Python as a first language for ISE students @BGU

Transforming ISE's CS intro course at BGU from Java to Python

Transcript

1. Python as a first language for ISE students @BGU Assaf Zaritsky August 2018 Much of the content here is inspired by Yoav Ram’s slides https://speakerdeck.com/yoavram/python-as-a-first-language
2. Course objective • Develop basic programming and algorithmic skills • Enabling using programming as a tool to solve “real world” problems
3. Criteria and implications for a first programming language Criteria: • Learning how to program • Problem solving, design Implications: • Simple syntax and semantics • Hands on: high level and flexible languages allow minimal overhead: o Encourages experimentation o Allow students to build more sophisticated and interesting projects in less effort • Supports modern approaches to design and abstraction (e.g., OOP, functional) • Widely available (used in the “real world”)
4. Desired changes in the current course • Interactive teaching: write, revise, debug & experiment on the fly • More applicative content: there is so much that can be easily achieved today: o Data analysis, image processing, GUI, simulations, error handling, error correction codes, scientific programming, plotting, games, web, unit testing
5. Python’s simplicity and flexibility will allow to expand the scope of the course without losing academic content!
6. Agenda • Why Python? o Fastest growing language in industry o The language for data science and machine learning o Most popular for intro CS courses in top institutes o Perfect choice to fit course’s objectives and goals • Suggested course • Implicated hurdles – effects on other courses
7. Source: https://bit.ly/2tw9Exs The fastest growing main prog. language
8. Python is the language developers want to use (#1 vs. Java #5), and loved (#6 vs. #17) Source: https://goo.gl/KFbfUm
9. The most popular language for data science Source: https://bit.ly/2w62cNn Java 16.8% +19%
10. Python is used at Source: https://goo.gl/BVnr5c
11. Python is the most popular language for teaching CS intro at top US universities (2014) Source: https://bit.ly/2tw9Exs
12. Python is the most popular language for teaching CS intro at Israeli universities (2017/8) Tel Aviv: Python (Previously Scheme) Hebrew: Python (Previously Java) Technion: C Bar Ilan: C Haifa: C Ben-Gurion: Java (CSE  Python) Open: Java
13. Programming proficiency increases for novice learners using Python compared to Java as the introductory programming language in a CS1 module Koulouri, Lauria and Macredie (2014) Java Python p < 0.001 ns p = 0.005 p < 0.001
14. Python • Interpreted and dynamics o Encourages experimentation o Less effort building more sophisticated and interesting projects • High level o Design emphasizes code readability (“looks like pseudocode”) o Aims for simplicity and generality
15. Example 1: Hello World! Source: https://goo.gl/BVnr5c
16. Example 2: implementation of Rational Numbers Source: https://www.cs.tau.ac.il/courses/pyProg/1718a/lectures/9_OOP2.pdf
17. Example 3: BSF Source: https://bit.ly/2wkv6Zo
18. Example 4: neural network with Keras Source: https://goo.gl/vqzqrg
19. Python • Cross platform • Multiple programming paradigms • Free and open • Powerful and easy to use: o Large standard libraries o Easy to install 3rd party libraries o Massive community contribution o Data science and scientific computing • Fun and cool! • Fast enough
20. Programming paradigms Source: https://goo.gl/BVnr5c , Wikipedia
21. Example: Functional programming Source: https://goo.gl/BVnr5c
22. Large standard libraries Source: https://goo.gl/BVnr5c, Python docs Many new libraries released every month to PyPI (> 1500 during 2015)
23. Data science & scientific computing Source: https://goo.gl/BVnr5c
24. Fun and cool! Source: https://goo.gl/BVnr5c • Simplicity makes it fun to learn • Data structures (list, dictionary) and class mechanism can be easily used • No type declarations  less code, more flexible • Huge libraries of modules
25. Agenda • Why Python? o Fastest growing language in industry o The language for data science and machine learning o Most popular for intro CS courses in top institutes o Perfect choice to fit course’s objectives and goals • Suggested course • Implicated hurdles – effects on other courses
26. Proposal: integrate two courses from TAU • CS intro (designed by Benny Chor), EngPyProg (designed by me) • Some history on EngPyProg • High quality material, running (very successfully) for > 6 years • Less theoretic than CS, more applicative focus • No loss of content / concepts!
27. Current Intro CS @ BGU
28. Quick comparison Topic # hours BGU # hours TAU ENG # hours TAU CS Basics 12 6 8 (+ extra’s) Recursion 6 4 8 (extended) OOP 14 4-6 2 Total 32 16 18
29. Tentative syllabus Lecture Topic 1 Basic syntax 1 2 Basic syntax 2 3 Functions 4 Functions, memory model 5 Dictionaries, data analysis 6 Binary representation of numbers 7 Recursion 1 8 Recursion 2 9 Sort and search 10 Complexity 11 Error detection and correction 12 OOP1 Lecture Topic 13 OOP2 14 High order functions, λ-experssions 15 Signal (image) processing 16 GUI 17 Memoization, scientific computing 18 Simulations 19 File IO, Exceptions 20 Data analysis and plotting 21 Numerical analysis (Floating, Newton) 22 Binary search trees 23 Text compression 24 Machine learning, summary Recitations (?): program errors, string similarity, debugging, pygame, web-development, unit-testing
30. Agenda • Why Python? o Fastest growing language in industry o The language for data science and machine learning o Most popular for intro CS courses in top institutes o Perfect choice to fit course’s objectives and goals • Suggested course • Implicated hurdles – effects on other courses