Syllabus
August 4–15, 2025 | Online
Quick ReferenceZoom:Join using your unique Zoom link.Discord:Interact with instructors, tech mentors and other campers. Watch for an invitation link to join the boot camp workspace.• Introduce yourself on the channel #hello.• Check for camp-wide announcements in #announcements.• Review boot camp resources and recording links in #resources.• Questions about installation and activation in #tech-support.The following channels are restricted to Full Registration participants:• Ask questions about lectures, exercises and Wolfram Language and request code help in #questions.• Join daily office hours for one-on-one discussions with instructors and tech mentors in #office-hours.• #office-hours includes voice channels to enable audio and screen sharing among instructors, tech mentors and participants.
Note: Lecture notebooks and other handouts will be uploaded to this folder as boot camp progresses. This folder will be accessible until September 15, 2025.
Daily Schedule (US CDT)9–11:30amTopic introductions and concept lectures11:30am–1pmBreak1–3pmHands-on explorations3–4pmOffice hours
Week 1 Schedule of Instruction
Week 1 Schedule of Instruction
Day 1 (Monday, August 4):
Day 1 (Monday, August 4):
Morning
9–9:30am: Welcome and Boot Camp Tech Update
Jamie Peterson, Arben Kalziqi
Jamie Peterson, Arben Kalziqi
Discord instructions
9:30–10:30am: Opening Keynote: Data Science without Boundaries
Instructor: Jon McLoone
This talk introduces the “Wolfram way” of doing data science—i.e. using the very broad computational intelligence built into the language to expand on what we might think of as the traditional way of approaching data science problems. This talk includes toy examples that take advantage of the machine learning, geocomputation and audio processing functionalities of Wolfram Language to give a sense of what you can do without even needing to leave a notebook.
Instructor: Jon McLoone
This talk introduces the “Wolfram way” of doing data science—i.e. using the very broad computational intelligence built into the language to expand on what we might think of as the traditional way of approaching data science problems. This talk includes toy examples that take advantage of the machine learning, geocomputation and audio processing functionalities of Wolfram Language to give a sense of what you can do without even needing to leave a notebook.
10:30–11:30am: Introduction to the Wolfram Technology Stack
Kelvin Mischo
Wolfram technology is anchored by a common unified language called Wolfram Language. This talk will give a brief overview of how Wolfram Language is available to organizations in the form of various products, as well as how to get started with Wolfram Language, Wolfram Notebooks and Wolfram deployments.
Kelvin Mischo
Wolfram technology is anchored by a common unified language called Wolfram Language. This talk will give a brief overview of how Wolfram Language is available to organizations in the form of various products, as well as how to get started with Wolfram Language, Wolfram Notebooks and Wolfram deployments.
11:30am–12:30pm:
Wolfram|One installation help (Discord)
Tech Mentors: Eun Hyun Park
Tech Mentors: Eun Hyun Park
Afternoon
1–3pm: Getting Started with Wolfram Language
Instructor: Arben Kalziqi
Wolfram Language is an ocean—it can be easy to feel like you’re in too deep and don’t really know where to go. The goal of this talk is to drill down on a few of the theoretical ideas, practical examples and common programming constructs that will help to get you situated. Plus: tips and tricks!
Instructor: Arben Kalziqi
Wolfram Language is an ocean—it can be easy to feel like you’re in too deep and don’t really know where to go. The goal of this talk is to drill down on a few of the theoretical ideas, practical examples and common programming constructs that will help to get you situated. Plus: tips and tricks!
3–4pm: Office hours; further installation help
Arben Kalziqi, Eun Hyun Park
Arben Kalziqi, Eun Hyun Park
Homework
Identify a dataset for the end-of-camp computational essay. List a few questions that you would like to answer based on the data.
Day 2 (Tuesday, August 5):
Day 2 (Tuesday, August 5):
Morning
9–11:30am: The Multiparadigm Data Science Workflow
Instructor: Abrita Chakravarty
Get a sense of how you can use Wolfram Language’s broad functionality to take your data science projects from ideas to presentations. This talk offers an in-depth exploration of the five steps of our “multiparadigm” workflow: questioning, wrangling, exploring, analyzing and communicating. A single notebook can document the entire workflow!
