ALL
Complete list of modules
For your convenience, here is an itemised list of our study materials (phew... did we really cover that much?)
[E] The exam covers these modules
[U] Not required for the exam, but you may use these if you like
- Pre-sessional Materials Modules 1 and 2
- Module 0: Welcome and Administrivia
- Module 1: Programming Basic Building Blocks [E]
- Module 2: Functions [E]
- Module 3: Object-Oriented Programming [E]
- Exercise 1: Putting Everything Together - Applied Problem Solving [U]
- Module 4: String Manipulation in Python [E]
- Module 5: Scripts, Modules, Packages in Python [E]
- Module 6: File Manipulation in Python [E]
- Module 7: Setting up Your Computer for Week 2
- Module 8: Numpy and Matplotlib [U]
- Module 9: Data analysis with Pandas [U]
- Module 10: Machine Learning with scikit-learn [U]
- Exercise 2: Practicing Your Debugging Skills [U]
- Module 11: Deep Learning with PyTorch
- Module 12: Exception Handling: What to do when something goes wrong? [E]
- Module 13: Treasure Hunting: Exploring the Python Standard Library [E]
- Module 14: Regular Expressions: Simple but powerful string matching [E]
- Module 15: Command Line Interfaces in Python
- Module 16: Functional Programming in Python [U]
- Module 17: HTTP Requests
- Module 18: Python Decorators
- Exercise 3: Refactoring
- Exercise 4: Software Testing
- Videos: Live Lectures [U: Weeks 1, 2, 4, 5]
- Slides and codes from live lectures
WEEK 0
Welcome to the course! Before the course starts, please try to go through the pre-sessional materials on the webpage below:
WEEK 1
Welcome to the official first week at the college! This week is an intensive crash course in Python programming aimed at giving you enough programming skills to face your other courses! 😱
We will start with a live lecture on Monday at 2pm, where we will get acquainted, warmed up, and review some challenges from the pre-sessional modules.
You will then proceed to go through the following self-guided materials on your own (or together with some new-found coursemates!)
The first half of the week will be focussed on fundamental programming concepts, and applying these basic concepts to solve problems.
- Module 0: Welcome and Administrivia
- Module 1: Programming Basic Building Blocks
- Module 2: Functions
- Module 3: Object-Oriented Programming
- Exercise 1: Putting Everything Together - Applied Problem Solving
The lab sessions from Tuesday to Friday are there for you to get answers, advice and help from our very capable teaching assistants.
Please aim to complete at least up to Module 3 before the live lecture on Friday.
Once you are done with the above, then you may proceed with the following modules which focus on Python-specific features:
- Module 4: String Manipulation in Python
- Module 5: Scripts, Modules, Packages in Python
- Module 6: File Manipulation in Python
And congratulations -- you survived Week 1! Give yourself a pat on the back! 🎉
WEEK 2
Welcome back to your second week! I hope that you all have managed to spend time resting over the weekend.
After our intensive first week, our remaining weeks will be slightly more laid back. This week, we have 3 hours of timetabled lab sessions (9-11am on Monday and 11am-12pm on Friday). As usual, you can get help from our friendly teaching assistants during the session.
There will also be a live lecture session on Wednesday at 11am-12pm, where Josiah will get you to discuss more interesting Computer Science topics that may not necessarily be related to the guided materials.
The coursework (Battleship Game!) has also been released. Please download the specifications from CATe, and go through the specifications and the code. Feel free to get clarification or guidance during the lab sessions or on Piazza if you need help. We will not give you the answers directly, obviously)
Otherwise, this week's guided learning materials all relate to external Python scientific computation and machine learning libraries. We designed these to be introductory to help give you an overview of how to use these libraries. You can then explore all the richer features of the libraries on your own, at your own time.
You should do Modules 7 and 8 first. Then you are free to work on the remaining modules in any order you like.
[Note: sadly the materials are not yet ready 😢 I'm working hard! Please work on last week's materials and get started on the coursework instead for now! Sorry!] And they are finally ready!!
WEEK 3
Welcome to week 3!
We will actually do things differently this week and start the week with a live lecture session on Monday at 9-10am. Luca, our lovely teaching assistant, will give you a first glimpse into the world of Deep Learning in Python.
We will then proceed directly to a 1 hour lab session from 10-11am. We will also have more lab sessions on Wednesday 11am-12pm and Friday 11am-12pm.
You can use the lab session to continue working on your coursework, or just work on last week's (still incomplete!) materials and this week's materials. Well, you can use the lab sessions however you like, just remember that our team will be there to support you throughout the sessions! Josiah will also try to finally get all materials delivered this week! 💪💪
Last week's materials:
- Module 7: Setting up Your Computer for This Week
- Module 8: Numpy and Matplotlib
- Module 9: Data analysis with Pandas
- Module 10: Machine Learning with scikit-learn
- Exercise 2: Practicing Your Debugging Skills
This week's materials:
WEEK 4
Welcome to week 4!
