On the Role of Python in Programming-Related Courses for Computer Science and Engineering Academic Education

In this paper we report our approach and experiences concerning the introduction of Python programming language in programming-related academic curricula. Firstly we motivate our choice and approach regarding the use of Python programming language. Then we discuss the results obtained in two courses that we taught to computer science and engineering students, both with a strong focus on developing students’ practical programming skills: Algorithm Design and Artificial Intelligence. We report our approach and findings, including identified difficulties and obtained results, as well as proposed future improvements.