Day 02 - Models and Modeling

Sept. 10, 2020

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Administrative

  • Office Hours: We are setting these up now based on your needs. They will be posted soon.
    • Danny's office hours: 3-4pm Tuesday and Thursday (and by appointment)
  • Notebooks: We will be posting the week's worth of work for you on the course website and D2L.
  • Slides: Posted online; you can get access from D2L.
  • EGR Accounts: These are only needed to access (https://jupyterhub.egr.msu.edu) in case your Python install fails. Email support@egr.msu.edu if you are still having trouble.
  • Groups: The assigned groups were posted to D2L and emailed to you. Please add your group number to your name so we can assign the groups today.
  • Homework 1: Will be assigned next week; due the week of Sept. 28th.

Any questions?

Groups

  • On D2l and in your email, you will find your group assignment (Number 1 through 8).
  • Change your name on Zoom to include your group number
    • (e.g., "Danny" becomes "1 - Danny" if I were assigned to group 1).
  • We will work in these groups for several weeks.

From Pre-Class Assignment

Things you said you want more practice with:

  • Control structures like loops
  • Using pandas to work with and analyze data
  • Making models of data (i.e., regression)
  • Connecting the progams I write to the models we use

Concerns you have:

  • I don't remember syntax for different libraries
  • I need to look at websites and notes to complete tasks

What is a scientific model?

In the pre-class assignment, you found videos the describe a model. We can think of models in a variety of ways.

One of my PhD students, John Aiken, made a short film some years ago about models when he was supposed to be writing his master's thesis. Let's watch it.

In [1]:
from IPython.display import YouTubeVideo
YouTubeVideo("dkTncoPqo5Y",width=800,height=600)
Out[1]:

Any questions, concerns, comments?

Icebreaker for your groups

Introduce yourself

  • Name
  • Major
  • What have you been doing for fun or to relax during the pandemic?