CTA200: Introduction to Computational Astrophysics
May 7-May 17, 2-13, 9:30am-12noon daily, MP1318A
Binary Black Hole calculation; Planck all sky map
Harald Pfeiffer, CITA, MP1309, pfeiffer-at-cita.utoronto.ca
This two-week undergraduate course will provide an introduction to
computational astrophysics. The main emphasis of the course is on the
tools for efficient and effective use of computers in scientific
research (both within and outside of astrophysics). We will touch on many topics, to give a sense of the usefulness of each tool, and enough basics to make it easy to learn it in more depth. Topics covered:
- Emacs editor
- Unix command line
- Shell scripting
- Python
- Visualization
- Remote execution via secure shell ssh
- LaTeX
- Using supercomputers
- Introduction to some current problems in computational astrophysics
Recommended preparation: basic programming/scripting, numerical
techniques (e.g., through CSC 108H1/CSC148H1, CSC260H1).
The course runs from May 7-17, 2013.
Lectures will be held daily from 9:30am to noon in MP1318A.
Office-hours tentatively 4:30pm-5:30pm.
To register for course, please contact instructor.
Schedule
May 7 -- Introduction, ssh, version control via git
May 8 -- Emacs, Introduction to Python
May 9 -- Shell: Configuration, pipelines, sed
May 10 -- Shell scripting
May 13&14 -- Python: ArgParse, Numpy, Matplotlib, exceptions, error checking
May 16 -- Visualization with xmgrace and Paraview
May 15 -- LaTeX, Makefiles
May 17 -- parallel programming and using clusters
LECTURE NOTES
Lecture01.pdf