Course Overview
Have you ever wondered what the numbers on your smartwatch or fitness tracker reveal about your health? In this fun, hands-on course, you’ll get to be a Health Detective and unlock hidden messages and patterns in your everyday health data, like activity levels, sleep patterns, and heart rate. No smartwatch or wearables? No problem! We’ll show you easy ways to collect your own data. Each day, you’ll learn to turn your data into colorful visuals that reveal what’s going on inside your body.
By the end of the week, you’ll build a personal health dashboard to show off what you’ve discovered - just like the ones used by athletes and scientists. You’ll also get a sneak peek into the world of artificial intelligence, discovering how data can be used to make predictions and gain insights. Throughout the course, you’ll extract patterns from your health data and learn how small changes in your routine can help you feel healthier and more energized.
"Unlock the secrets of your body’s data!"
Learning Outcomes
By the end, you’ll analyze health like a pro!
- Identify and describe different types of personal health data.
- Collect, clean, and organize personal health data.
- Apply artificial intelligence techniques to analyze personal data.
- Design and develop effective visual presentations of personal health data for exploration and communication.
- Draw insights from data to reflect on personal health habits.
Course Outline
Introduction to Data Science & Health Data
Topics
- Introduction to data science and its application to health data
- Discussion on different types of health data (e.g., activity, sleep, heart rate, mood)
- Exploring insights from tracking personal health data
Activities
- Find your group and plan for the Data Visualization Hackathon
- Setting up a personal Health Data notebook
Data Cleaning, Organizing & Sketching
Topics
- Overview of methods for data collection
- Introduction to data cleaning: handling errors, missing values, duplicates
- Data organization in Excel (tables, filtering, sorting)
Activities
- Collect data from peers using Google Forms
- Organize and clean collected data in Excel
- Sketch visualizations based on collected data
- Visit Abilities Living Laboratories
AI for Health Data Analysis
Topics
- Basics of AI, ML, and NLP in health data
- Applications of AI in electronic health records and text generation
- Introduction to machine learning in healthcare
Activities
- Guest Lecture: Prof. Green on AI in healthcare
- Analyze text data using NLP
- Analyze tabular data using ML
Data Visualization
Topics
- Introduction to visualization dashboard design and storytelling with data
- Best practices in creating visualizations
- Introduction to physical data visualizations
Activities
- Create visualizations using Tableau
- Create physicalizations using physical materials
Data Visualization Hackathon
Topics
- Presenting your health data story through visualizations
- Data Visualization Hackathon
- Final reflections on what you've learned
Activities
- Work on final dashboard projects (digital or physical)
- Present final projects and share insights
- Peer feedback and group discussions
Assignments & Hackathon
Daily Assignment
There is one main assignment throughout the course: collecting personal health data every day. You will be required to track various health metrics such as steps, sleep, heart rate, and mood. This data will be essential for your final project and the activities throughout the week.
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Data Visualization Hackathon
On the final day, we will hold a half-day Data Visualization Hackathon. This hackathon will give you the opportunity to apply everything you've learned throughout the course. Each day, we will focus on developing the skills necessary to succeed in the hackathon.
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