Get a sense of how you can use Wolfram Language’s broad functionality to take your data science projects from ideas to presentations. This talk offers an in-depth exploration of the five steps of our “multiparadigm” workflow: questioning, wrangling, exploring, analyzing and communicating. A single notebook can document the entire workflow!
Afternoon
1–3pm: Hands-on Explorations (breakout rooms)
Instructor: Arben Kalziqi
Tech Mentor: Luke Titus
Instructor: Arben Kalziqi
Tech Mentor: Luke Titus
3–4pm: Office hours
Arben Kalziqi, Luke Titus
Arben Kalziqi, Luke Titus
Homework
Think of how you can use multiparadigm data science to analyze your dataset.
Day 3 (Wednesday, August 6):
Day 3 (Wednesday, August 6):
Morning
9–11:30am: Visualizing Data Quickly
Instructor: Luke Titus
With the use of a curated dataset from the Wolfram Data Repository, this course shows how to quickly visualize different data structures and how to make your graphics ready to publish and share. Domain-specific functions as well as general techniques are shared for getting the most out of your graphics. The topics covered in this course include Visualizing Data Quickly, Themes and Styles, Labeling Plots and Graphics, Arranging Elements, Dynamic Interactivity and Putting It All Together.
Instructor: Luke Titus
With the use of a curated dataset from the Wolfram Data Repository, this course shows how to quickly visualize different data structures and how to make your graphics ready to publish and share. Domain-specific functions as well as general techniques are shared for getting the most out of your graphics. The topics covered in this course include Visualizing Data Quickly, Themes and Styles, Labeling Plots and Graphics, Arranging Elements, Dynamic Interactivity and Putting It All Together.
Afternoon
1–2pm: Computation with Structured Data
Instructor: Arben Kalziqi
As datasets grow larger and larger, it becomes increasingly important to be able to organize and structure your data. This talk will show you the primary ways of doing so in Wolfram Language and give you tips about how to seamlessly switch between and work with various data representations, including the new Tabular format.
Instructor: Arben Kalziqi
As datasets grow larger and larger, it becomes increasingly important to be able to organize and structure your data. This talk will show you the primary ways of doing so in Wolfram Language and give you tips about how to seamlessly switch between and work with various data representations, including the new Tabular format.
2–3pm: Hands-on Explorations (breakout rooms)
Instructor: Luke Titus, Arben Kalziqi
Tech Mentor: Mike Yeh
Instructor: Luke Titus, Arben Kalziqi
Tech Mentor: Mike Yeh
3–4pm: Office hours
Arben Kalziqi, Mike Yeh
Arben Kalziqi, Mike Yeh
Homework
Think of visualizations you can create for your data (both for exploratory analysis and for the final presentation). Try to create some visualizations. Bring questions to office hours on Thursday.
Day 4 (Thursday, August 7):
Day 4 (Thursday, August 7):
Morning
9–11:30am: Relational Database Connectivity
Instructor: Sergio Gastulo
We will explore the functionality of Databases/Entity Framework to interact with relational databases in Wolfram Language. We will first recap the Entity Framework and its query language, then briefly introduce the relational data model, and then proceed to database topics proper: establishing a database connection and building and running entity queries on a database.
Some more advanced query-building topics/functionality will be discussed, if time permits. A large number of hands-on exercises will be tackled along the way, to reinforce the knowledge. The presentation has been designed to be self-contained: prior familiarity with relational models and/or SQL will be helpful, but not required.
Instructor: Sergio Gastulo
We will explore the functionality of Databases/Entity Framework to interact with relational databases in Wolfram Language. We will first recap the Entity Framework and its query language, then briefly introduce the relational data model, and then proceed to database topics proper: establishing a database connection and building and running entity queries on a database.
Some more advanced query-building topics/functionality will be discussed, if time permits. A large number of hands-on exercises will be tackled along the way, to reinforce the knowledge. The presentation has been designed to be self-contained: prior familiarity with relational models and/or SQL will be helpful, but not required.
