Master-class «Making scientific graphics with Python»

8 May 2018

Late in April, PhD students at the Faculty of Physics Aleksandra Vyazovskaya and Evgeniy Petrov conducted a workshop on Making Scientific Graphics with Python. The workshop was organized within the Project.

At the very beginning the supervisors explained that the workshop is not aimed at introducing basic principles to students. It was more about following commands and discovering a few possibilities of the programming language. Furthermore, Aleksandra and Evgeniy highlighted that high-quality data visualisation is a part and parcel of research papers.


Following the instructions, first and second year students created linear graphs, a pie chart, and a scatter plot.

AygerimBaktybekova said that she had never heard about Python before and it was very useful to know.

OibekMamazakirov and GlebTunda, however, admitted that one lesson is not enough and many students forgot everything as soon as they left the room. Programming needs regular practice.

Ekaterina Matyskina liked the lesson a lot. “Thank you very much for a fascinating lesson. I really liked it because I got some skills that will be useful in the future. Also, it was fun and unusual, because I typed by listening to my partner [Ekaterina couldn’t see the code well]. I hope that I will use the acquired skills in my future work”.


Associate Professor Olga Nagel noticed that the workshop provides PhD students with a great opportunity to practice their teaching skill and conducting seminars and workshops in English. Aleksandra and Evgeniy have got knowledge that is worth sharing. If they have necessary teaching skills and know some basic methodology, they may make their workshops rather more interactive and efficient. Evgeniy Petrov and Alexandra Vyazovskaya: «To us, it was a really unusual experience. Despite we got nothing new about teaching itself, doing it in English made it quite difficult. Any unexpected behavior brings a wish to think in native language, and it is not so easy to overcome. More shortly, if you want to outdo yourself, you should definitely try to teach someone in English».