--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/sttp/Introduction/Introduction.rst	Tue Mar 02 18:43:02 2010 +0530
@@ -0,0 +1,36 @@
+Introduction to the Course
+==========================
+
+Engineering students use computers for a large number of curricular
+tasks – mostly computation centred. However, they do not see this as coding or programming tasks and usually are not even aware of the tools and
+techniques that will help them to handle these tasks better. This results
+in less than optimal use of their time and resources. This also causes
+difficulties when it comes tocollaboration and building on other people’s
+work. This course is intended to train such students in good software
+practices and tools for producing code and documentation.
+
+After successfully completing the program, the participants will be able to:
+
+- understand how software tools work together and how they can be used in tandem to carry out tasks,        
+                             
+- use unix command line tools to carry out common (mostly text processing tasks,
+                                                            
+- to generate professional documents,                                
+
+- use version control effectively – for both code and documents,       
+
+- automate tasks by writing shell scripts and python scripts,        
+
+- realise the impact of coding style and readbility on quality,      
+
+- write mid-sized programs that carry out typical engineering / numerical computations such as those that involve (basic) manipulation of large arrays in an efficient manner,                                      
+
+- generate 2D and simple 3D plots,                                   
+
+- debug programs using a standardised approach,
+
+- understand the importance of tests and the philosophy of Test Driven Development,
+
+- write unit tests and improve the quality of code.
+
+