (PUBPOL 200 and higher) are only available during Phase I, II, and Adjustment Period to Master’s students in Public Policy, Public Affairs, Development Practice, and PhD in Public Policy.

Graduate students from other departments must add themselves to the class waitlist and wait until the end of the 3rd week of instruction to determine their enrollment status. Enrollment in GSPP courses is not guaranteed and is determined on a space available basis.

If you have enrollment questions, send an email to gsppscheduler@berkeley.edu and we'll respond as soon as we can. show less