Firstly, remember that your first coursework is due on Monday 19:00 GMT.
The lecture session will be on Wednesday 11am-12pm. Josiah will introduce you to regular expressions, and you will try to do some simple pattern matching during the session. This will get you started so that you can work on Module 14.
The lab sessions this week are on Monday 9am-11am, Thursday 2pm-3pm, and Friday 11am-12pm. Yes, we have an extra hour of lab per week now! See how much we care about you! 💖
As usual, our team is there to support you during the lab sessions. Use the lab session for your coursework, to catch up on previous weeks' materials, to improve your Python programming skills, or to work on the spanking new materials for this week! (Josiah actually managed to deliver 2/3 of them before the week started! What a miracle!🙌) There is even one of Josiah's rare videos - what a treat! 🍦
Yes, we are aware that Week 3's materials are not quite ready yet -- trying to get that up as soon as we can! Sorry!
This week's materials:
- Module 12: Exception Handling: What to do when something goes wrong?
- Module 13: Treasure Hunting: Exploring the Python Standard Library
- Module 14: Regular Expressions: Simple but powerful string matching
Finally, your second coursework will be released on Friday morning. Already? But we have just finished the first one! Give us a break! Well, there is a reason our courseworks are so early -- you will have lots of deadlines for your other courses towards the end of the term!
WEEK 5
It is now Week 5 -- we're halfway through the term! Time flies!
And it is also when the temperature suddenly drops, and when the month-long second national lockdown will start. Which also means you will not get to experience Bonfire Night this year. Boo.
This is also when you really start getting busy with your other courses.
Thus, we will start slowing down the pace on the Python Programming course. From this week onwards, we will have fewer new study materials. You have already worked very hard in the first few weeks, so this is definitely well deserved (and Josiah also needs a breather!) We have already covered most of the important topics, and what we have remaining are just advanced, extra topics.
The lab sessions are on as usual Monday 9am-11am, Thursday 2pm-3pm, and Friday 11am-12pm. As usual, use the lab session for your coursework, to catch up on/revise previous weeks' materials, or to work on this week's new materials (Josiah delivered both modules on time! Another miracle!)
The lecture session will be on Wednesday 11am-12pm as usual. We will go back to our old format of discussing some more data structures/algorithms topics and put you in breakout rooms. This is to train you to be well-rounded programmers.
This week's materials:
[UPDATE] The study materials for Deep Learning are finally ready - sorry for the delay! Hopefully these will be useful for some of your other courses.
WEEK 6
Welcome to Week 6! I hope you are staying strong through all your deadlines!
Firstly, the coursework 2 deadline has been extended to Monday 16th Nov 19:00 GMT. This is to help ease your load from all your deadlines. Use the extra time wisely!
The lab sessions are on at our usual times: Monday 9am-11am, Thursday 2pm-3pm, and Friday 11am-12pm. As usual, it's free-and-easy, come-and-go. Use the lab session for your coursework or to catch up on/revise previous weeks' materials. And hopefully you get to work on this week's materials once Josiah actually gets around to completing them! (No miracles this week unfortunately!)
The lecture session will be on Wednesday 11am-12pm as usual. We will move on from Computer Science topics to more practical Software Engineering stuff -- how can I write my object-oriented code such that it's easier to maintain and extend in the future? We'll briefly discuss super advanced Software Engineering topics like Design Patterns.
And as for this week's materials... Josiah is trying his best to deliver as soon as he can!
The exercises for Deep Learning are also now ready! Just in time for your Introduction to Machine Learning course!
WEEK 7
We are now in Week 7, and it's our final week of having new study materials and live lectures! Time flies!
The coursework 2 deadline is on Monday 16th Nov 19:00 GMT. Remember that CATE is very strict about deadlines, so please do not be like Josiah who can't keep up with his deadlines! 😓
There will be TWO sets of lectures this week, both delivered by our very own web development guru Ivan Procaccini.
On Monday 9am-10am, we will have our first lecture on Software Testing in Python.
Then we will continue with our usual lab session on Monday 10am-11am, with our capable Teaching Assistance serving all your Pythonic needs. I suspect most of you will be getting some last minute coursework help? Otherwise, work on any materials that you have not worked on.
On Wednesday 11am-12pm, we will have our second lecture of the week. Ivan will talk to you about the weird and wonderful hidden secrets of Python that you (or I) probably did not even realise exist.
Our remaining lab sessions will be happening on Thursday 2-3pm and Friday 11am-12pm.
This week's materials? Well they will be ready when Josiah finally gets around to them!