Whether you chalk it up to morbid curiosity or a need to understand data visualization, this project seemed like a no-brainer. The pandemic has given us a plethora of data to direct and visualize. Furthermore, I’ve always been fascinated by the beautiful map visualizations that people have been able to build. So, it made sense to make this easy project one of my first forays into data science.
Skills used:
- Python libraries (NumPy, pandas, Plotly)
- data visualization using choropleth maps
Whether you’re a cat person or a dog person, this project has something for everyone. To be honest, I just wanted to do this project so I could look at cute animal pictures. And I suppose I also wanted to improve my neural network and deep learning skills too.
Skills used:
- Python libraries (NumPy, pandas, Keras, scikit-learn, MatPlotLib)
- neural networks
- deep learning
- data visualization
With masks not going away any time soon, why not make the best of a bad situation and work on a machine learning project that detects whether or not you’re wearing a face mask? Facial recognition has always interested me, so this project idea was a no-brainer.
Skills used:
- Python libraries (Keras, OpenCV, NumPy, scikit-learn)
- machine learning
- neural networks
With all music produced in the last ten years sounding exactly the same, a program that classifies music by its genre would be incredibly useful to avoid confusion. Music isn’t really my thing, but this was such a unique type of project that I just had to add it to my list. Machine learning can classify the music files using their frequency and time domain. Once analyzed, the songs will be slotted into one of ten different musical genres.
Skills used:
- Python libraries (NumPy)
- machine learning
- deep learning
- K-nearest neighbors
Self-driving cars have come a long way and it’s no doubt that they’ll play an instrumental part in our future. If you think about it, it’s kind of spooky that a few lines of code are all it takes to keep a car from crossing a solid white line into oncoming traffic. Like many, I’m wary of the technology, so I thought it would be a good idea to get my hands dirty and see how it all actually works.
Skills used:
- Python libraries (Numpy, MatPlotLib, OpenCV)
- deep learning
- machine learning
- computer vision
This project would have been pretty useful anytime in the last four years. However, just because the wicked witch is dead doesn’t mean that fake news will be taking a break any time soon. Therefore, why not build something that will stretch my data science skills and will also be useful when it comes time to lay down some hard truths?
Skills used:
- Python libraries (NumPy, pandas, scikit-learn)
- machine learning
- model building and fitting
Often considered to be the holy grail of data science projects for beginners due to its factor of uncertainty, stock market price prediction is going to be a great way to test me to see how my data science skills have grown and improved over the year. While this project may be a long-shot, I’ve included it in here anyway for a time when I’m feeling ambitious. Because this project is very intensive, I’ve included some additional resources that might come in handy if I get stuck.
Additional resources:
Skills used:
- Python libraries (pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn)
- machine learning
- deep learning
- linear regression
- recursive neural network architecture