Signal Processing in Python

The Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine

Weekly from Feb 11-25, 2020

1:00 pm - 3:00 pm

Instructors: Dave Mellert, Erick Ratamero

Helpers: Pariksheet Nanda

General Information

Signals communicate information. Signal processing separates unimportant from important information in a signal to make relevant information easily accessible. Biomedical signal processing extracts useful information from biological signals, such as the pattern found in a CT scan. The goal is to eliminate noise from the signal by designing filters that best separate signal from noise. Identifying and measuring features that best characterize the information of interest in a signal is another goal of signal processing.

Who: This workshop is aimed at graduate students and other researchers who would like to learn more about signal processing for image data. This workshop is open to those from neighboring institutions. Prerequisite: Basic competence with the Python programming language and the NumPy library.

Where: Room 4320, 10 Discovery Drive, Farmington, Connecticut. Get directions with OpenStreetMap or Google Maps.

When: Weekly from Feb 11-25, 2020. Add to your Google Calendar.

Requirements: Participants must bring a laptop with a Mac, Linux, or Windows operating system (not a tablet, Chromebook, etc.). They should have the most recent version of R and RStudio installed (see below).

Accessibility: We are committed to making this workshop accessible to everybody. The workshop organizers have checked that:

Materials will be provided in advance of the workshop and large-print handouts are available if needed by notifying the organizers in advance. If we can help making learning easier for you (e.g. sign-language interpreters, lactation facilities) please get in touch (using contact details below) and we will attempt to provide them.

Contact: Please email susan.mcclatchy@jax.org for more information.


Code of Conduct

Everyone who participates in Carpentries activities is required to conform to the Code of Conduct.


Collaborative Notes

We will use this collaborative document for chatting, taking notes, and sharing URLs and bits of code.


Surveys

Please complete this brief post-workshop survey to provide feedback to improve this course.


Schedule

All lesson materials and data are available in this Github repository.

Tuesday, Feb 11

1:00 Introduction to Signal Processing
2:00 Aliasing
3:00 END

Tuesday, Feb 25

1:00 Practical Applications of the FFT
3:00 END


Setup

See specific setup instructions for this workshop in the Github repository.

To participate in a workshop, you will need access to the software described below. In addition, you will need an up-to-date web browser.

We maintain a list of common issues that occur during installation as a reference for instructors that may be useful on the Configuration Problems and Solutions wiki page.

Python

Python is a popular language for research computing, and great for general-purpose programming as well. Installing all of its research packages individually can be a bit difficult, so we recommend Anaconda, an all-in-one installer.

Regardless of how you choose to install it, please make sure you install Python version 3.x (e.g., 3.6 is fine).

We will teach Python using the Jupyter Notebook, a programming environment that runs in a web browser (Jupyter Notebook will be installed by Anaconda). For this to work you will need a reasonably up-to-date browser. The current versions of the Chrome, Safari and Firefox browsers are all supported (some older browsers, including Internet Explorer version 9 and below, are not).

Video Tutorial
  1. Open https://www.anaconda.com/distribution/#download-section with your web browser.
  2. Download the Anaconda for Windows installer with Python 3. (If you are not sure which version to choose, you probably want the 64-bit Graphical Installer Anaconda3-...-Windows-x86_64.exe)
  3. Install Python 3 by running the Anaconda Installer, using all of the defaults for installation except make sure to check Add Anaconda to my PATH environment variable.
  1. Open https://www.anaconda.com/distribution/#download-section with your web browser.
  2. Download the Anaconda Installer with Python 3 for Linux.
    (The installation requires using the shell. If you aren't comfortable doing the installation yourself stop here and request help at the workshop.)
  3. Open a terminal window and navigate to the directory where the executable is downloaded (e.g., `cd ~/Downloads`).
  4. Type
    bash Anaconda3-
    and then press Tab to autocomplete the full file name. The name of file you just downloaded should appear.
  5. Press Enter. You will follow the text-only prompts. To move through the text, press Spacebar. Type yes and press enter to approve the license. Press Enter to approve the default location for the files. Type yes and press Enter to prepend Anaconda to your PATH (this makes the Anaconda distribution the default Python).
  6. Close the terminal window.