Afternoon
1–3pm: Hands-on Explorations (breakout rooms)
Instructor: Sergio Gastulo
Tech Mentor: Mike Yeh
Instructor: Sergio Gastulo
Tech Mentor: Mike Yeh
3:30–4pm: Office hours
Arben Kalziqi, Mike Yeh
Arben Kalziqi, Mike Yeh
Homework
Continue to work on your computational essay. What type of machine learning can you use on your data?
Day 5 (Friday, August 8):
Day 5 (Friday, August 8):
Morning
9–11:30am: Programming with LLM Functions
Instructor: Jon McLoone
Instructor: Jon McLoone
Afternoon
1–3pm: Hands-on Explorations for LLM Functions (breakout rooms)
Practical exercises integrating LLMs with Wolfram Language for text and data analysis.
Instructor: Arben Kalziqi
Tech Mentor: Mike Yeh
Practical exercises integrating LLMs with Wolfram Language for text and data analysis.
Instructor: Arben Kalziqi
Tech Mentor: Mike Yeh
3:30–4pm: Office hours
Arben Kalziqi, Mike Yeh
Arben Kalziqi, Mike Yeh
Homework: Computational Essay Outline
Resources: Computational essays templates, guidelines and samples
Create the outline of the computational essay you want to write for the boot camp and fill out at least parts of the sections for Question, Wrangle and Explore.
Week 2 Schedule of Instruction
Week 2 Schedule of Instruction
Day 6 (Monday, August 11):
Day 6 (Monday, August 11):
Morning
9–11am: Introduction to Machine Learning
Instructor: Abrita Chakravarty
This talk helps you to discover how to leverage Wolfram Language for machine learning by covering key concepts and paradigms as well as powerful built-in tools for tasks like text and image classification. Explore supervised and unsupervised methods, practical applications and best practices for model training.
Instructor: Abrita Chakravarty
This talk helps you to discover how to leverage Wolfram Language for machine learning by covering key concepts and paradigms as well as powerful built-in tools for tasks like text and image classification. Explore supervised and unsupervised methods, practical applications and best practices for model training.
11–11:30am: Q&A
Instructor: Abrita Chakravarty
Tech Mentor: Mike Yeh
Instructor: Abrita Chakravarty
Tech Mentor: Mike Yeh
Afternoon
1–3pm: Hands-on Explorations for Machine Learning Functions (breakout rooms)
Practical exercises integrating LLMs with Wolfram Language for text and data analysis.
Instructor: Abrita Chakravarty
Tech Mentor: Mike Yeh
Practical exercises integrating LLMs with Wolfram Language for text and data analysis.
Instructor: Abrita Chakravarty
Tech Mentor: Mike Yeh
3–4pm: Office hours
Arben Kalziqi, Mike Yeh
Arben Kalziqi, Mike Yeh
Homework
Continue to work on your computational essay.
Day 7 (Tuesday, August 12):
Day 7 (Tuesday, August 12):
Morning
9–10:30am: Statistical Tools for Data Science
Instructor: Gosia Konwerska
In this talk, we will explore the data analysis workflows in Wolfram Language—using the synergy of understanding, visualizing and modeling the data.
Instructor: Gosia Konwerska
In this talk, we will explore the data analysis workflows in Wolfram Language—using the synergy of understanding, visualizing and modeling the data.
10:30-11:30am: External Integration with R
Instructor: Leonid Shifrin
The functionality of RLink, connecting Wolfram Language and R, will be explored. We will look into core language mapping, two-way communication with R, creating your own R functions in Wolfram Language, using R packages, custom data type mappings, efficiency considerations, subtleties, current limitations and more. A number of new/experimental features will be covered as well: R object references, Wolfram Language–side R package installation, R installation discovery and management.
Instructor: Leonid Shifrin
The functionality of RLink, connecting Wolfram Language and R, will be explored. We will look into core language mapping, two-way communication with R, creating your own R functions in Wolfram Language, using R packages, custom data type mappings, efficiency considerations, subtleties, current limitations and more. A number of new/experimental features will be covered as well: R object references, Wolfram Language–side R package installation, R installation discovery and management.
