Programming Basics for Biologists

4 Apr 2018, 09:00 → 6 Apr 2018, 18:00 Europe/Berlin

Seminar Room Top Floor (3rd floor) (Center of Systems Biology Dresden)

Registration deadline: 31 January 2018

AIM OF THE COURSE: Discoveries in biology are driven as much by computer analysis as by laboratory work. In this course, students will learn the theory and practice of computer programming with emphasis on the practical techniques and problem solving skills required to use computer programming in biological research. We will use the freely available scripting language python. Nevertheless, all thought concepts translate to other languages. We intend to cover the basics of procedural programming, the very basics of object oriented programming, best practices in source code management using GIT/GitHub, and will then focus on the ability to use online resources to find solutions for typical problems.

LEARNING OUTCOME: After the course, you will be able to write your own python programs that can help you to analyze data from text files, binary files, or even image files. You will be able to apply your analysis not only to single, but also to many files and folders at once. The obtained results you will be able to plot and visualize in various ways. Additionally, you will be capable of asking google (or StackOverflow) the right way to find solutions for programming problems the course could not cover within 3 days. Last but not least you will have used GIT and GitHub, allowing you to collaborate with others on all your future programming projects.

The number of participants is limited to 12. Preference is given to DIPP PhD students

We will inform you after 31 March 2018 whether a slot in the programming course could be assigned to you!

Slides ProgrammingBasics2018.pdf