This course teaches introductory programming within a problem solving framework applicable to the sciences. The course emphasises technical programming, the simulation of scientific systems and the processing of scientific data. There is an emphasis on designing and writing correct code. Testing and debugging are seen as integral to the programming enterprise. Both top-down and object oriented design are taught. There will be an introduction to widely-used computer science algorithms and to machine architecture. The course will be taught using one or more programming languages which are widely applicable to scientific work.

Students who succeed in all aspects of this course will be able to:

• Design, write and debug small programs to solve practical problems of a scientific nature.
• Have a practical understanding of the processing of scientific data.
• Be able to describe and design small computer programs using both procedural and object-oriented methodologies.
• Have an awareness of good program organisation.
• Have an understanding of some widely-used algorithms.
• Have an understanding of practical aspects of machine architecture including finite precision and rounding errors.

Assignments (40%), Exam (60%)

MATH1003 or MATH1013 or MATH1115

COMP1100

Practical Programming. An Introduction to Computer Science Using Python, by J. Campbell etal, Pragmatic Programmer, 2009