introduction.md

Introduction

This is the introduction to the course on Simulation and Modeling in Astrophysics.

In this course, we will be running simulations. That means that we will need access to a computer and that the computer is suitably installed for performing these simulations. A laptop will do. For processor type, I would recommend something at least Intel i5, but we have been running the tutorials on Intel i3 also (you will have to be a bit more patient, though).

This first week is going to be tough. There will be many basic things to learn. If you already are an expert in slurm, slack, etc. This will be an easy week. However, chances are that it's the first time you heard of slurm. Therefore, we have been collecting a number of short tutorials in the form of documents and cheat-sheets. The latter are most handy to print out, the former you probably want to read and keep at hand.

Objectives for this week:

• Write a short introduction to yourself in the [slack channel(https://comp-astro.slack.com/home). We, the teacher and TA will use this introduction to divide you into groups.
• Since lecture time is short this week, you will have to work for yourself. Please perform the following tasks:

• Make a virtual machine (using anaconda) for the course.
• Install python (version 3.5 or higher is recommended).
• Set up your (virtual) computing infrastructure: python, conda, jupyter, git, slack, editor, etc.
• Familiarize yourself with the style guides for python programming, git, emacs (or another editor) etc.
• install amuse. This can be done by downloading the source (and install all prerequisites) or by installing via pip
• Read chapter 1 (chanter 2 would be good too) of the textbook Astrophysical Recipes.
• Make the two tutorials scalar_units.ipynb and particles.ipynb for your first steps in amuse.
• Configure your ALICE account.
• make an ssh tunnel to your ALICE account.
• Read the SLURM documentation.
• Read the python style documentation.
• Setup Anaconda and Jupyter environments.

Assignments

• Enter your personal bio information and introduction in the general slack
• Run the following scripts: scalar_units.ipynb and particles.ipynb.