Introduction to Programming

Period (from - till): 18 November - 19 December 2025 (BMS_P2_A).

Faculty
Mariana P. Branco, UMCU Brain Center , Department Neurosurgery and Neurology

Course aim
This course introduces computer programming to students with little or no programming experience. In this course the basics of programming philosophy, pseudocoding, programming algebra, indexing, programming syntax, logic and loops are given. Students will learn to program using MATLAB software.
Students must have a laptop with an installation of MATLAB 2025a or later before the start of the course. MATLAB with a student’s license can be obtained fromhttps://students.uu.nl/gratis-software.

Literature/study material used :
Lecture slides and assignments will be provided by the docent. No book required.
All course related information including slides, exercises and assignments will be made available in MSTeams.

Course Design:
This is a full-time course. There are eight sessions in total from 10.00 till13.00. Each session comprises of a lecture 10h00-12h00 (mandatory presence ) and a tutorial hour 12h00-13h00 (not mandatory) . Self-study is expected from 14h-17h. For latest info about place of the session please check MSTeams.
Session Date Time
(lecture + tutorial hour) Place 1 18-11-2025 10h-13h TBA 2 21-11-2025 10h-13h TBA 3 25-11-2025 10h-13h TBA 4 28-11-2025 10h-13h TBA 5 2-12-2025 10h-13h TBA 6 5-12-2025 10h-13h TBA 7 9-12-2025 10h-13h TBA 8 12-12-2024 10h-13h TBA****
Course content
Session 1 Introduction to computer science
Session 2 Introduction toMATLABenvironment
Session 3 Arrays, matrices and indexing (part 1)
Session 4 Arrays, matrices and indexing (part 2)
Session 5 Logic and conditions
Session 6 Conditions and loops
Session 7 Good code practice and recap
Session 8 Hands-on

Assessment (3 EC)
Students are expected to attend lectures (mandatory), do self-study and solve home-assignments every day after each session. The deadline to submit home-assignments is the same day at midnight. To pass the course the student must complete and submit 7 home-assignments distributed in the end of session 1 to 7. Submission of the home-assignments in MSTeams is mandatory but these will not the graded. Assessment consists of the submission of the 7 home-assignments and the submission of one individual final assignment that will be graded.

Deadline for Final Assignment
17th December 2025 at 12:00 pm

Credits-hours calculator
3 ECTS = 84 hours

Lectures 2 hours x 8 = 16 hours
Self-study and assignments = 68 hours

In case of questions feel free to reach us at:
Mariana Branco (M.pedrosobranco@umcutrecht.nl)

Registration :
You can register for this course via here on the Students' site. Minimum 12, maximum 24 participants. If the minimum number of students is not reached the course will be cancelled
Any questions can be asked to Mariana Branco (m.pedrosobranco@umcutrecht.nl).

Mandatory for students in Master’s programme :
No.

Registration open for students from other programme's:
Yes

Prerequisite knowledge
N.A.

During the course students:

1. Learn what programming and programming philosophy are;
2. Learn how to write and read pseudocode;
3. Learn the basics of programming logic and workflow using MATLAB;
4. Learn the basics of algebra and indexing, slicing and dicing in MATLAB;

Je wordt ingeschreven voor deze cursus door de administratie van de opleiding van de cursus.