Exploring Tidy Tuesday: A Community Initiative for Notre Dame Data Science

Data science thrives on continuous learning. The University of Notre Dame's Online Master's in Data Science (NDDS) program fosters this spirit through initiatives like Tidy Tuesday, a weekly data community event that engages students, alumni, and prospective applicants in thoughtful discussions on current happenings in the world of data and data science.

What is Tidy Tuesday?

Tidy Tuesday is a global movement of data scientists who collectively analyze a new community-curated dataset each week. It provides an opportunity for participants to practice cleaning, exploring, visualizing, and extracting insights from data. Importantly, it’s a fun and safe way to learn and compare approaches with others in the field. Topics range from Himalayan mountaineering expeditions to Pixar films and objects launched into space. You can browse all the datasets in the official GitHub repository. While Tidy Tuesday's roots are in the R community, it is now widely seen as an opportunity to hone skills in any programming language.

Notre Dame’s Tidy Tuesday - Why Attend?

Notre Dame’s Tidy Tuesday meet-up originated from a desire to create an ND-affiliated, community-driven learning experience. It is open to current students, alumni, faculty, and professionals from industry. A vision brought to life by Tony Galván ('99,‘19) to foster collaborative data exploration. For current students and alumni, it's a chance to apply and expand their skills. For prospective applicants, it offers an opportunity to connect with alumni and affiliates in an applied, supportive environment while experiencing our community’s hands-on learning approach.

“Tidy Tuesday serves as my weekly data science workout, pushing me to work with various datasets, hone my data cleaning skills, and experiment with new packages and visualization methods,” Galván said. “Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of clear communication and process explanation, which are crucial skills for tackling real-world data science challenges.”

The Notre Dame Tidy Tuesday group welcomes participants of all skill levels in a positive and reaffirming space where learning and growth are encouraged. It reflects the commitment of the Notre Dame network and our alumni, who are committed to supporting one another’s development and success.

Nat Rivera (‘21), a regular attendee, credits these sessions with significantly boosting his data science skills and visualization abilities. “These sessions offer invaluable opportunities for portfolio building, coding practice, model development, and refining data storytelling.”

“Tidy Tuesdays are a unique and enjoyable way to hone one's data science skills,” said Professor Christopher Frederick. “I’m often in awe at some of the techniques and skills displayed each week, not just in the Notre Dame group but across the industry. It is such a wonderful way to learn about what is new and exciting in the field."