Announcements:
- 21 December, 2018: An important statement from the instructor
and the department about
our expectations for professional behavior and suggestions on how to deal with problems.
- 21 December, 2018: Introductory email sent to Gaucho Space lists.
- 7 January, 2019: Fresh SD cards available for those who had installation problems.
- 10 January, 2019: Follow up from 1st week.
- 14 January, 2019: One more way of connecting to your rpi.
- 15 January, 2019: First homework posted.
- 23 January, 2019: Second homework and homework instructions posted.
- 24 January, 2019: First homework solutions posted.
- 24 January, 2019: Updating the rpi.
- 4 February, 2019: Hints on downloading the examples from class.
- 7 February, 2019: Fixed typo in homework 4.
- 10 February, 2019: Note about homework.
- 12 February, 2019: No office hours for Jenny this Thursday.
- 12 February, 2019: Fixed typo in solutions to homework 3.
- 14 February, 2019: Fixed typo in homework 5.
- 14 February, 2019: Additional notes on MC integration posted.
- 19 February, 2019: Homework 5 deadline extended and clarification.
- 24 February, 2019: Fixed another typo in homework 5.
- 5 March, 2019: Fixed typo in homework 7.
- 8 March, 2019: End of quarter stuff
- 21 March, 2019: (Optional) homework 9
- 25 March, 2019: Grades are out
Raspberry Pi
VERY IMPORTANT, READ CAREFULLY BEFORE THE FIRST CLASS
You are required to purchase a small computer for this course.
The computer is a
Rapberry Pi 3 B+ (Rpi).
It is available online from several vendors, we recommend
this kit from Amazon
which is $69.99
with free Amazon Prime shipping as of December 21, 2018.
Note that as a student you can get a
free 6 months trial subscription to Amazon Prime.
You must bring your Raspberry Pi to the first class.
Do not install the operating system, we will do that together on the first day.
To save some time you could assemble the kit ahead of time (takes 5 minutes)
but do not power it up since that will start the operating system installation.
You will need to bring the Rpi to every class.
The kit comes with an HDMI cable and a USB charger, but without a mouse/keyboard/monitor.
Workspaces with mouse/keyboard/monitor/HDMI cable/USB charger are set up in Broida 5223,
so you just need to bring the Rpi to class/section.
Broida 5223 will also be open most days 9-5 for you to work with your Rpi (Details to follow).
If you want to work at home you will need a mouse/keyboard/monitor. USB mouse/keyboards
are not very expensive. For a monitor you can use your TV if it has an HDMI input.
Or you can get yourself an inexpensive monitor from ebay, Craigslist, or at
UCSB Surplus Sales.
Some older monitors have DVI or even VGA instead of HDMI inputs. You would then
need an adapter like
this or
this.
It is also possible to work with your own laptop/desktop.
This is not
entirely straightforward.
Jan 14: Here are instructions to do it in a different
way, contributed by one of the students in the class.
Course
Description:
This is not a computer science course, but rather a basic programming course.
We will start with a practical introduction to the unix operating system.
We will then learn the python programming language, with an eye towards writing
programs to solve problems that we encounter in real world physics applications.
There will be a little bit of an emphasis on problems and applications from experimental
high energy physics (HEX), because the instructor works in HEX, but that does not matter much.
In the process we will also cover some concepts in statistics that you may not be
familiar with, so consider that a bonus.
No prior knowledge of unix and python is required.
If you are already a unix/python guru, this course may be boring,
especially at the beginning.
Textbooks
The two textbooks listed here are optional.
The first one is about the linux operating system and you can get it for free, so why not?
The second one is on python. There is so much online material on python that it is
not clear that it is worth buying a textbook. But if you prefer to have a textbook
to help you, this is a good choice. Note however that we will not follow it very closely.
-
The Linux Command Line, Fourth Internet Edition
William E. Shotts, Jr.
Free link
-
A Student's Guide to Python for Physical Modeling: Updated Edition
J.M Kinder and P. Nelson
Amazon link
Additional Material
Homework
Late homework will not be accepted except at the discretion
of the instructor. Since homework solutions will be posted shortly after
the homework due date, there will not be a lot of flexibility with
regards to late assignments. OTOH, if you cannot complete a homework
assignment because of illness or for some other good reason, let the
instructor know and the missed homework will not be counted towards your
final grade. In general, if the missed homework is because of
illness you will need to provide a note from a doctor or nurse.
For grading purposes, each exercise/problem will in a given homework
will have the same weight, unless otherwise specified. Similarly,
each homework will have the same weight for calculating the final score.
Homework instructions are here.
Exams:
There will be no exams.
A letter grade will be assigned based on the homeworks. More details to follow.