Data Spark: Learn data science through real life projects

Learn about the real-life data projects our students could be working on, coached by leading academics from Imperial College London and expert data scientists and engineers from Le Wagon.

We believe the best way to learn is by doing. During the final stage of our new Imperial Data Science Intensive Course participants will apply their newly learnt data science skills to real-life problems by completing a 3-week Data Spark project.

The Data Spark Programme

Data Spark is an innovative, and very competitive, programme pioneered by Imperial College London where each project strives to find fresh and actionable insights for a business, or drive societal challenge.

Having completed 7 weeks of learning about a range of data science topics, from Python to advanced machine learning, course participants will work in teams of 3 or 4 to complete a data project from start to finish, building their professional portfolio, and gaining experience of collaborating within a data science team. They can either work on data supplied by partner companies, or come up with their own project during our ideation training.

Expert Mentoring

Course participants will be coached by some of the world’s best researchers and academics from Imperial College London with expertise in innovative data analysis techniques, and will receive daily tutoring from expert data scientists and engineers from Le Wagon.

Academic Mentors from Imperial College London

"Projects developed with our industry collaborators will be of strategic importance to those businesses. We can also help you to scope out an impactful project you care about."

Dr Susan Mulcahy, Academic Director, Data Spark Programme at Imperial College London

Upcoming Data Spark Projects

We are excited to be able to announce some of the Data Spark projects our students could be working on this Spring:

New services for the health industry

ART Health Solutions help organisations and their employees through the integration of data driven wellbeing & performance services that drive significant business value and help workforces feel & perform at their best, more often.

Based on this high-quality data, there are two Data Spark projects we are exploring:

To automate a rating system that provides insights back to businesses based on their employee's performance and wellbeing. This would be based on de-identified data from the wearables and subjective feedback from the employees.
To provide individualised insights to employees by understanding the relationship between metrics within and across wellbeing, performance and experience. For example, looking at how sleep levels affect our activities.

“The Data Spark programme gives us access to capable students with excellent data analytics skills in artificial intelligence, machine learning, or data science technologies. We hope this collaboration will assist us in evolving our internal data processing systems leading to positive outcomes in terms of our value propositions and delivery of client projects.”

Paul Smith PhD, Chief Strategy Officer, ART Health Solutions

Analyse 14 years of UK TV viewing habits

We are in advanced talks with a TV and media tech company that specialises in industry analysis of TV viewing data and SVOD (Subscription Viewing On Demand). With 14 years of data to analyse, the projects they would like our students to work on are:

To model the impact of on-air promotions on increasing audience for a programme. This will involve granular behaviour viewing data of 10K+ people from all UK tv channels in order to assess how advertisements impact the TV viewings. For example, two minutes of adverts may make a viewer switch from channel A to B but 15 seconds may not. Come explore this with us!
To estimate the financial value of a subscription programme based on the ratings received. Not as simple as it may sound due to the large amount of noise in this type of data. Step up to the challenge with your data detective skills!

Carry out an original project idea

Have your own idea for a project and access to data? Great! During this course we will work with you to explore and scope your own project ideas through ideation training. Winning projects will then be taken forward and we will coach your team on how to deliver a successful, impactful analysis.

Demo Day

The programme will culminate in a Demo Day where you present your findings to members of the Imperial community, Le Wagon and industry collaborators. This will be a unique chance to show off your hard work! There will be an award for the best project, and there is even the potential for a project to be selected to be demonstrated in Imperial's Data Observatory.

Join our Imperial Data Science Intensive Course this Spring

With modules on everything from Python and Pandas to deep learning, in just ten weeks the Imperial Data Science Intensive Course, in partnership with Imperial College London and Le Wagon, will teach you the fundamental skills to begin a career as a data scientist. This full-time, online and immersive experience equips participants with the skills to explore, clean, and transform data into actionable insights and to implement machine learning models from start to finish.

We still have a few spaces remaining for our Spring Cohort starting on 12 April 2021. Apply today and speak with our Admissions Team who will be able to answer any questions you may have about the course.

Full course information, and the link to download the syllabus can be found here.

Apply for the Imperial Data Science Intensive Course here.

Keep learning

Check out some case studies of previous Data Spark projects here
Explore the prep-work we get all participants to complete before joining the course
Check out some of the previous final projects completed by Le Wagon Data Science Graduates below: