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# System prepended metadata

title: Gentle hands-on introduction to Python programming

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# Gentle hands-on introduction to Python programming

This course gently introduces programming to new programmers. There are plenty of opportunuties to apply and practice what you learn, and ask questions in a safe place. Furthermore, surprise yourself by building a substantial project over the 3 course weeks. We use the popular Python programming language to prepare you for real-world research application of what you learn.

## Objectives
After completing this course, you will be able to:
* Understand some fundamental programming concepts
* Understand Python programs written by your colleagues
* Make useful changes to existing Python programs
* Write new, useful Python programs
* Take more advanced Python courses

## Required Skills
This course is aimed at people with no programming skills or experience. Those who want to learn Python but have experience with other languages are welcome but you may find the course slow going. If you're already familiar with Python and want to improve your skills in a particular area please register for a more specialised course such as the data analysis course or the machine learning course.

## Program
* Day 1
    * Introduction to your instructors and fellow students
    * Learning environment setup
    * What is programming and computation?
    * Introduction to Python
    * Explore available projects
* Day 2
    * Review of the previous week
    * Organising and operating on data
    * Reading and Writing data to files
* Day 3
    * Review of previous week
    * Cool Python features