Companion source code and information for Systems Engineering Classes
A list of available classes at Colorado State University in Systems Engineering is available on the SE website:
https://www.engr.colostate.edu/se/courses/
The SE courses that use this repository include:
- SYSE 530: Overview of Systems Engineering and Analysis
Most of the resources in this repository are built for using Python in Jupyter Notebooks.
An interesting discussion on Jupyter Notebooks and the underlying philosophy is here:
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/04/the-scientific-paper-is-obsolete/556676/
Github (the page you are on now) has the ability to render the Jupyter Notebooks in a readable form. However, the rendered form will not have the interactive features or allow you to run the code blocks on your own computer. To download the most recent version of the notebooks, click on the green Code button and download the zip file. However, you'll have to do this manually each time there is an update.
A better way to keep synchronized with the contents in this repository is to use Github Desktop. This way, you can use an app to manage your files and synchronize them when you ready to look for changes. The directory on your computer will keep up with this repository. You'll have to download and install Github Desktop.
To run the Jupyer Notebook (.ipynb) files, please install Python and Jupyter. The easiest way to do this is using the Anaconda Python distribution, which is available for free. Here are some instructions:
- Download Anaconda https://www.anaconda.com/products/individual#Downloads
- Follow the install wizard. On Windows, it may ask to "Register Anaconda as my default Python" to which I declined. This preserves an existing deployment of Python if you had one.
- After pressing install, plan to wait a while as the installer downloads many packages from the Internet repositories.
- Once the Setup tool is finished, there is a link to PyCharm, which may be a useful tool for you but is not mandatory.
- Once setup is complete, navigate to the start menu and start a Jupyter Notebook. It is a server-client that runs on your local machine and uses a web browser as the front end.
If Python is new to you, don't worry. We will have many examples that you can follow to pick it up. To build your skills in Python, I suggest some tutorial videos. Specifically, the ones by Corey Schafer are good. I recommend watching his channel on 1.5X speed to get a flavor for programming in Python. His channel is here:
https://www.youtube.com/user/schafer5/featured
Another great resource to learn Python is the course by David Beazley: