IPython Notebook for Teaching and Learning

Abstract

In all branches of engineering, computational work/simulation is now rightly seen as the third vertex of a triangle, complementing observation and theory. This requirement necessitates an engineering student should know computational concepts as well as a whole new language to express these concepts. These are challenging tasks and students might face diffi culties in learning the fi ner details of the language and its usage. While these are important, they are not strict prerequisites for using Python for their computational needs. Minimizing the students mental loads, allow them to concentrate on the core computational ideas. IPython Notebook provides a programming environment that offers many advantages for students as well as for instructors as these are free and open source software (FOSS). Nowadays reproducible research is gaining importance and this idea in scientifi c computing is to archive and make publicly available all the codes used to create a paper's fi gures or tables, preferably in such a manner that readers can download the codes and run them to reproduce the results. IPython Notebook feature of Python advocates this philosophy and in this paper, author shares his experience how it can be used effectively to promote teaching/learning and reproducible research.