Pre-MAP 2022

Welcome to Pre-MAP 2022, Cohort 18! We will be meeting in-person in PAB B360 (the Undergraduate Computing Lab in the Physics and Astronomy building) on Monday/Wednesday/Friday from 11-12:20pm.

While we will plan on being in-person we want to make sure that class is easy to attend if people are feeling sick or in any way can’t make it to class. To that end, we will be setting up a zoom room for conversation parts of class.

Instructor

I’m Rodolfo Garcia, the instructor for Pre-MAP 2022. I am a fifth year PhD student in the astronomy department. My research involves simulating the evolution of exoplanets. I look at how a planet’s mantle heats up or cools down over time, and how that heat fuels volcanic eruptions, which in turn spit out gases into the atmosphere. I like to play video games and read books, especially sci-fi stuff! I have not taught Pre-MAP before and am really excited to work with all of y’all to learn about research!

Rudy’s office hours this quarter are TBD.

Academic Mentor

The Academic Mentor is David Wang

The Academic Mentor is an additional resource for you throughout this entire academic year (including the winter and spring quarters, after the Pre-MAP class is over). David will also have office hours available each quarter to help you with homework, research, selecting courses, and in-class assignments. He will be present at many of the virtual in-class sessions as well. The Academic Mentor is around to help you with anything you may want to talk about. Don’t wait to take advantage of this excellent resource!

David’s office hours this quarter are TBD

Course Overview

Pre-MAP can roughly be broken up into two halves. In the first half, we’ll equip you with the skills you need to start working on an astronomical research project. These skills include programming in Python, and critical reading and writing of science literature. Then in the second half of the course, you’ll work with a research mentor and a class partner on a guided research project. There will also be professional development talks on Fridays, and social events and lab tours throughout the quarter.

Syllabus

Please make sure to read over the course syllabus the first week of class. Link to course syllabus

Course Materials

The Python lessons will be taught from instructional iPython Notebooks (no textbook required!) which can be found on our GitHub page. These notebooks will be saved there as a permanent programming reference for you.

There are also many freely available textbooks on programming in Python, which you could optionally use for Python help (no readings will be assigned from these books). Take a look at this webpage’s free Python texts labeled “beginner” for supplemental texts that might be useful programming references appropriate for this course. Three reference texts that I recommend include Learn Python the Hard Way (which isn’t actually hard!), and A Byte of Python.

Homework Assignments

See calendar below

How to turn in Assignments

Writing Assignments, Final Presentation Slides

For Writing Assignments, I will send an e-mail to the class with a link to make a copy of the homework. When you are finished typing the homework into your copy, please reply to the e-mail I sent to the class with the link to your copy.

For your final presentation slides, you and your partner (if applicable) will be shared on one Google slides document, which is also shared with me. Please create slides within this document directly.

Coding Assignments:

Coding assignments are meant to be straightforward practice of what we’ve learned in class. This year, coding assignments have been designed to follow along with your scientific reading/writing assignments.

To complete an assignment, please open the Jupyter notebook for a given homework assignment. These can be found at /PreMAP2022/homework/ when you are logged into your individual JupyterHUBs.

Schedule

Lab Tours:

[under construction!]

WEEK	MONDAY	WEDNESDAY	FRIDAY
1	No class	Sep 28 Introductions Syllabus Class discussion on aspects of research Assigned: HW1	Sep 30 Guest Speaker: Elisa Quintana – Astronomy Major, Computer Set-Up Due: HW1 Assigned: HW2
2	Oct 3 Intro to Unix Assigned: HW3	Oct 5 Class discussion about HW2 article Python Intro Due: HW2	Oct 7 Research mentor project pitches Due: HW3 (or on Oct 10 if you need more time) Assigned:  1. Project Ranking (Due Sun, Oct 10 @5pm)
3	Oct 10 Python: numpy part 1 Assigned: HW4	Oct 12 Class discussion about HW4 article Python: numpy part 2	Oct 14 Python: loops Assigned: HW5
4	Oct 17 Python: Functions Part 1 Due: HW4	Oct 19 Class discussion about HW5 articles Python: Functions Part 2	Oct 21 Guest talk: Applying for Internships/REUs
5	Oct 24 Python: Plotting part 1 Due: HW5	Oct 26 Python: Plotting part 2 Tie up Odds and Ends	Oct 28 Guest talk: Career Paths in Astro
6	Oct 31 Academic Mentor Workshop – Data Visualization	Nov 2 Start Research with Mentors	Nov 4 Research
7	Nov 7 Research	Nov 9 Research	Nov 11 No class, Veteran’s Day
8	Nov 14 Research	Nov 16 Research	Nov 18 Public Speaking Worksho
9	Nov 21 Research	Nov 23 Flexible Research (Thanksgiving Wednesday)	Nov 25 No Class (Thanksgiving)
10	Nov 28 Research	Nov 30 Research	Dec 2 Research
11	Dec 5 Presentations Workshop Assigned: End-of-Class Survey	Dec 7 Practice Presentations Presentation Rubric	Dec 9 Last day of class / Research Presentations
12	Dec 12 No class (finals week)	Dec 14 No class (finals week)	Dec 16 No class (finals week)