ESP Biography
AL SWEIGART, Software nerd who wrote a Python programming book.
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Major: Computer Science College: Riverbed Technology Year of Graduation: 2005 |
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Brief Biographical Sketch:
Albert Sweigart (but you can call him Al) is a software developer in San Francisco, California who enjoys bicycling, reading, volunteering, network security, haunting coffee shops, and making useful software. He is originally from Houston, Texas and went to school in Austin. He finally put his UT Austin computer science degree in a frame. He is a friendly introvert, a cat person, and fears that he is losing brain cells over time. He laughs out loud when watching park squirrels, and people think he’s a simpleton. He wrote a book to teach complete beginners how to program, and it is available for free at http://inventwithpython.com Past Classes(Look at the class archive for more.)Learn Programming by Making Games in Python in Splash! Fall 2011
An introduction to computer programming by making simple games. This class will introduce students to the Python programming language.
Cryptography and Secret Writing for Beginners in Splash! Fall 2011
This is an introduction to the art of writing secret codes. This class will go over how to encrypt and decrypt writing, what makes a cipher strong or weak, and how to break ciphers.
Some of the ciphers covered: Caesar, Transpositional, Simple Substitution, and Vigenere.
No computer experience is required for this class.
Learning origami over the Internet in Splash! Fall 2011
Origami is a fun, artistic hobby. Complicated folding diagrams used to be the only way to learn how to make the more advanced models. But today, YouTube videos make learning much easier by showing actual people making the folds.
This class will go over making a basic crane, a T-Rex, and a cat models in person, and also introduce students to the software at http://coffeeghost.net/origami/ to learn how to make other models from Internet instructions.
Introduction to Programming by Making Games in Python in Splash! Fall 2010
Learn how to program computers in the Python programming language. We will go over the source code to a few simple games and explain how they work. This is aimed at people who have never programmed before.
For a preview of the games, take a look at the book at http://inventwithpython.com (You do not need to purchase this book for this class.)
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