Organized by Luisa Bernardinelli and Alessandra Retico
The course is aimed at teaching how to write readable and efficient scientific software using the Python language and the great tool-set it comes with. It will start from the very basics of the language before venturing into some of its more advanced features. Then, it will cover a selection of the most renowned Python libraries for manipulating, analyzing and plotting data, as well as the Scikit-learn and Keras libraries for machine learning. The contents will be addressed from a practical point of view, with the aid of many examples and guided exercises.
Day 1: Introduction and Python Primer
Introduction
Writing good scientific software, what to aim for
The Python language
Installing Python
Run your first script in Python
Python primer
Python basics: variables, expressions, statements, indentation and comments
Control flow and logical operators
Data structures
Strings and string formatting
File handling and context managers
Functions
Modules
The Python Standard Library
Day 2:Advanced Python, Software Development and Scientific Libraries
Advanced Python
Errors and exceptions
Variadic and keyword arguments
Command line argument parsing
Generators and iterators
A taste of classes and OOP
Software development in Python
Coding convention
Documentation
Unit testing
The scientific Python ecosystem:
NumPy
SciPy
Matplotlib
Pandas
Scikit-learn
Keras
Speaker:
Alberto Manfreda is a PostDoc researcher at INFN (Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare), Pisa. Alberto obtained a PhD in Physics in 2018 at the University of Pisa. He has worked in the field of cosmic-ray science and high-energy astrophysics as member of the Fermi – Large Area Telescope collaboration. He is currently one of the main developers of the software for the NASA Imaging X-Ray Polarimetry Explorer mission. Passionate programmer, he has been guest lecturer of advanced Python in a course of Computing Methods for Experimental Physics and Data Analysis at the University of Pisa. Affiliation: Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, sez. Pisa e-mail: alberto.manfreda@pi.infn.it
