Introduction

In the field of Geology, quantitative modelling and simulation of physical phenomena is quickly becoming a necessary tool for all geoscientists to understand how our planet works. Simulating quantitative Geology modelling make it necessary for all geoscientists to have computer programming skills. Unfortunately, Geology professionals and students alike, at present, have to learn to program on the job which often becomes challenging and stressful.

In the industrial sector, geoscientists have to work with complex, expensive commercial software and open-source software which have a steep learning curve. Geology industry spends a lot of time and money to train their professionals in the software they use and for someone with no background in computer programming it can be a challenging enterprise. In academia, research groups often use a combination of commercial software and open-source programming languages like Fortran, C, C++, and many others to carry out their modelling and simulation work. Often these codes are kept within the company or the particular research group for a whole host of reasons. Researchers almost always come into a project with no background in programming in a specific language used by the research group or with any experience in programming at all. Although there exists computer code for geologic modelling, they are often in different programming languages and are limited to within research groups. Therefore, to use any pre-existing code it becomes necessary to learn the specific programming language after acquiring the code, which is non-trivial.

In recent times, the programming language called Python has come to the forefront of scientific computing due to several reasons:

• Python has a syntax similar to human communication.
• Ability to perform complex calculations, data analysis and figure plotting from within the same code i.e., no need to write different code to plot/visualize your data.
• Numerous helpful and active forums.
• Dedicated libraries for scientific work with a very active developer group working on building and updating libraries.
• Can be made faster by calling C-type functions from within Python.
• Open-source and completely Free.

Geoscientists have recently hopped on the python programming train but the dissemination of application of python in geology is restricted to only a handful of research groups in universities and commercial organizations who protect their workflow, do not share their algorithms, techniques, and data. In summary, there is no introductory course on modelling and simulation for Geology students and beginners. It is M/s TerraPy Education’s mission to offer python programming courses that are specifically developed keeping in mind Geology problems for all upcoming Geology students. Therefore all courses use Geology examples and models to help learn programming easier and a more enjoyable experience.

Geo-Python Program at M/s TerraPy Education:

M/s TerraPy Education has the experience and expertise in Geology and python programming necessary to provide geoscientists with the tools of implementing python programming towards their discipline. The Geo-Python Program contains multiple courses containing python implementation in Geologys.

Why is the Geo-Python Program by M/s TerraPy Education Unique?

The features that make our Geo-Python Program unique are as follows:

• All courses use Geology problems to introduce programming
• All examples, assignments, and projects are actual Geology related.
• Data used in the courses are taken from published data sets.
• Participants complete independent project/s and submit a short report.
• Participants receive an M/s TerraPy Education Course Certificate. The criteria for achieving the certificate are:
  (a) Attend all sessions,
  (b) Engage in discussion,
  (c) Complete and submit working code of daily ssignments, and
  (d) Complete independent project and submit working code with a short report on the interpretation of the simulation/s performed.
• Partial financial sponsoring is available to current students and non-professionals based on demonstrated significant need.

M/s TerraPy Education offers these courses online, and offline at client location. Please contact Mr. Pragnyadipta Sen at terrapyeducation@gmail.com or call/WhatsApp +91-8902069644 to discuss formalities for hosting one of our courses. We continually update and add courses on this page so please check our page regularly. Feel free to spread the word so all geoscientists. May the Force of Python guide you to modelling and simulation success!

Recommendation for New-Programmers: We recommend that participants complete our Introduction to Python Programming in Geology course if they have no experience in computer programming before taking our other courses. All listed courses are hands-on multi-day courses and can be tailored to fit the experience and requirements, with the theme of “By a Geologist and For a Geologist.”