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Syllabus

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Sheila Kannappan edited this page Dec 5, 2016 · 196 revisions

Full Syllabus (original version)

Calendar (subject to change)

Levels of Reading Assignment

  • Bold = Read fully for understanding
  • Plain Text = Skim for awareness
  • Italics = Note for future reference (read titles only or enough text to understand titles)

Remember codes to make all the Ivezic text figures are hosted at astroml.org

Week 1: WF Aug 24/26 Intro + Sign-Up for Computer Lab Times

Reading Week 1: Ivezic 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.4.1-1.4.2, 1.5, 1.5.* [note use of * = “all” as in linux]

Class Week 1:

Computer Lab Week 1: (** = best if you work with a partner)

Week 2: MWF Aug 29/31/Sep 2 + Assigned Lab Times

Reading Week 2: Ivezic 1.6, 1.6.1-1.6.2, 1.6.3, 1.7, Appendix A, Ch. 2, 2.1.1, 2.1.2, 2.2, 2.3-2.4
[Actually download the code to make Figs. 1.9-1.12 on your machine, and look at the code!]

Class Week 2:

Computer Lab Week 2:

  • Python Tutorial 2 (programming basics)
  • Work through hands-on parts of the reading (esp. Appendix A and Figs. 1.9-1.12) in the lab
  • Debug and speed up this template code, consulting these Programming Best Practices
  • Choose and start mini projects -- To see an example mini-project, use the jupyter notebook quickstart instructions ON YOUR LAPTOP to examine the sample jupyter notebook called ExploreRESOLVEandECO.ipynb in this repo, which you can run partway through if you download the ECO_dr1_subset.csv input file also provided in this repo. WARNING: Unfortunately, these files will be corrupted with html markup if downloaded by right clicking their file names -- possible workarounds are (1) click "raw" and right-click on the raw contents to "save as" the same filename or (2) download the entire galastrostats/general repo as a zip file, then extract the files from the zipped repo on your local machine. Once you've got the notebook running, you can figure out how to (re-)make the other data file necessary for it to run to completion, just using the instructions in the file and reasoning by analogy. Then you can design your own mini project in your own jupyter notebook. Make sure your mini project asks a question very slightly more complicated than just "what is the plot of this variable vs. that variable", and make sure it includes at least one coding idea raided from the figure codes in the textbook. NOTE: jupyter notebook will not work properly under Linux until you do the following: first the usual unc_anaconda and source activate astro then a one-time installation conda install nb_conda_kernels. After this, when you launch the jupyter notebook you'll get a question about a kernel choice -- just click OK and you should be all set!

Week 3: WF Sep 7/9 + Assigned Lab Times

Reading Week 3: Ivezic Ch. 3, 3.1.1, 3.1.2, 3.1.3-3.1.4, 3.2, 3.2.1, 3.2.2, 3.3, 3.3.1-3.3.2, 3.3.3, 3.3.4, 3.3.5, 3.3.6-3.3.11, 3.4, 3.5.*, 3.6, 3.6.1, 3.7

Class Week 3:

Computer Lab Week 3:

Week 4: MWF Sep 12/14/16 + Assigned Lab Times

Reading Week 4: Ivezic Ch. 4, 4.1, 4.2, 4.2.1-4.2.3, 4.2.4-4.2.5, 4.2.6,, 4.2.7-4.2.8, 4.3, 4.3.*, 4.4, 4.5

Class Week 4:

  • Galaxies as a Population IV
  • Present mini projects: put in your personal class space on afs (/afs/cas.unc.edu/classes/fall2016/astr_703_001/onyen) along with any necessary input files, and email Rohan with the filenames/paths; be prepared to briefly present, stating the question asked, data used, results obtained, and coding idea raided from the textbook
  • Basic Stats III

Computer Lab Week 4:

Week 5: MWF Sep 19/21/23 + Assigned Lab Times

Reading Week 5: Ivezic 4.6, 4.6.1, 4.7, 4.7.1-4.7.2, 4.7.3-4.7.6, 4.8, 4.8.1-4.8.2, 4.9, 4.9.*, 5.1, 5.1.*, 5.2, 5.2.1, 5.2.2-5.2.4, 5.3, 5.3.*, 5.4, 5.4.*, 8.11, 8.11.1-8.11.4

Class Week 5:

Computer Lab Week 5:

Week 6: MWF Sep 26/28/30 + Assigned Lab Times

Reading Week 6: Ivezic 5.5, 5.6, 5.6.1, 5.6.2-5.6.7, 5.7.*, 5.8, 5.8.1-5.8.3, 5.8.4-5.8.5, 5.8.6, 5.9, browse all sections of Chapters 6-9

Class Week 6:

  • Review project criteria and proprietary data guidelines
  • Step through sample project (PCA analysis of spectra)
  • Discuss potential team projects and available data
  • Go over labs completed in prior weeks (bootstrapping, model fitting, fitting choices)
  • Basic Stats IV: Cross Validation

Computer Lab Week 6:

Weeks 7-14 Overview

Reading for Weeks 7-14:

  • as needed for team project
  • VoxCharta abstracts and voting, each student one day per week

Class pattern for Weeks 7-14:

  • 1-2.5 class times for student half-hour presentations (astrophysics articles and computational methods)
  • 0.5-1 class time for computational tools and tricks (TT) and/or VoxCharta discussion

Computer Lab for Weeks 7-14: 6 hours per week spent on project at assigned group computer lab times (in week 7 examine possible projects with team, write up team project plan using form, and get it approved)

Week 7: MWF Oct 3/5/7 + Assigned Lab Times

  • MCMC vs. "brute force" Bayesian fitting
  • Finish going over PCA sample project and solutions to last week's tutorials on distributions and cross-validation
  • M Receive take-home midterm challenge in class
  • W Submit take-home midterm challenge (before class by email), TT Topic: using VoxCharta -- slides
  • F Student Presenters: Erin Conn seaborn and Michael Hoffman support vector machines

Week 8: MWF Oct 10/12/14 + Assigned Lab Times

Week 9: MW Oct 17/19 + Assigned Lab Times

Week 10: MWF Oct 24/26/28 + Assigned Lab Times

Week 11: MWF Oct 31/Nov 2/4 + Assigned Lab Times

Week 12: MWF Nov 7/9/11 + Assigned Lab Times

Week 13: MWF Nov 14/16/18 + Assigned Lab Times

Week 14: M Nov 21 + Assigned Lab Times

Week 15: MWF Nov 28/30/Dec 2 + Assigned Lab Times + Final Team Presentations Begin

Week 16: MW Dec 5/7 Final Team Presentations

  • M Dec 5 Team Presentations: 3D Shapes
  • W Dec 7 (9-11) Team Presentations: Inclinations, Correlation Functions, AGN, Binary Stellar Pops
  • Final notebooks due on GitHub by midnight Dec 7th; final intrateam evaluations due on Sakai by midnight Dec 8th

Final Exam: Friday December 16th 8am

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