Pre-MAP 2016
Welcome to Pre-MAP 2016, Cohort 12! Class will be on Monday/Wednesday/Friday from 11-12:00pm in the 3rd floor computer lab of the Physics and Astronomy building (room number TBA).
Instructor
I’m Brett Morris, the instructor of Pre-MAP 2016. You can learn more about my research on my website.
Academic Mentor
The course Academic Mentor is Diana Windemuth. The Academic Mentor is an additional resource for you to use throughout this entire academic year (including the winter and spring quarters, after the Pre-MAP class is over). Diana will hold her own office hours to be available to help you with homework, research, selecting courses, and in-class assignments, and she will be present at many of the in-class exercises. 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!
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 in small groups 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.
Here is the 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!), A Byte of Python, and A Whirlwind Tour of Python (written by a former UW astro grad student).
Schedule
Lab tours:
- Thursday, Nov 3rd: Hyak computing facility. Meet at the UW Tower at 3:00 pm
- Thursday, Nov 10: Atmospheric Sciences. Meet at the computer lab at 2:45pm
- Tuesday, Nov 15: Riffel Lab. Meet at the computer lab at 4:45pm
- Monday, Nov 21: Primate Research Center. Meet at the computer lab at 4:45pm
| Week | Monday | Wednesday | Friday |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | No class | Sep 28 Introduction to Pre-MAP Assignment: Writing 1, Schedule Poll |
Sep 30 Winter Enrollment, Pre-MAP Field Trips, Computer Set-Up |
| 2 | Oct 3 Intro to Unix |
Oct 5 Intro to Unix Due: Writing 1 |
Oct 7 Research mentor project pitches Assignment: Writing 2 |
| 3 | Oct 10 Python: Calculations Assigned: Code 1 |
Oct 12 Python: Numpy Due: Code 1 Assigned: Code 2 |
Oct 14 Python: Numpy Due: Code 2 Assigned: Code 3 |
| 4 | Oct 17 Python: Control flow Due: Code 3 Assigned: Code 4 |
Oct 19 Python: Control flow Due: Code 4 Assigned: Code 5 |
Oct 21 Guest talk: Career Paths in Astro (Nick Hunt-Walker) Due: Code 5 Assigned: Writing 3 |
| 5 | Oct 24 Python: Control flow Assigned: Code 6 |
Oct 26 Python: Plotting Due: Code 6 |
Oct 28 Guest talk: Applying to REUs (Grace Telford) |
| 6 | Oct 31 Python: Fitting |
Nov 2 Start research with mentors! |
Nov 4 Research |
| 7 | Nov 7 Research |
Nov 9 Research |
Nov 11 No class (Veterans Day) |
| 8 | Nov 14 Research |
Nov 16 Research |
Nov 18 Research |
| 9 | Nov 21 Research |
Nov 23 Research |
Nov 25 No class (Thanksgiving) |
| 10 | Nov 28 Guest talk: Presentations/ Public Speaking (Monica Cortes Viharo) |
Nov 30 Research |
Dec 2 Research |
| 11 | Dec 5 Prepare Presentations |
Dec 7 Practice Presentations |
Dec 9 Last day of class |