Afternoon
1–2pm: Hands-on Explorations for External Integration with R (breakout rooms)
Instructor: Leonid Shifrin
Tech Mentor: Sergio Gastulo
Instructor: Leonid Shifrin
Tech Mentor: Sergio Gastulo
2–3pm: Hands-on Explorations for Statistical Tools for Data Science (breakout rooms)
Instructor: Gosia Konwerska
Tech Mentor: Sergio Gastulo
Instructor: Gosia Konwerska
Tech Mentor: Sergio Gastulo
3–4pm: Office hours
Arben Kalziqi, Sergio Gastulo
Arben Kalziqi, Sergio Gastulo
Homework
Continue to work on your computational essay.
Day 8 (Wednesday, August 13):
Day 8 (Wednesday, August 13):
Morning
9–10am: External Integration with Python
Instructor: Riccardo Di Virgilio
Explore the ExternalEvaluate framework, focusing on its ability to interact with external languages such as Python, SQL and Node.js. Participants will learn how to provision virtual environments for Python and utilize external libraries through external operations.
Instructor: Riccardo Di Virgilio
Explore the ExternalEvaluate framework, focusing on its ability to interact with external languages such as Python, SQL and Node.js. Participants will learn how to provision virtual environments for Python and utilize external libraries through external operations.
10–11:30 am: Free time to work on computational essay
Afternoon
1–3pm: Building Applications with the Cloud
Instructor: Joel Klein
Explore how to conceive and execute web applications running on the Wolfram Cloud. This session covers cloud object basics, building APIs and setting up scheduled tasks, including an example of working with a public data API.
Instructor: Joel Klein
Explore how to conceive and execute web applications running on the Wolfram Cloud. This session covers cloud object basics, building APIs and setting up scheduled tasks, including an example of working with a public data API.
3–4pm: Office hours
Arben Kalziqi, Andrew Lewis
Arben Kalziqi, Andrew Lewis
Homework
Continue to work on your computational essay. Either try to use CloudPublish on a visualization or an infographic or use CloudDeploy on a form or an API to perform part of your analysis on some user input.
Day 9 (Thursday, August 14):
Day 9 (Thursday, August 14):
Morning
9–10am: Maps and Geography with Wolfram Language
Instructor: José Martín-García
This talk introduces the key elements of Wolfram geography. We will see how to define geographic objects in any of the standard coordinate systems and how to compute their geometric properties. We will then show how to easily produce maps of any region of the world in a large variety of styles and how to visualize any type of geographic data on those maps.
Instructor: José Martín-García
This talk introduces the key elements of Wolfram geography. We will see how to define geographic objects in any of the standard coordinate systems and how to compute their geometric properties. We will then show how to easily produce maps of any region of the world in a large variety of styles and how to visualize any type of geographic data on those maps.
10:15-11:30am: Case Study: Running Local Large Language Models and Integrating with Databases Using Wolfram Language
Instructor: Jofre Espigule-Pons
This presentation will focus on running large language models (LLMs) locally and the process of developing custom LLM prompts to retrieve and process data from a local database using Wolfram Language. Attendees will gain insights into the benefits of local deployment, such as enhanced privacy and reduced costs. The session will cover the step-by-step methodology for setting up local LLMs, leveraging the powerful features of Wolfram Language to create specialized prompts and tools tailored to data science applications. Through practical demonstrations, participants will learn how to integrate local large language models into their workflows.
Instructor: Jofre Espigule-Pons
This presentation will focus on running large language models (LLMs) locally and the process of developing custom LLM prompts to retrieve and process data from a local database using Wolfram Language. Attendees will gain insights into the benefits of local deployment, such as enhanced privacy and reduced costs. The session will cover the step-by-step methodology for setting up local LLMs, leveraging the powerful features of Wolfram Language to create specialized prompts and tools tailored to data science applications. Through practical demonstrations, participants will learn how to integrate local large language models into their workflows.
