1Introduction to Python, Python Basics

2Strings, Decision control statements

3Repetition Statements, Console input-output

4Lists, Tuples, Sets, Dictionary

5Functions and Recursion, Functional Programming and Lambda functions

6File Input-Output, Modules

7Classes and objects

8Exception handling, Iterators and generators

9Data Analysis with Pandas

10Numeric and Scientific Computing using Numpy

11Graphical User Interfaces with Tkinter

12Interacting with Databases

1Who can take your course?

This course is ideal for students of all branches of Engineering who want to learn programming. No previous programming knowledge is assumed. In fact anyone who has basic knowledge of computers can take this course. This course is especially useful for those students who wish to pursue a career in the fields of software development or in Data Science.

2What is included in your course?

The course starts off by discussing core concepts beginning with the basic syntax, basic data types and operators of python, conditional statements and looping statements. Then we move on to the rich set of data structures like lists, sets, tuple and dictionary. Functions, classes and modules are covered. Advanced topics like file input output, database connectivity using SQLite, GUI programming using tkinter package are covered in detail. In addition, data analysis and scientific computing is covered using the Pandas and Numpy packages. In order to reinforce the concepts that are taught, two full-fledged real world projects are included as part of the course. In the first project, you will develop an English language Thesaurus where users will search and find definitions of English words. In the second project, you will develop a full-fledged Bookstore database application using SQLite as backend and Tkinter GUI for frontend. In addition, more than 100 practice programs ranging in difficulty from easy to hard are provided in order to check the grasp of the concepts. In order to help with interview preparation, several interview questions will also be provided as part of the course.

3What will the student gain from your course?

This is a practical hands-on course. Therefore, any student without prior programming knowledge can learn to confidently program using the Python programming language, provided they follow the video lectures and practice the exercises given as part of the course. On the other hand, if you want to be recognized as a professional programmer, you have to develop applications in Python which you can include in your online portfolio. To this end, two comprehensive projects have to be developed by every student.

4What software skills are you teaching and how well are these tools used in the industry?

The software that will be used is Python – 3 programming language, Anaconda Navigator for developing programs, SQLite database for project and Visual Studio Code IDE (Optional). All the above software is extensively used in the IT industry for developing production quality software.

5What real world application for the tools and techniques will you teach in this course?

Some of the real world domains in which Python programming concepts discussed in this course are relevant are:

• Web Development
• GUI based desktop applications
• Image processing and graphic design
• Scientific and Computational applications
• Games
• Enterprise business applications
• Operating Systems
• Network programming
• Education Programs and Training
• Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning
• Web Scraping Applications

6Which companies use these techniques and for what?

Some of the world class companies that use Python are:

• Google: Python is one of the official server side languages at Google
• Facebook: At Facebook, Python is used for multiple services in Infrastructure Management.
• Instagram: Instagram runs the world’s largest deployment of Django web framework (which is completely written in Python).
• Spotify: This music streaming giant is a huge proponent of Python, using the language for data analysis and back end services.
• Netflix: Netflix uses Python to power its data analysis task at the Server side.

7How is your course going to help me in my path to MS or PhD?

In the current scenario and as per the predicted trends in the future, Data Science is a major area of research across functional areas like Medical diagnosis and Financial management. The Python community is one of the most active programming communities with a huge number of developed toolboxes. The most popular Python toolboxes for any data scientist are NumPy, SciPy, Pandas, and Scikit-Learn. These packages are used for research in the broad areas of Data Science and Machine Learning. Several packages exist for programming with Computer Vision in Python. Therefore, whichever area of research you choose in MS or PhD, whether it is Artificial Intelligence or Data Science, you will find several uses of the Python programming language, supported by a vast network of programmer community.

8How is this course going to help me get a job?

In the list of top programming languages for 2019 by the IEEE Spectrum, Python is at #1. According to the 2020 survey by Stack Overflow, Python is one of the most widely used languages in the software development industry in 2020. Therefore, the job opportunities for Python programmers are enormous and are projected to grow further in the future. However, whether you will be able to learn Python and be job-ready, heavily depends on you. You have to practice the code you see in the video lectures, modify the code, fix the possible errors, and try to solve all the exercises in the course and implement the projects that are part of the course. In this way you will certainly learn how to program with Python and immensely increase your chances of getting a job.