Montreal Python

Please see the French version of this post.

Python meets science at UQÀM on the 25th of February for our 35th monthly mini-conference, nicknamed Serpentine Symbology. We’re immensely honored to host a broad array of speakers on diverse topics:

• Jonathan Villemaire-Krajden: Using NLTK
• Mahtab Ghamsari-Esfahani: PyBrain, a modular machine learning library for Python
• Marianne Corvellec: Transforming Lena with scikit-image
• Julia Evans: Intro to Pandas with IPython notebook
• Pablo Duboue: Hunter Gatherer, a 1-click search summarizer
• Derek Ruths: Using Python for large scale network analysis
• Dan Mazur: Python for high performance and scientific computing

Our regular features, Module of the Month by Rory Geoghegan and Person of the Month by yours truly, will also be part of the program. I’m particularly pleased to see the participation of Python ladies slowly increasing in our events and organization team.

Location: UQÀM Pavillon Sherbrooke, room SH-2420, 200 Sherbrooke West.

Schedule:

• 6:00pm — Doors open
• 6:30pm — Presentations start
• 7:30pm — Break
• 7:45pm — Second round of presentations
• 8:30pm — Free beer offered at the Bénélux just across the street

We’d like to thank our sponsors for their continued support:

• UQÀM
• Bénélux
• Outbox
• Ludia
• Savoir-Faire Linux
• Caravan
• iWeb

See you next Monday for a great evening!

We are conducting a free workshop for non-programmers to learn programming. If you have zero experience programming computers, this is the workshop for you. If you have very limited experience, or experience from long ago, you’ll fit right in too.

When and where

Date: Feb 22-23, 2013 (Friday evening + all day Saturday, attending both is required)
Location: Notman House, 51 Sherbrooke St W
Language: English (there will be a French workshop on March 1-2, follow the blog or mailing list to see the announcement)
Registration: Attendance is limited, please read the detailed program on OpenHatch and register on Eventbrite using the link given on that page.

We are inviting speakers from the scientific community to take part in our Python mini-conference on the 25th of February between 6pm and 9pm.

If you can demonstrate a cool Python library or tool that you use in or develop for your work, talk about success and stories in using Python with other languages or tools, discuss the human issues between developers, scientific users and management, or any other topic related to Python and science that you think interesting, we’d love to hear from you!  Talks can be in French or English and will get a slot of 5, 20 or 45 minutes.  

To submit a proposal, please send an email with title, duration, short abstract and relevant links to mtlpyteam@googlegroups.com.  If you have an idea but you’re not sure, feel free to ask us.

This second edition of the Montréal-Python Python Night was a great success! We’ve managed to work with the Python community, contribute some stuff and have a lot of fun.

People present were working on quite different stuff, in particular:

• Efforts to make Pelican https://github.com/mtlpy/pelican compatible with Python 3.3
• People that attended the introduction to python workshop were in attendance and got help on programming in python and Django
• Learning to contribute to Python
• Brainstorming on colorg https://github.com/pinard/colorg
• Hacking science with scikit-image http://scikit-image.org/
• Completed the introduction to python in IPython notebook 
  https://github.com/mtlpy/tutorial_notebooks

It was an amazing evening of sharing ideas and having fun. We are definitely looking forward to the next edition in February. Don’t hesitate to write to us if you have any idea of projects in the comments or on the mailing list montrealpython@googlegroups.com.

For hacks and glory!

After the great success of the first Python Night in December, we’re making it a monthly event! A Python night is a very simple event where people meet up to work on different projects and generally mess around with Python code. Everyone is welcome, any skill level, even if you just learnt Python at the Workshop last Wednesday. We will encourage people to help each other and we’ll also have dedicated coaches.

Unlike a sprint, there isn’t one main project that everybody hacks on. You can work on your own project, help someone else with their project, or find something adapted to your interests. In case you need inspiration, here’s some stuff you can work on:

• Learn Python The Hard Way: a detailed Python tutorial
• Montréal-Python website: We are re-writing our website using Pelican
• Build your first Django website: go through the Django tutorial and build something, with help if you need it
• Vélobstacles: a website allowing Montreal cyclists to report an accident or an obstacle that gets in the way of safety

When:
Monday January the 28th 2013 from 6:30 pm to 9:30 pm

Where:
Caravan, 5334 de Gaspé, office #1204 (Montréal)

Attending:
Please register on Eventbrite

This initiative is inspired by the numerous and widely successful project nights organized by the Boston Python user group. Those pleasant evenings allow Pythonistas of all backgrounds to gather together to share their experience, while working on projects they care about.

We would like to thank Caravan for hosting our event!

On Wednesday, January 23, Montréal-Python and Concordia University, are inviting anyone with an interest in learning Python programming to join our workshop.