Allen Downey

"How to think like a computer scientist"--Cover.

Think Python

Enhances Python skills by working with data structures and algorithms and gives examples of complex systems using exercises, case studies, and simple explanations.

Complexity Science and Computational Modeling

Think Complexity

"Think Bayes is an introduction to Bayesian statistics using computational methods. The premise of this book, and the other books in the Think X series, is that if you know how to program, you can use that skill to learn other topics. Most books on Bayesian statistics use mathematical notation and present ideas in terms of mathematical concepts like calculus. This book uses Python code instead of math, and discrete approximations instead of continuous mathematics. As a result, what would be an integral in a math book becomes a summation, and most operations on probability distributions are simple loops. I think this presentation is easier to understand, at least for people with programming skills. It is also more general, because when we make modeling decisions, we can choose the most appropriate model without worrying too much about whether the model lends itself to conventional analysis. Also, it provides a smooth development path from simple examples to real-world problems."--Open Textbook Library.

Bayesian Statistics Made Simple

Think Bayes

Chris Meyers

Jeffrey Elkner

Here you'll find a short introduction to Logo as a general purpose programming language, as opposed to its limited educational use with turtle graphics. Logo is a simplified dialect of Lisp and retains much of the power of Lisp. It is thus suitable for such advanced projects such as artificial intelligence programming.

Learning with Python

How to Think Like a Computer Scientist

An introduction to modeling and simulating physical systems with MATLAB, mathematical computing software for engineers and scientists. A concise introduction to programming and modeling real world systems with MATLAB, a popular programming language for science and engineering. Unlike competing books which are often too mathematical and theoretical, this book by best-selling author Allen Downey is designed to be practical, with an emphasis on thinking about how to design and use models. The author shows the reader that systems may have many possible models and shows them how to justify modeling decisions, choose appropriate models, validate their choices, and iteratively improve their models. Readers are taught basic programming skills and how to combine them with MATLAB to model and simulate systems like population growth, baseball flight trajectories, bungee jumping, and celestial mechanics. For example, the book explores concepts like the Penny Drop Myth: the claim that a penny dropped from the top of the Empire State Building lands with enough force to injure a person or the sidewalk. The author addresses this myth by developing and implementing three models of the system, including or excluding features like air resistance and spin. Other physical systems include world population growth, infectious disease, the coffee cooling problem, baseball trajectories, bungee jumping, and celestial mechanics. Readers learn to use MATLAB to visualize and summarize their results, as well as how to use their models to predict, explain, and design systems. The book presents applications from a range of areas including demography, thermodynamics, epidemiology, ecology, pharmacokinetics, and mechanics. Numerous exercises, sample code, and MATLAB Live Scripts (notebooks that include code, results, and explanatory text) help the reader develop the knowledge and skills necessary to work comfortably in MATLAB.

A Hands-On Guide to Computation and Simulation

Physical Modeling with MATLAB

An introduction to modeling and simulating physical systems with MATLAB, mathematical computing software for engineers and scientists. A concise introduction to programming and modeling real world systems with MATLAB, a popular programming language for science and engineering. Unlike competing books which are often too mathematical and theoretical, this book by best-selling author Allen Downey is designed to be practical, with an emphasis on thinking about how to design and use models. The author shows you that systems may have many possible models and shows you how to justify modeling decisions, choose appropriate models, validate your choices, and iteratively improve your models. You are taught basic programming skills and how to combine them with MATLAB to model and simulate systems like population growth, baseball flight trajectories, bungee jumping, and celestial mechanics. For example, the book explores concepts like the Penny Drop Myth: the claim that a penny dropped from the top of the Empire State Building lands with enough force to injure a person or the sidewalk. The author addresses this myth by developing and implementing three models of the system, including or excluding features like air resistance and spin. Other physical systems include animal population growth, the coffee cooling problem, baseball trajectories, bungee jumping, and celestial mechanics. You'll learn to use MATLAB to visualize and summarize your results, as well as how to use your models to predict, explain, and design systems. The book presents applications from a range of areas including demography, thermodynamics, epidemiology, ecology, pharmacokinetics, and mechanics. Numerous exercises, sample code, and MATLAB Live Scripts (notebooks that include code, results, and explanatory text) help you develop the knowledge and skills necessary to work comfortably in MATLAB.

A Hands-on Guide to Computation and Simulation

An introductory textbook for people who have not programmed before. Covers basic MATLAB programming with emphasis on modeling and simulation of physical systems.

Physical Modeling in MATLAB

If you’re a student studying computer science or a software developer preparing for technical interviews, this practical book will help you learn and review some of the most important ideas in software engineering—data structures and algorithms—in a way that’s clearer, more concise, and more engaging than other materials. By emphasizing practical knowledge and skills over theory, author Allen Downey shows you how to use data structures to implement efficient algorithms, and then analyze and measure their performance. You’ll explore the important classes in the Java collections framework (JCF), how they’re implemented, and how they’re expected to perform. Each chapter presents hands-on exercises supported by test code online. Use data structures such as lists and maps, and understand how they work Build an application that reads Wikipedia pages, parses the contents, and navigates the resulting data tree Analyze code to predict how fast it will run and how much memory it will require Write classes that implement the Map interface, using a hash table and binary search tree Build a simple web search engine with a crawler, an indexer that stores web page contents, and a retriever that returns user query results Other books by Allen Downey include Think Java, Think Python, Think Stats, and Think Bayes.

Algorithms and Information Retrieval in Java

Think Data Structures

Python for Software Design is a concise introduction to software design using the Python programming language. The focus is on the programming process, with special emphasis on debugging. The book includes a wide range of exercises, from short examples to substantial projects, so that students have ample opportunity to practice each new concept.

Allen Downey

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