Introduction

This course is designed for professionals in the earth sciences and engineering who have never learned to program or who learned programming many years ago and wish to brush up on the fundamentals of programming.  The course covers the basic topics of structured (or procedural) programming—variables and expressions, functions, branching, looping, and arrays—using the Python programming language.  However, unlike a traditional computer science course, which covers these topics in the abstract, this course teaches these topics through showing their use to accomplish tasks in an earth scientist or engineer’s workflow, such as data analysis, plotting, and modeling.

The course uses the Cambridge University Press textbook, An Introduction to Python Programming for Scientists and Engineers. The textbook is not included as part of the course fee.  Please purchase the book from a bookstore of your choice before the course begins. The instructor of the course is the lead author of the textbook.

Objectives

At the end of the course, the student will be able to:

• Describe basic concepts and structures used in structured (procedural) programming.
• Read and understand a basic computer program.
• Use programming structures to accomplish basic science and engineering tasks.

Week 1: Python as a Basic and Scientific Calculator

Week 2: Basic Line and Scatter Plots

Week 3: Customized Line and Scatter Plots

Week 4: Basic Diagnostic Data Analysis

Week 5: Two-Dimensional Diagnostic Data Analysis

Week 6: Basic Prognostic Modeling

Johnny Lin

Johnny Wei-Bing Lin has a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an M.S. in Civil Engineering-Water Resources, both from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in Atmospheric Sciences from UCLA.  He is an Affiliate Professor of Physics and Engineering at North Park University in Chicago and is on the teaching faculty of a computer science department at a university on the West Coast of the U.S.  He is the lead author of the programming textbook, An Introduction to Python Programming for Scientists and Engineers, published by Cambridge University Press.  More information on him is available at www.johnny-lin.com.

The course is delivered online through our easy-to-use Virtual Campus platform. For this course, a variety of content is provided including:

– eLearning materials
– Videos
– Interactive multimedia content
– Live webinar classes
– Texts and technical articles
– Case studies
– Assignments and evaluation exercises

Students can display the materials and work through the course at their own pace.
We regularly update this course to ensure the latest news and state-of-the-art developments are covered, and your knowledge of the subject is current.

Live webinars form part of our course delivery. These allow students and tutors to go through the course materials, exchange ideas and knowledge, and solve problems together in a virtual classroom setting. Students can also make use of the platform’s forum, a meeting point to interact with tutors and other students.

The tutoring system is managed by email. Students can email the tutor with any questions about the course and the tutor will be happy to help.

This course is aimed at professionals in the earth sciences and engineering who have never learned to program or who learned programming many years ago and wish to brush up on the fundamentals of programming.  No prior experience with programming is assumed.  Students should have experience in using a computer to accomplish general office productivity tasks and thus are able to install and use applications and manipulate files on their computer.

Once a student finishes the course and successfully completes the assignments and evaluation tests, they are sent an accreditation certificate. The certificate is issued by Ingeoexpert to verify that the student has passed the course. It is a digital certificate that is unique and tamper-proof – it is protected by Blockchain technology. This means it is possible for anyone to check that it is an authentic, original document.

You will be able to download the certificate in an electronic format from the Virtual Campus platform. The certificate can be forwarded by email, shared on social networks, and embedded on websites. To see an example, click here.

The ability to read and write even basic programs is a necessity for many earth scientists and engineers.  Even if one does not write programs as one’s main job, basic knowledge of programming can enable one to make better use of specialized earth science and engineering software (e.g., GIS, modeling packages, etc.).  Knowledge of programming increases the number of additional tools one has available to solve science and engineering problems, and the Python programming language is a particularly powerful tool for these problems.  Finally, this basic course in programming enables you to learn more complex ways of using the computer to accomplish your everyday workflow tasks.