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Python Programming Fundamentals for Health Research

From $50

Date(s)
Nov. 2, 4, 5 & 6, 2026 (9 a.m.–noon)
Location
404 Brodie, 727 McDermot Ave.

Event Description

New to Python? This is the place to start. Learn the fundamentals from the pros who use it every day. No experience with Python necessary.

Facilitator

  • Jess Li
    Associate Director—Data Science, CHI

  • Richard LeDuc
    Director of Bioinformatics, CHRIM

Overview

Build practical Python programming skills for health research through hands-on, instructor-led coding. Designed for researchers, clinicians, data analysts, research support staff, and graduate students, this workshop demonstrates how core programming concepts can be applied to common research tasks.

Participants will code alongside the instructor throughout the workshop, with support available as they work through the exercises. Emphasis will be placed on writing clear and reusable code, interpreting and resolving error messages, testing code for accuracy, and organizing projects in a reproducible way. These skills will help participants use generative AI more responsibly by giving them the tools to critically evaluate and refine AI-generated code.

Participants will learn how to work with Python in both cloud-based and local computing environments, giving them the flexibility to choose the setup that best fits their research needs. They will also learn how to organize projects and manage libraries in ways that support reproducibility and make their code easier to maintain.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

  • • Understand the basic structure and syntax of Python code
  • • Use conditional statements, loops, functions, and various data structures to solve research programming tasks
  • • Break larger programming tasks into smaller, reusable pieces of code
  • • Interpret and resolve Python error messages
  • • Apply practical strategies to troubleshoot and debug code
  • • Test code to check that it produces the expected results
  • • Organize code into reproducible projects
  • • Work with Python on local and cloud computing environments
  • • Critically evaluate, troubleshoot, and refine AI-generated code
  • • Work with tabular datasets in Python

Instructions for installing Python and other required software will be provided upon registration. Participants are required to bring a Windows or Apple laptop and have a Google account to access the Google Colab cloud computing environment.