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Introduction to Computation and Programming Using Python. Second Edition,

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 BOOK REVIEWS
ilation, Cambridge University Press,
2015.
[6] T. J. Sullivan, Introduction to Uncer-
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tainty Quantification, Springer Texts
Appl. Math. 63, Springer, 2015.
K. J. H. LAW
University of Manchester
Dynamic Mode Decomposition: Data-
Driven Modeling of Complex Systems. By
J. Nathan Kutz, Steven L. Brunton, Bingni W. Brun-
ton, and Joshua L. Proctor. SIAM, Philadelphia,
2016. $69.00. xvi+228 pp., softcover. ISBN
978-1-61197-449-2. https://doi.org/10.1137/1.
9781611974508.
This book is a timely introduction to and
exposition of dynamic mode decomposition
(DMD), a data-driven method for the dis-
covery of (low-dimensional) dynamical sys-
tems from high-dimensional data. The book
not only introduces theory, connections,
and innovations, but also contains a vari-
ety of realistic examples with accompanying
MATLAB code. I like that the book brings
many ideas and algorithms together, such as
Koopman analysis, DMD, and compressed
sensing. The chapters in the book are a bal-
anced mixture of fundamental theory and
application. For instance, Chapter 1 intro-
duces DMD and in Chapter 2 the reader
learns how to dynamically decompose data
obtained from the fluid flow around a cir-
cular cylinder (provided on the book’s web-
site). This structure makes the book ideal
not only for self-learners, but also as a (sup-
plemental) text for a course which involves
data analysis and/or dynamical systems.
Chapter 1 introduces DMD and sets the
stage for the rest of the book. The definition
of DMD is relatively straightforward. How-
ever, it turns out that DMD is connected
to the Koopman operator (Chapters 3, 10),
which is an infinite-dimensional linear oper-
ator that describes how measurements of a
dynamical system evolve through the non-
linear dynamics. Moreover, it also is related
to particular system identification methods
(Chapter 6, 7), which identify input-output
relationships from data. The addition of an
explicitly controlled input to DMD is called
DMD with control (DMDc). Employing
Copyright © by SIAM. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.
483
tools from other fields, e.g., machine learn-
ing, compressed sensing, and data science,
DMD becomes “innovated DMD.” Chapter
5 is inspired by the idea of wavelets and
describes multiresolution DMD (mrDMD),
which targets resolution of multiscale fea-
tures. In Chapter 8, noise rejection algo-
rithms specifically designed for DMD of
noisy data sets are reviewed. In Chap-
ter 9, compressed and compressed-sensing
DMD are described, which exploit the low-
dimensional features in the data that can
be extracted by DMD. The remaining chap-
ters discuss a variety of (mainly diagnostic)
applications: modal decomposition of fluid
data (Chapter 2), video background sepa-
ration (Chapter 4), modal decomposition of
epidemiological data (Chapter 11), modal
decomposition of neuroscience data (Chap-
ter 12), and DMD-based prediction for fi-
nancial trading (Chapter 13).
Altogether, the book is well structured
and well written. If the reader is only in-
terested in a definition of DMD, there is no
need to buy this book. However, if one is
interested in how DMD fits in the broader
framework of applied mathematics, or how
the method can be tailored for specific uses,
or if one likes to contribute to the exciting
and ongoing research of system identifica-
tion for complex nonlinear systems, this
book is a must-have. The authors have
made every effort to present the material in
a succinct and clear manner. I believe this
book will provide many researchers with a
head start in the field of data-based mod-
eling. Are you DMD-ing yet?
DIRK M. LUCHTENBURG
The Cooper Union for the
Advancement of Science and Art
Introduction to Computation and Pro-
gramming Using Python. Second Edition,
with Application to Understanding Data.
By John V. Guttag. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA,
2016. $45.00. xvi+472 pp., softcover. ISBN
978-0-26252-962-4.
The Python language has grown increas-
ingly popular in science circles for about
the past twenty years and has come a long
way. Today, a wide range of Python mod-
 484 BOOK REVIEWS
ules for numerical and symbolic compu-
tations is available, and Python is used
extensively in the high-tech sector, space
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agencies, film industry, education, govern-
ment, and numerous other areas.1 Python
ranks first, according to the recent IEEE
Spectrum ranking The Top 10 Programming
Languages,2 among 48 languages using 12
metrics, achieving the top four with the
likes of C, C++, and Java.
Countless online resources about the
marriage of Python and (computational)
science at large are available, but rela-
tively few textbooks exist in comparison
with other popular languages—those by
Langtangen being among the most useful
so far, in my opinion, though with a def-
inite scientific computing/numerical anal-
ysis flavor. As a researcher in optimiza-
tion and a Python programmer, Guttag’s
book struck a chord with me. That may
be because I teach an operations research
class in which the main concepts revolve
around basic complexity theory, some of
the most common difficult problems en-
countered in operations research, and the
Python language—a few of the main top-
ics that Guttag addresses. It is not diffi-
cult to find good introductory textbooks
about complexity, algorithms, and opera-
tions research—I rely on Introduction to
Algorithms by Cormen et al. But pseudo-
code only gets you so far and it is not easy
to find a good reference about Python that
combines it well with the theoretical con-
cepts. With Guttag’s book, I feel that I
finally have a Python book to recommend
that can be used alongside Introduction to
Algorithms.
