1 General Introduction

---

This chapter lays out the learning goals of this book (Section 1.1) and describes how these goals are to be achieved (Section 1.2). Sections 1.3 and 1.4 detail which technical tools and theoretical concepts are covered in the course, and which are not. There will be some information on the kinds of data sets we will use during the course in Section 1.5. Section 1.6 provides information about how to install the necessary tools for this course. Finally, Section 1.7 provides more information on how a 12-week course can be structured based on the material in this web-book.