Individual Coursework – Programming for Data Science
This Individual Coursework assignment for the Programming for Data Science module requires students to demonstrate practical programming skills and the ability to critically select and apply Python data science tools and libraries. The assessment is worth 20 credits and has a word count of 2,500 words plus 10%, excluding the reference list and output. Students are required to submit one clearly organised report covering two tasks and their individual subtasks. Task 1 focuses on designing, building, testing, explaining, adapting and critiquing a Python program. Students are required to implement a dice-based football match simulation for two players using at least two Python functions. The implementation should follow the logic of the physical dice game, demonstrate good Python coding style, and use functions designed with high cohesion and low coupling. The report must include the full Python code and carefully selected output from a sample match that demonstrates the progression of the game and changes in the score. Students must not implement a Python class or graphical visualisation. The second part of Task 1 requires students to explain how they designed their implementation, including assumptions, incremental development and testing. They must then modify their program to estimate at least two performance measures relevant to a football manager. The coursework asks students to investigate how these measures change when a restrictive shot clock is introduced and to model a realistic “Hail Mary” shot when the shot clock is close to expiring. Students must provide modified Python code, clearly identify the changes made, include selected output for checking the logic, and provide a robust conclusion based on comparison of the results. Task 2 focuses on critically assessing, selecting and applying Python data science libraries and algorithms. Students must describe an applied data science problem involving unstructured data such as image, audio, video or text. They must provide a specific example based on the context of a Coventry University fresher and explain how the problem could be solved manually. Students then select two Python libraries, justify their selection, compare their capabilities, apply both libraries to the chosen problem, and provide the relevant Python code and output. The final part of Task 2 requires a critical assessment of the selected Python libraries using the student's experience and additional sources. Factors may include coding difficulty, adaptability, level of control and quality of the resulting solution. Students must make a reasoned assessment of the suitability of the libraries for their chosen application and support their discussion with appropriate references. The assignment assesses three module learning outcomes: understanding essential programming concepts relevant to data science; designing, building, testing, explaining, adapting and critiquing small programs in a high-level programming language; and critically assessing, selecting and applying data science tools, libraries or algorithms for different applications and tasks. The submission must be provided as a single Microsoft Word or PDF report, organised by subtask, with each task starting on a new page. Python code, relevant output and plots must be included directly in the report. The brief requires APA referencing and states that sources should be cited in-text with a reference list for each task where relevant.
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