Thursday 09:00 - 09:30

Alan Fekete

In this talk we give an overview of databases; what they are; why we use them – advantages over flat file formats; how to organise data in a database.

Thursday 09:30 - 10:00

Tara Murphy

In this talk we will also introduce SQL, the language used to communicate with databases. This allows you to make powerful queries on existing databases such as the SDSS.

Thursday 10:00 - 10:30

Tara Murphy, James Curran

This session has a range of exercises based on querying existing databases with SQL. We will also have some advanced exercises for people who would like to create their own database using MySQL.

Thursday 11:00 - 11:30

Tara Murphy

It is becoming increasingly important for scientists to become familiar with web technologies, however there is lots of jargon surrounding this area. This lecture will give a brief overview of some of the existing technologies, in particular the client-server model, webservices and CGI scripts.

Thursday 11:30 - 12:30

James Curran

A series of exercises on creating your first CGI scripts in Python. These are useful for whenever you want to get content from a web form, or dynamically create pages.

Thursday 12:30 - 13:00

Andrew Hopkins

Being familiar with ADS is critical for PhD students. In this session we will go through some of the advanced features of ADS that make conducting literature reviews easier.

Thursday 14:00 - 15:00

Malte Marquarding

This session will concentrate on using python in a scientific environment though worked examples. ipython - a nice command-line front-end to facilitate interactive use will be introduced. The use of numpy, a module for numerical computations and matplotlib, a plotting package similar to matlab will also be demonstrated. Together these three packages form a base similar to functionality found in IDL.

Thursday 16:00 - 17:00

More Python, carrying on from the sessions on Day 1. Writing more substantial programs, using functions, external modules and the fundamentals of Object Oriented design.

Thursday 17:00 - 17:30

Tara Murphy

An introduction to VO tools.