Week 2: From “Hello World” to Sine Waves: Setting Up for Data Analysis

Suhaani S -

Welcome back to week two! This week, I started with getting my computer ready for step one and getting used to the software. While I have coded many times before, it was usually coding for projects developing an app, website, or something of that sort. I usually have used software like Replit or XCode, so I had to adjust a little to get used to Anaconda, the software where I will develop an algorithm to analyze and manipulate the data I will collect. 

So I started by downloading the application and installing Spyder, which is the console we will be using. However, as a Macbook user, I ran into some challenges because these applications are originally built for Windows, meaning it’s hard to find tutorials. Additionally, Windows is often also just better equipped for the energy that running code takes. Nevertheless, I worked through the difficulties and got the software into my laptop and ran the honorary and necessary print(“Hello World”). 

Then, I began working on the actual project. My task was to plot a 2d sine wave, horizontally and vertically, and then overlay. The image below is what I ended up plotting. The code itself was less complicated than I expected. I just used the mathematical sine equation, allowing shifts if needed, and plotted it using meshgrid.

Overlayed black and white vertical and horizontal sine waves
Overlayed vertical and horizontal sine waves

 

Then my last step for this week was focusing on the area of interest (which is usually circular). So I added a circular overlay that doesn’t plot the information outside of a certain area, and here is the image that was plotted.

The overlayed graph above with a limited view of the area of interest
Overlayed sine graph from above with only the area of interest visible

This week, I had a lot of fun figuring out how to make these things happen and learning more about the basics, especially using new software. I look forward to applying it to actual data that I will collect. That’s all for now, see you next week!

– Suhaani



More Posts

Comments:

All viewpoints are welcome but profane, threatening, disrespectful, or harassing comments will not be tolerated and are subject to moderation up to, and including, full deletion.

    nishita_k
    Hi Suhaani, your blog does a great job capturing the excitement and challenges of setting up for data analysis, especially the transition to Anaconda and Spyder. It’s impressive how you navigated Mac-specific hurdles and successfully plotted sine waves with overlays! As you transitioned from app and web development to working with data, what has been the most surprising or insightful difference in how you approach coding?
    March 2, 2025 at 5:37 am - Reply
    rebecca_a
    This was a really insightful read, Suhaani! It’s great to see how you tackled the transition to a new software and successfully plotted the sine waves. Was there anything about plotting the sine waves that surprised you or worked differently than you expected?
    March 3, 2025 at 1:03 pm - Reply
    suhaani_s
    Thank you Rebecca! Honestly I was surprised how mathematical the code ended up being. I was using pi and Raidans to get the waves to look how I wanted them to, and it reminded me of my PreCalc Class where we would graph sin and cos waves.
    March 10, 2025 at 7:24 pm - Reply
    suhaani_s
    That's a great question Nishita! This process is much more data and numbers-driven and resembles our math classes more than anything. In this case, I was using sin equations to make the image and it was new for me.
    March 10, 2025 at 7:27 pm - Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *