6.S00 Introduction to Programming, Computer Science, and Computational Modeling


Undergraduate Level (meets with 6.0001/6.0002) REST
Prereqs: None
Units: 3-0-9
Instructors:  Ana Bell, anabell@mit.edu; Profs. John Guttag, guttag@mit.edu and W. Eric Grimson welg@mit.edu
Schedule: Lecture: MW3-4.30, (VIRTUAL) Lab: TBA, Recitation: F10  (VIRTUAL) or F11 (VIRTUAL) or F1  (VIRTUAL)
Combines the material in 6.0001 and 6.0002. The first half is an introduction to computer science and programming for students with limited programming experience. Students develop skills to program and use computational techniques to solve problems. Topics include the notion of computation, Python, simple algorithms and data structures, testing and debugging, and algorithmic complexity. The second half provides an introduction to using computation to understand real-world phenomena. Topics include plotting, stochastic programs, probability and statistics, random walks, Monte Carlo simulations, modeling data, optimization problems, and clustering.
