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 Australias electricity in 2017. How do we design the grid to work with 100%?
Whatever branch of engineering youre 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 youll 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). Lets 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; its 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. Dont 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:
> dont 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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