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Introduction to Python

Introduction to Python#

Overview#

Welcome to Introduction to Python! Python is one of the most popular general-purpose programming languages around. It is used in a huge range of applications, from building systems incorporating cutting-edge machine learning, such as in self-driving cars, to building web applications with hundreds of millions of users, as seen in Instagram. As researchers, we use Python for all manner of tasks, from data analysis, to automation, to prototyping software, to creating engaging visuals for websites and publications. Like you, we started our journey into Python learning the basics, building a strong foundation for achieving these more complex tasks. This introductory course will teach you these basics, and get you up to speed on your own programming journeys.

Course Objectives#

  • Understand and declare the basic data types in Python

  • Understand the basic principles of control flow and for loops

  • Describe what a function is and define one that takes user-specified parameters

  • Perform simple data analysis/visualisation of a table of data

  • Recognise concepts in other programming languages

Pre-requisite Knowledge#

No pre-requisite knowledge needed. However, course attendees will need to follow our setup guide to install Python and JupyterLab, which we will use for the course.

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