Here are various material and links related to my classes.
Astrostatistics and machine learning (Milan-Bicocca)
The use of statistics is ubiquitous in astronomy and astrophysics. Modern advances are made possible by the application of increasingly sophisticated tools, often dubbed as “data mining”, “machine learning”, and “artificial intelligence”. This class provides an introduction to (some of) these statistical techniques in a very practical fashion, pairing formal derivations to hands-on computational applications. Although examples will be taken almost exclusively from the realm of astronomy, this class is appropriate to all Physics students interested in machine learning.
Scientific computing with python (Milan-Bicocca)
The python programming language and its library ecosystem are essential tools in modern science. This class provides an advanced introduction to python and its main functionalities, focusing in particular on its applications to computational physics. Targeted topics include: array vectorization with numpy, pretty plotting with matplotlib, scientific recipes with scipy, just-in-time compilating with numba, module packaging, and unit testing. I will also introduce other essential computational tools, notably Mathematica for symbolic manipulation and git for version control. The format will be highly interactive and tailored to the research interests of the participants.
General physics for Computer Science majors (Milan-Bicocca)
This is a general physics class covering mechanics, thermodynamics, and electromagnetism, delivered to students majoring in Computer Science at the University of Milan-Bicocca. All class material is in Italian.
Black holes and gravitational waves (Birmingham)
This class targets PhD students (but interested master’s students can enjoy it too!) and was delivered within the Midlands Physics Alliance Graduate School (MPAGS) together with C. Moore and P. Schmidt.
Year 1 astrolab (Birmingham)
Astrolab is a first-year undergraduate class in observational astronomy. Unfortunately, the links above require a University of Birmingham account. For a paper describing an older version of the Birmingham Astrolab class, see Elliott (2003).
Other teaching material
- simplestrocket: Stacked ball drop
A neat calculation on dropping balls on top of each other, from my year 1 tutoring sessions in Birmingham.
- nsphere: Volumes of spheres in N-dimensions
This is based on a “postdoc-lunch” discussion I lead at Caltech in 2018ish. I calculate the volume of spheres in many dimensions… Some surprises here.