Admission requirements
None
Description
In the master Statistics and Data Science the curriculum is mostly focused on statistical and data science techniques, their (mathematical) foundations, their application, and how to implement them using programming languages. All these skills are necessary to be successful as a data scientist, but they are mostly about numbers. And these numbers can mean very different things depending on the context or work field that they come from. An essential skill for statisticians/data scientists is thus to know how to make these numbers meaningful and insightful to others, be it your scientific peers, your colleagues, the executive board, or the general public. This requires domain knowledge of different research fields as well as knowledge on how to clearly communicate.
In this course we will introduce you to research in the three prominent fields of our master:
Clinical, Epidemiological, and Observational Medical Research, (Leiden University Medical Center)
Plant Genetics, Genomics and Phenomics (Wageningen University)
(Neuro)Psychological Research, (Leiden University).
We want to introduce you to what working in one of these research areas looks like: what questions are answered, what statistical methods are usually employed, and how does data translate into useful concepts? We achieve this by going on research visits to different departments and conducting an interview with prominent researchers in these fields.
Course Objectives
The overall aim of this course is to introduce students to important areas of application of statistics and data science methods in the Life and Behavioural Sciences. Students will also develop their soft skills (presenting and working in teams). More specifically, students should, at the end of the course:
Be able to work in a group with diverse backgrounds.
Be able to conduct and summarize an interview.
Be able to give a presentation adapted to a specific audience.
Have knowledge of the research conducted / work done in one of the different subfields in the Life and behavioural sciences.
Timetable
In MyTimetable, you can find all course and programme schedules, allowing you to create your personal timetable. Activities for which you have enrolled via MyStudyMap will automatically appear in your timetable.
Additionally, you can easily link MyTimetable to a calendar app on your phone, and schedule changes will be automatically updated in your calendar. You can also choose to receive email notifications about schedule changes. You can enable notifications in Settings after logging in.
Questions? Watch the video, read the instructions, or contact the ISSC helpdesk.
Note: Joint Degree students from Leiden/Delft need to combine information from both the Leiden and Delft MyTimetables to see a complete schedule. This video explains how to do it.
Mode of instruction
The course consists of a mix of lectures, workshops, and research visits.
Assessment method
Students will work in small groups to prepare a final presentation based on the research visit and the interview. The final grade will be based on the quality of, and performance on, the presentation (40%), the quality of the interview summary (40%), and the evaluation of group work (20%). A resit possibility is scheduled in consultation with the teacher.
Reading list
Literature will be specified during the course; no books are required.
Registration
As a student, you are responsible for enrolling on time through MyStudyMap.
In this short video, you can see step-by-step how to enrol for courses in MyStudyMap.
Extensive information about the operation of MyStudyMap can be found here.
There are two enrolment periods per year:
Enrolment for the fall opens in July
Enrolment for the spring opens in December
See this page for more information about deadlines and enrolling for courses and exams.
Note:
It is mandatory to enrol for all activities of a course that you are going to follow.
Your enrolment is only complete when you submit your course planning in the ‘Ready for enrolment’ tab by clicking ‘Send’.
Not being enrolled for an exam/resit means that you are not allowed to participate in the exam/resit.
Contact
w [dot] d [dot] weeda [at] fsw [dot] leidenuniv [dot] nl
Remarks
Software
Starting from the 2024/2025 academic year, the Faculty of Science will use the software distribution platform Academic Software. Through this platform, you can access the software needed for specific courses in your studies. For some software, your laptop must meet certain system requirements, which will be specified with the software. It is important to install the software before the start of the course. More information about the laptop requirements can be found on the student website.