Math 7830: Software Development and Management for Data Visualization

Interested in writing software or visualizing data? If so, you may want to enroll in the special‑topics course Math 7830: Software Development and Management for Data Visualization.

Prerequisite: Graduate‑student status (no prior programming experience required).

Grading: Pass/Fail (S‑U). Participation earns a passing grade.

Participation Model

• Experienced programmers – Work on coding during weekly lab sessions and provide feedback on peers’ code.
• Beginners or those with limited programming background – Learn programming through suggested projects and also review classmates’ code.

Students will work on software projects that involve both writing/reviewing code and applying it to data. You may use any programming language. While project prompts are supplied in Python and R, you’re free to select other languages or align projects with your thesis. Group work is encouraged, but not required.

Topics Covered

• Version control with Git, GitHub/GitLab
• Dimensionality‑reduction methods for data visualization (e.g., PCA, t‑SNE, UMAP, topological data analysis)
• Introduction to product development: building user‑friendly, extensible software, best‑practice guidelines, and a brief comparison of academic versus industry software development.