INTRODUCTION TO CODING

The Minor in Computer and Data Science aims to provide the basic skills to use computer science and data science tools for managing, analyzing and interpreting the vast amount of data available.

This course aims to give an overview of the fundamentals and of the techniques at the base of computational systems.
The main purpose of the course is to introduce students to computational thinking, solving a variety of problems through simple programs developed in Python, a popular high-level programming language.

The course is important and relevant for all students who want to deepen or reinforce the most important basis of computer science and programming, thus getting some basic skills in the field of computer science.

The student will acquire:
- fundamentals of how computers work
- Skills that allow him to face problems with an algorithmic mindset and with the mental and practical process that programmers use
- familiarity with the Python language

No prerequisite is necessary to be able to complete the course.

This course aims at teaching the role that computation plays in solving problems. Students will be introduced to the use of a simple but powerful programming language like Python, and at the end of the course they will be able to write programs that can manipulate data or perform computing tasks of general utility.

In more detail, the basics of computational systems will be addressed:
- How computers store and transmit data
- How computer hardware and software operate on data
- How humans use computers to solve problems

The main topics include the notion of computation, problem solving and algorithms, the Python language, simple algorithms and data structures, testing and debugging software.

Finally, some topics regarding history of computer science, and social/ethic issues in computing

- "Think Python. How to Think Like a Computer Scientist (2e)".
Allen Downey. Green Tea Press.
Free download: https://greenteapress.com/thinkpython2/thinkpython2.pdf

- Online resources

- Lecture notes

The written exam is organized into two parts.
The first one is made of a set of questions aiming to test the proficiency of the student with respect to the various topics of the course and the specific technical terminology.
The second part of the exam is related to the skill assessment, through the solution of exercises on the course subjects.

Theoretical and practical lectures, lab exercise using the Python language.

Italian

written and oral