More and more organizations are turning to data science to help guide business decisions. Regardless of industry, the ability to extract knowledge from data is crucial for a modern business to stay competitive. One of the tools at the forefront of data science is the Python® programming language. Python's robust libraries have given data scientists the ability to load, analyze, shape, clean, and visualize data in easy to use, yet powerful, ways. This Specialization will teach you the skills you need to successfully use these key libraries to extract useful insights from data, and as a result, provide great value to the business.

The target student for this Specialization understands the principles and benefits of data science and has used basic data-driven tools like Microsoft® Excel® and Structured Query Language (SQL) queries, but wants to take the next steps into more advanced applications of data science.

So, the target student may be a programmer or data analyst looking to solve business problems using powerful programming libraries that go beyond the limitations of prepackaged GUI tools or database queries.

Note: This Specialization requires that you use the provided virtual machine, which includes an installation of Python and data science tools. The course setup instructions provided in the first course go into more detail about the hardware and software requirements.

Applied Learning Project

In each module, you will apply the Python data science skills you learn by building Jupyter Notebooks through code. These Notebooks provide an ordered set of tasks for working with realistic business data in various ways, including loading, transforming, analyzing, and visualizing the data. You will save your work in these Notebooks that you can take with you once you've completed each course.