Columbia University



Intro to Programming Using PythonSummer 2021 (A Term)JASON PRESTINARIOEmail: jp4036@columbia.eduOffice Hours: Available upon requestTuesdays, A Term, 5:40PM to 08:55PM (Hyflex/Hybrid)Classroom: Uris 301Course DescriptionThis course is an introduction to programming with Python for total beginners. Python is a really popular programming language used by companies like Google, Facebook, Dropbox, Instagram, Reddit, and many startups. It’s used for all sorts of things like building websites, web scraping, data analysis, machine learning, and natural language processing. Python is designed to be easy to read and use, while still being very powerful, which makes it a great language for beginners to learn.In this course, we’ll be learning the basics of programming – variables, strings, lists, functions, and all that stuff – and then we will focus on business use cases. You’ll learn how to write scripts that automate tedious tasks, read other people’s code, parse and interpret data, and how to put it all together in order to leverage data in the real world to drive value in business. This might be one of the most useful classes you ever take – but you will get out of it what you put in. Required PrerequisitesThis course assumes no previous knowledge of programming or code.Required Course MaterialThis course does not use a textbook.Any required readings will be provided via Canvas.Students must have a laptop that they can bring to class – Mac or PC is fine, as long as your operating system is up to date (at least Windows 7 and Mac OS 10.8).Slides and files will be uploaded to Canvas after class.Course Roadmap/ScheduleSessionTopicAssignment DueClass 1Python Bootcamp: Intro to PythonCommand line basicsRunning Python scriptsReading codePrintingErrors and debuggingCommentsVariables and namingNumbers and mathStrings and textGetting user inputDev Environment Set Up Assignment 0 DueClass 2Python Bootcamp pt. 2: If/Else statementsLogic in PythonListsLoopsAssignment 1 DueClass 3Python Bootcamp pt. 2: DictionariesFunctionsImportingAssignment 2 DueClass 4 Intro to Data:Jupyter NotebooksIntro to PandasDataFramesAccessing DataReading/Writing DataData TypesManipulating DataFramesAssignment 3 DueClass 5Data Analysis in Python pt. 1: SortingBasic PlottingData ExplorationAssignment 4 DueClass 6Data Analysis in Python pt. 2: AggregationsOperationsNull valuesDatesBasics of JoinsAssignment 5 DueDue Final Project ProposalFinal Project Proposal DueDue Final ProjectFinal Project DueMETHOD OF EVALUATIONFinal grades in the class will be calculated as follows: Participation (30%): Students will contribute in class by responding to in-class polls (via PollEV). Absences will be excused provided students inform TAs of absence prior to class, and email TAs noting that they watched recording prior to subsequent class.Assignments (50%): There will be five homework assignments (and one dev environment setup assignment prior to the first class) that should be completed individually.Final Project (20%): There is a take-home final project that should be completed with a partner.Late assignments will be accepted with a 20% penalty any time before the final class. No assignments will be accepted after the final class.FINAL PROJECTThe Final Project is meant to simulate leveraging the tools we have learned in class in order to analyze a dataset of your choosing. Your eventual submission will include an executive summary report detailing your analysis The deliverable will be an executive summary report detailing your analysis as well as the accompanying code.? Please include these sections in the report:Introduction - summarize what you are going to tell us in this report.Key Questions - what hypothesis you were testing or what you were trying to learn.Data - an explanation of what data was used.Analysis - a breakdown of what analysis you performed.? Please be sure to include any and all relevant plots, charts, tables, etc.? This should be the longest section.Insights / Conclusion - What are they key insights that have been discovered from the analysis and what actions can you (or the organization you are writing this executive summary to) do differently to take advantage of the insights.The report is not meant to be a long document.? Think 1 page of text with accompanying plots / charts. ................
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