Introduction to Programming and Scientific Applications (Spring 2021)
Welcome
Welcome to the course Introduction to Programming with Scientific Applications. The course gives an introduction to the Python 3 programming language using the book "Introduction to Computation and Programming Using Python With Application to Understanding Data" by John Guttag. The book covers the basics of Python and contains a long list of scientific applications. For the more subtle features of Python, students are encouraged to seek information online in e.g. the Python language specification.
The course will be run with 2 hours of weekly live lectures, recorded lectures on YouTube, 3 hours of TA classes ("øvelser"), and 3 hours of staffed online study café.
During the course students are required to hand in 10 weekly handins and one larger implementation project. Handins and the project is done in groups of up to three persons. The final exam will be a multiple-choice exam without aids, and the final grade will be based on overall evaluation of the project and the multiple choice exam.
Course content
The course gives an introduction to programming with scientific applications. Programming concepts and techniques are introduced using the Python programming language. The programming concepts are illustrated in other programming languages. The following content is included.
- Basic programming constructs: Data types, operators, variables, flow of control, conditionals, loops, functions, recursion, scope, exceptions.
- Object orientation: Abstract data types, classes, inheritance, encapsulation.
- Basic algorithmic techniques: Sorting, binary search, dynamic programming.
- Systematic development of programs: Testing and debugging.
- File-based input/output, numerical analysis, functional programming.
- Scientific computing using standard packages for Python.
After the course the participants will have knowledge of principles and techniques for systematic construction of programs. At the end of the course, the participants will be able to:
- apply constructions of a common programming language,
- develop well-structured programs and perform testing and debugging of these,
- explain fundamental programming concepts and basic algorithmic techniques,
- apply standard tools for scientific applications,
- use the documentation for a programming language and available software packages.
Staff
| Name | Office | ||
| Lecturer | Gerth Stølting Brodal | gerth@cs.au.dk | Nygaard 321 |
Lectures
For all the material covered in the course, there will be lectures available as YouTube videos in the course plan, for watching at your own speed (from 0.25 to double speed, skip sections, rewind, pause, ...).
There will be a weekly "lecture" Wednesday at 14:15-16:00 in Auditorium E (1533-103) at Zoom. This will be used for covering questions that were posted on the discussion forum during the last week or going over some examples.
The first lecture takes place on Wednesday February 3, 2021.
Exercise classes (TØ)
Exercise classes take place as follows:
| Class | Date & time | Room |
| MA1 | Thursday 8-11 | G32 |
| MA2 | Monday 9-12 | D.02 |
| MØ1 | Thursday 14-17 | D.02 |
| MØ2 | Friday 11-14 | Kollokvium G |
| DV1 | Monday 9-12 | Kollokvium G3 |
| DV2 | Thursday 14-17 | Kollokvium G4 |
| TV | Friday 11-14 | Kollokvium G4 |
| KE | Monday 14-17 | Kollokvium G4 |
Exercise classes start Monday February 8, 2021.
TA classes will be online at Discord
Study Café
Online study café takes place as follows.
| Weekday | Time |
| Monday | 8-9 |
| Wednesday | 16-17 |
| Friday | 9-10 |
The study café takes place at Discord
Q & A sessions
Before the exam each TA will have a Q & A session. Time and place are listed below.
| Weekday | Date | Time | Place | TA |
| Wednesday | June 2, 2021 | 14:15 | Zoom | Gerth |
Expected work load
Below is an estimation of the expected time consumption of the course.
| Lectures | 4 hours pr week | 56 |
| Theoretical exercises | 3 hours pr week | 39 |
| Study Café | 1 hours pr week | 14 |
| Handins / project | 3 hours pr week | 42 |
| Preparation for lectures | 2 hours pr week | 28 |
| Preparation for theoretical exercises | 2 hours pr week |
26 |
| Preparation for the exam | 40 | |
| Exam | 2 | |
| Grand total | 247 |
Basic literature
The material for the course primarily consists of slides from the lectures and online documentation available from python.org and related sites.
The following book gives a good background for the course, but it is not mandatory to buy the book for attending the course.
 |
John V. Guttag. Introduction to Computation and Programming Using Python With Application to Understanding Data. Second Edition. 472 pages. MIT Press, 2016. ISBN: 9780262529624. The book will be available at the branch of Stakbogladen at the Department of Mathematics in January (buy book online at Stakbogladen). |