Course Descriptions

The following courses, designed to be taken during the first and second semester of the freshman year respectively, will build students’ computational skills and help them explore the possibilities of STEM-related careers.

ID-121 Introduction to Scientific Computing (1 credit)
This interdisciplinary course is designed to introduce students to basic computing concepts, data analysis using high-level programming languages, and data visualization presentation in biology, chemistry, environmental science, physics and mathematics. The course will use programming languages that see widespread use in the sciences and are also simple to learn for beginners. The course will introduce computing to students by examining important scientific data sets from the past or present day. Students will develop important data and visualization skills that are emphasized throughout the curriculum in their majors and their expected careers. Students will complete one mini-project per week in class.
ID-122 Scientific Problem Solving (1 credit)
This course is a continuation of ID 121: Introduction to Scientific Computing. In this course students will advance their coding skills necessary to perform open ended analyses. Students will be expected to operate more independently of their instructors than in ID 121. The course culminates in a data analysis project on a topic picked by the student.