Guttag’s book is not aimed at a specific
audience, but rather at “students with lit-
tle or no prior programming experience who
have a desire to understand computational
approaches to problem solving.” The book
begins, as most comparable books do, with
an introduction to the syntax and seman-
tics of the Python language in Chapters 1
through 5. Guttag uses Python version 3.5,
but there are comments throughout the
book describing how to accomplish the same
tasks with Python 2.7. The discussion is
1 https://www.python.org/about/success
2 https://spectrum.ieee.org/computing/software/the-2017-top-programming-languages
Copyright © by SIAM. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.
sprinkled with brief applications to topics
that are relevant to the computational sci-
entist, such as Newton’s method and Fi-
bonacci numbers. The brief Chapter 7 cov-
ers Python exceptions and assertions, and
Chapter 8 covers object orientation, includ-
ing classes and inheritance, and gives a brief
discussion on the concept of generators—
neat abstract objects over which we may
iterate. Books such as this one are precious
tools because all too often applied science
curriculae merely cover a simple impera-
tive language without any discussion of how
classic but powerful object-oriented con-
cepts that computer scientists would take
for granted can be useful in computational
applications. Overall, the discussion is light
but precise, and it is interspersed with anec-
dotes. There are no exercises or problems
at the end of chapters, but a number of
“finger exercises” mixed into the text ask
the reader to expand or improve on a piece
of program just discussed. Those finger ex-
ercises are doable in a reasonable amount of
time and allow the reader to deepen their
understanding of both the Python language
and the techniques being studied.
Chapter 6, inbetween the core language
and the more advanced constructs, is
about testing and debugging. Here, Gut-
tag chooses to discuss one methodology for
testing and one for debugging, rather than
discussing the infrastructure that Python
makes available for doing so, such as the
unittest and doctest modules and the
standard Python debugger. While I under-
stand the logic, I cannot help but feel that
the aversion to debuggers that I observe in
students and colleagues is due to a shortage
of textbooks or courses explaining how to
use them effectively.
Of course, much more could be said about
Python than what is in the book, but the
reader “with little or no prior programming
experience” will surely be up and running
after working through the first chapters.
Among the topics that I did not find in
the book are multiple inheritance, deco-
rators, properties, and metaprogramming.
Arguably, all are somewhat advanced and
one might happily never need to use or know
 BOOK REVIEWS
about metaprogramming outside of decora-
tors, but over the years I have found that
these topics are sufficiently powerful and
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useful that students should at least know
that they exist.
Besides another brief chapter on plotting,
the remainder of the book is geared toward
complexity and problem solving. The very
basics of complexity theory are covered in
about 15 pages, but this could be easily
supplemented by a more thorough discus-
sion from Introduction to Algorithms or any
other book on algorithms.
Applications range from the classic sort-
ing methods to graph optimization algo-
rithms, dynamic programming, statistics,
and probability distributions. The book’s
subtitle, with Applications to Understanding
Data, is reflected in Chapters 14 through
24, where various subjects that could be
generally labeled statistics appear: Monte
Carlo simulation, confidence intervals, lin-
ear and nonlinear regression, hypothesis
testing, clustering, and classification. In
those chapters, computation is employed
as an exploratory tool to navigate through
data. While examining those topics, more
features of the Python language are in-
troduced as appropriate. Thus, a reader
already familiar with the basics of the lan-
guage could easily skip the first eight chap-
ters, dive into problem-solving applications,
and at the same time learn new language
constructs and features. The exploration
of each topic consists of a narrative that
describes a problem and a fair amount of
code samples and their results, all of which
are available online.
There is probably too much material in
the book for a one-semester course. A first
course might, for example, cover most of
the basics of Python along with an intro-
duction to complexity and applications to
dynamic programming, random walks, and
data visualization. A second course might
focus on more advanced aspects of the lan-
guage and explore optimization, statistics,
and machine learning subjects.
Again, much more could be said about
the mathematical topics but at around 430
pages, Guttag’s Introduction to Computa-
tion and Programming Using Python is a
captivating and instructive read that deliv-
ers exactly what the title promises: a solid
Copyright © by SIAM. Unauthorized reproduction of this article is prohibited.
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485
introduction to both Python and computa-
tion in various areas of applied mathemat-
ics.
DOMINIQUE ORBAN
GERAD and École Polytechnique
Montréal
Computational and Statistical Methods
for Analysing Big Data with Applications.
By Shen Liu, James McGree, Zongyuan Ge, and
Yang Xie. Academic Press, Amsterdam, 2015.
$99.95. viii+194 pp., hardcover. ISBN 978-0-
12-803732-4.
Background. This book seemed quite ap-
pealing to me just on reading its title.
There is considerable hype associated with
almost all words in that title, but given
today’s research, application, and business
landscape, the hype is well motivated. I am
also interested in the topic of the book since
I have a research background in algorithms
for large scale computations. In addition,
I teach introductory and advanced level
mathematics courses at Linköping Univer-
sity. Most of my students are master of
science in engineering students enrolled in
academic programs with titles like Com-
munication and Transportation Engineering
and Media Technology and Engineering. A
quick look at the content and application
areas covered in the book showed a good
overlap with the main themes in the two
programs. Thus, one of the aspects I had
in mind was to find out if this book might
be (entirely or maybe partially) suitable as
a course literature for my students.
Book Contents. It is just short of 200
pages, but it still describes a large and
diverse number of methods for analyzing
data from various applications. It also con-
tains a number of examples that present
the results of using the presented methods.
Often, the examples are accompanied with
actual implementation codes. Each chapter
ends with a sufficient list of references.
• The first part of the book covers
methods for classification, where the
authors present five commonly used
classifiers. These are the k-nearest
neighbor algorithm, regression mod-