Introduction to Python

Ignat Georgiev, an Undergraduate Electronics and Software Engineering student working with the team, created the course. The classes use Noteable computational notebooks, a new University service based on the open source Jupyter Notebooks. The course is aimed at staff and students from all disciplines who are completely new to programming.

Python is an extremely popular programming language which is free and open source and is used for a wide variety of tasks across many subject areas (e.g. sentiment /text analysis, data visualisations, machine learning, web development etc.). Python training courses are consistently in the top 10 courses viewed on Lynda.com within the University and there has been considerable interest from students who may not be taught it as part of the curriculum, but who can see uses for it in their work, or as skill to boost their general employability. Courses for beginners are now open for booking, and intermediate (focussing on data science for researchers) and advanced (focussing on using Python with high performance computing) courses are also planned.

Not only has the course made Python available to a wider audience, it has also allowed Ignat, one of three students the Digital Skills and Training Team employed for a period of six months, to enhance his own workplace skills as part of Information Services’ commitment to providing high quality employment to 500 students per year.

Further information and booking (EASE log in required)

(Ed. this article was originally published on 23 Oct, 2018)