Welcome!#
Hello everybody! Welcome to this years “Introduction to Python Course”, taught at the University of Cologne. Great to see you! Most importantly, these are the dates for the course seminar:
09.04.2025 : 14:00 - 19:00
10.04.2025 : 14:00 - 19:00
23.04.2025 : 14:00 - 19:00
24.04.2025 : 14:00 - 19:00
We will always meet in this room: 213/EG/0.M01 (213 PC-Pool 0.M01) Adress: Frangenheimstr., 4, EG.
Please make sure to bring your own device for the course. All the programming lectures and task will happen on Google Colab. Google Colab is a cloud-based environment, that makes it possible to run Python Code in a Jupyter Notebook framework. It is completely free. All you need to do is create a google account beforehand (if you do not already have one!). If you have any concerns regarding data security and such, do not hesitate to contact me. In general, you will not share any personal information or more.
The goal of this course is to get you used to programtic thinking and problem solving in general, using the Python language. If we have time and everyone is on board, we can also get in to realm of machine learning and deep learning. However, I strongly emphasize getting familiar with the Python framework, as this is the backbone of all subsequent work.
About Me#
Hello there, my name is Janos and I am a PhD Student in the Self Learning Systems Lab (Bluesky) at the University of Cologne. My work and research interests are based on computational models of visual letter and word recognition. In other words, I am trying to understand how the human brain solves the problem of word recognition, e.g. how is it that we are able to read so efficiently and how did we as humans achieve this ability. Questions revolve around how letter and words are visually represented along the visual ventral stream, and what mechanisms faciliate these processes (a promising canidate for that is predictive coding).
To tackle these questions, I code almost all of my workflow (e.g. Preprocessing, Data Wrangling, Data Analysis) in Python. I apply both machine learning and deep learning techniques, next to transparent neuro-cognitive plausible models. These models are then evaluated on behavioral and neuroimaging data.
I have a background in Psychology (Bachelor + Master). During my bachelors I started programming with MatLab, but converted to Python during my masters in 2021.
How to adress one another#
When adressing me, please refrain from any formalities and such. You can just call me by my name Janos (he/him; pronounced: Janosch). If you wish to be adressed differently, please let me know! I further aim to be as inclusive as possible, so if you like to be adressed by specific pronouns, please let me know!
I have got a question!#
If you encounter any problems during the set-up please reach out to me via E-Mail (jpauli1@uni-koeln.de)
Acknowledgments#
I always strive to follow the “Credit where credit is due” sentiment.
Hence, I’d like to shout out the following persons:
Dr. Robert Ennis, because he got me into programming and I got inspiration from his course material to include in this course
Prof. Peer Herholz, because he got me into Python programming and I, again, got a lot of inspiration from his course material
Prof. Benjamin Gagl because he actually taught this course the previous years and I am able to use some of his materials