COMP1730/COMP6730 Programming for Scientists
Introduction to the course and administrative matters
Announcements
* Read announcements made in the news forum on wattle
Lecture outline
* Why learn programming? * Course overview.
* Info, contacts & schedule. * Assessment scheme.
* Important TODOs.
Why learn programming?
* Science rests on data… more and more data.
– The Australian SKA Pathfinder radio telescope outputs 2.5GB/s (the SKA is expected to be around 100 times more).
– A human genome (around 3 billion base pairs) can be sequenced in 3 days.
* Processing this data needs software.
* Technical systems increasingly run on software.
– A modern car has over 30 computers, running >10,000 lines of code.
* Simulation and optimisation are needed to solve large-scale design challenges.
– Intermittent renewables produced ∼8.25% of Australia’s electricity in 2017. How do we design the grid to work with 100%?
“Whatever branch of engineering you’re in, make sure you know how to program.”
(Chris Culbert, NASA Chief Technologist)
* As scientist or engineer, you will need to understand how software works, and how to modify or extend it:
– understand algorithms and implementation to interpret and explain their results;
– debug programs (find and correct errors);
– modify existing programs to solve your
(unique) problem.
* By the end of the course, we hope you’ll tackle a novel problem by thinking, “Hey, I can just write a program to solve that…”
Programming example
* you want to calculate the monthly cost of a $300,000 home loan…
– use one of the on-line calculators?
* …for all loan terms in 10-25 years, and an
interest rate of 5.5%, 6.5% or 7.5%.
* The formula is
A=P r(1+r)n (1+r)n −1
(derive it, or look it up on wikipedia). Let’s write a program!
import math
import matplotlib.pyplot as mpl
def monthly cost(principal, interest rate, years):
monthly rate = interest rate/12
# interest rate is given in % so need to divide by 100 r = monthly rate/100
n payments = years * 12
return principal * ((r * math.pow(1 + r, n payments)) /
(math.pow(1 + r, n payments) – 1))
years = range(10,26)
mc = [monthly cost(300000, 5.5, y) for y in years] mpl.plot(years, mc, ’g-’)
mc = [monthly cost(300000, 6.5, y) for y in years] mpl.plot(years, mc, ’b-’)
mc = [monthly cost(300000, 7.5, y) for y in years] mpl.plot(years, mc, ’r-’)
mpl.show()
Why python?
* This is not a course on programming in python; it’s a course on programming, that uses python.
* Python has been consistently ranked in top 5 most popular programming languages,
* particularly for science and engineering uses.
* Open source, available on most platforms.
* Many packages:
– over 200 in the python standard library; – over 100,000 on pypi.org.
* We will use python 3.
Course description & aims
* Introduction to programming (using python). – No prior programming or computer science
knowledge is required.
– This does not mean it is easy!
* Two aims:
– Programming as a practical skill.
– Understand some basic CS concepts; build
foundation for later courses.
Learning outcomes (revised from ANU Programs & Courses)
Students who succeed in all aspects of this course will:
* be able to design and write readable and correct small programs to solve practical data processing problems;
* be able to read, understand and debug small computer programs;
* understand some practical limitations on computer programs, including scaling (wrt time and memory) and numeric precision (rounding errors) issues.
About you: students in the course
Course info & contacts
* cs.anu.edu.au/courses/comp1730/
* Wattle for forums, quizzes, surveys, assignment
submission.
* Read the news & announcements!
* To ask a question:
– Use the discussion forum on wattle.
– For personal questions, use the course email:
[email protected].
– Always use your ANU email.
– Tutors’ contact info will be on wattle.
Discussion forum – 3 simple rules
1. Read before you post.
Before posting a question, check if your question has already been answered.
2. Give your post a good, descriptive topic. Don’t write “A question”. Write something like “Variable assignment: why does the value not change?”.
3. You may not post solutions to assignment problems.
Schedule overview
8am 10am noon 2pm 4pm
* 2 lectures / week.
* 1 2-hour lab / week
(from week 2).
* See content & schedule on the course web site.
Mon Tue Wed Thu
Fri
* Except as detailed in the assessment scheme, attendance is never mandatory.
* Complaints about the schedule? [email protected]
Assessment scheme (preliminary)
* 5 small homework assignments (15%)
* 1 larger project assignment (25%)
* Mid-semester exam (20%)
* Final exam in 1 or 2 parts (40%)
S. Week
3 Homework 1 due (Monday)
In lab: Questions on Hw 1 4 Homework 2 due (Monday)
In lab: Questions on Hw 2 6 Homework 3 due (Monday)
In lab: Questions on Hw 3 Mid-sem. exam (TBC) Break
7 Homework 4 due (Monday) In lab: Questions on Hw 4
9 Homework 5 due (Monday) In lab: Questions on Hw 5
11 Project due Exam Final exam(s) period
* The complete assessment scheme is on the course web site at cs.anu.edu.au/ courses/comp1730/assessment.
* The assessment scheme will be final at the end of week 2. Any changes will be announced through the course web page and news forum.
* All assignment deadlines are hard – no late submissions will be accepted.
* See www.anu.edu.au/students/ program-administration/assessments-exams/ regarding deferred assessments and special consideration.
Academic honesty
* Homeworks are individual. You must write your own code, and understand every aspect of what you have written.
* The project assignment may be done in small groups.
– Collaboration (including copying solutions) between groups is not permitted.
– The assignment will also have an indvidual component, which you must do by yourself.
Important TODOs
* Complete the demographic information
questionarie.
* Sign up to a lab group.
– If there is no place free in any lab at any time
that you can attend:
> don’t sign up to a group you cannot attend; > email [email protected] with your
ANU ID, and a complete list of all labs that
you can attend.
– Labs only start in semester week 2.
– In-lab assessment starts in semester week 3.
* To activate your account on the CSIT computers, you must log into STREAMS:
1. https://cs.anu.edu.au/streams/; 2. log in with your ANU user id and password; 3. log out again.
Do this at least 24 hours before your first lab.
Student course representatives
* Course representatives:
– point of contact for fellow students who have
issues/comments that they are not
comfortable to raise with convenor directly;
– participate in the SRC meetings a few times
per semester.
– Reps are encouraged to provide collective
feedback directly to the convenor/lecturer.
* Interested? Write to [email protected] or talk to me after the lecture.
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