Course Overview
Welcome to the Python Introductory Education Series (PIES) course. This course is composed of four lessons (see schedule below) and is meant to help those with no or limited experience in Python get started using this general purpose scripting language for data analyses. Each one-hour lesson will be followed by an optional one-hour help session. At the end of this course series, participants should
- Have obtained a broad overview of Python, including:
- Familiarity with tools used to write Python code
- Knowledge of Python command syntax
- Ability to find help for Python commands
- Knowledge of where to find Python packages
- Familiarity with self-learning resources
- Be able to describe Python data types and structures and provide examples of where some of the data structures are used.
- Know how to use loops and iterators to perform repetitive tasks.
- Know how to work with tabular data
- Be able to construct data visualizations
Lesson schedule:
- Tuesday June 16, 2026, 2 – 3 PM: Getting Started with Python
- Thursday June 18, 2026, 2 – 3 PM: Python Data Types, Variable Assignment, Conditionals, Loops and Iterators
- Tuesday June 23, 2026, 2 – 3 PM: Data Wrangling using Python
- Thursday June 25, 2026, 2 – 3 PM: Data Visualization using Python
Participants will be working through the hands-on exercises on Biowulf's HPC OnDemand. Only 30 temporary and in-class use only accounts will be available to those without access to Biowulf. Participants can also use personal Biowulf accounts or obtain one at https://hpc.nih.gov/docs/accounts.html