Afternoon
1–2:30pm: Case Study: Making Robust LLM Computational Pipelines from Software Engineering Perspective
Instructor: Anton Antonov
Large language models (LLMs) are powerful tools with diverse capabilities, but from a software engineering (SE) point of view, they are unpredictable and slow. In this methodological presentation, we consider five ways to make more robust SE pipelines that include LLMs. We also consider a general methodological workflow for utilizing LLMs in “everyday practice.” The approach presented is universal and applies for any programming language, although some languages are supported better than others.
Instructor: Anton Antonov
Large language models (LLMs) are powerful tools with diverse capabilities, but from a software engineering (SE) point of view, they are unpredictable and slow. In this methodological presentation, we consider five ways to make more robust SE pipelines that include LLMs. We also consider a general methodological workflow for utilizing LLMs in “everyday practice.” The approach presented is universal and applies for any programming language, although some languages are supported better than others.
2:30–3pm: Free time to work on computational essay
3–4pm: Office hours
Arben Kalziqi, Andrew Lewis
Arben Kalziqi, Andrew Lewis
Homework
Continue to work on your computational essay.
Day 10 (Friday, August 15)
Day 10 (Friday, August 15)
Morning
9–10am: Closing Keynote: Harnessing the Synergy of LLMs and Wolfram Language: From Concept to Industrial-Grade Solutions
Instructor: Marco Thiel, University of Aberdeen
In the rapidly evolving landscape of data science, Large Language Models (LLMs) are revolutionizing programming and problem-solving across industries. This talk explores how Wolfram Language, with its outstanding mathematical and computational capabilities, complements LLMs to create powerful tools for industrial applications. We will demonstrate industry-relevant examples and concepts that showcase the integration of LLMs with Wolfram Language, emphasizing secure, reproducible and scalable solutions. Attendees will gain insights into leveraging LLMs within Wolfram Language for coding efficiency, version control, remote computing and quality control, as well as strategies for ensuring data protection in sensitive industrial environments. This session is designed for data scientists aiming to stay competitive in an LLM-enhanced future.
Instructor: Marco Thiel, University of Aberdeen
In the rapidly evolving landscape of data science, Large Language Models (LLMs) are revolutionizing programming and problem-solving across industries. This talk explores how Wolfram Language, with its outstanding mathematical and computational capabilities, complements LLMs to create powerful tools for industrial applications. We will demonstrate industry-relevant examples and concepts that showcase the integration of LLMs with Wolfram Language, emphasizing secure, reproducible and scalable solutions. Attendees will gain insights into leveraging LLMs within Wolfram Language for coding efficiency, version control, remote computing and quality control, as well as strategies for ensuring data protection in sensitive industrial environments. This session is designed for data scientists aiming to stay competitive in an LLM-enhanced future.
10–10:30am: Data Science Panel Discussion
Arben Kalziqi
10:30–11:30am: Office hours + independent work on computational essays
Instructor: Arben Kalziqi
Instructor: Arben Kalziqi
Afternoon
1:30–3:30pm: Present computational essays
Note: Each presentation should run no more than approximately 15 minutes to allow time for all participants.
3:30pm: Fun awards and Zoom hangout
Wolfram Certifications
Wolfram Certifications
Three certifications are available with this boot camp that can be shared on applications, résumés/CVs, and professional profiles. A personalized certificate (PDF) and instructions for adding it to your LinkedIn page are provided.
Three certifications are available with this boot camp that can be shared on applications, résumés/CVs, and professional profiles. A personalized certificate (PDF) and instructions for adding it to your LinkedIn page are provided.
Certificate of Boot Camp Completion
Certificate of Boot Camp Completion
Earn a completion certificate by attending or watching recordings of the lecture sessions and participating in afternoon explorations and Zoom discussions, then presenting a computational essay that represents your in-progress data science project on the final day of boot camp.
Level 1 Certification in Multiparadigm Data Science
Level 1 Certification in Multiparadigm Data Science
Earn this additional certification by completing a quiz and a series of exercises. The quiz and exercises are due August 29.
Level 2 Certification in Multiparadigm Data Science
Level 2 Certification in Multiparadigm Data Science
Earn this project certification by successfully completing a data science project. Help in identifying an appropriate dataset and defining your project goals is available during this boot camp. Project submissions are due September 12.