Interfaces, Information and Automation

Laboratory-intensive course to help students develop and implement simple computer programs in Python to control, query, and integrate discrete (traditionally isolated) systems, ranging from automobiles to websites. Assignments will provide hands-on practice using programmatic interfaces to control both physical and virtual systems. Topics include physical interfaces and communication protocols (e.g., GPIB, RS-232, USB) as well as accessing online resources (e.g., SOAP and RESTful web services) and building hybrid systems for data acquisition and analysis. Formal programming experience is not required, but familiarity with either MatLab or Python (at the level of CSCI 0040 or higher) would be very helpful.