Entries tagged with python

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Google Summer of Code: What do I do next?

Python's in as a mentoring organization again this year, and I'm running the show again this year. Exciting and exhausting!

In an attempt to cut down on the student questions that go directly to me, I made a flow chart of "what to do next" :

(there's also a more accessible version posted at the bottom of our ideas page)

I am amused to tell you all that it's already cut down significantly on the amount of "what do I do next?" emails I've gotten as an org admin compared to this time last year. I'm not sure if it's because it's more eye-catching or better placed or what makes it more effective, since those instructions could be found in the section for students before. We'll see its magical powers hold once the student application period opens, though!

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I'm joining Intel's Open Source Technology Center!

I'm pleased to announce that I will be joining Intel's Open Source Technology Center (OTC), starting October 21st.

This is a big transition for me: not only have I physically moved to the Portland area from Albuquerque, but I'm also moving from academia to industry. However, I'm not moving away from either security or research: my official job title is "Security Researcher - Software Security Engineer."

There are lots of crazy smart people at Intel, especially at OTC, and I'm really excited (and a little scared!) about joining their ranks. This is exactly the job I wanted: I'll be doing security in an open source context (not only behind closed doors!), working with interesting people on interesting projects, and I'll be positioned such that my work can have an impact on the state of computer security in a global sense. It sounds like I'll be working primarily on web and Android security, which is challenging, fascinating, intimidating, and highly important. Wish me luck!

Entry tags:

gsoc,
python

FYI: GSoC midterm emails

FYI: Google summer of code emails from midterms are being re-sent right now due to a bug in melange. It's safe to ignore these. These ARE NOT typoed final evaluation emails: final evaluations close in an hour and Google will be sending those emails on Oct 1st.

(Edit: Apparently the final eval emails went out early too, so you may have the correct emails now, a few days early by Google's original schedule. Congrats and condolences to all!)

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Interview with me up on FastCoLabs

Today is a good day: I get to be famous for being snarky!

There's a short interview with me up on FastCoLabs today, regarding my (in)famous slideshare presentation about women, biology, and computer science.

She did a nice job of trimming down my original answers, but I am sad that she missed the part where I said I didn't answer the question about what does cause the disparity in my slideshare presentation because half the point of the presentation was to get people to think rather than mindlessly accept shortened arguments with good face validity. (The corollary being that there's a meta-joke in the presentation because it is a shortened argument with good face validity.)

I edited out some of the other snarky things I said before I sent 'em. It's probably just as well. ;)

Anyhow, in case anyone reading this hasn't seen the original presentation before, I'll just embed it here:

How does biology explain the low numbers of women in computer science? Hint: it doesn't. from Terri Oda

In case the embed doesn't show up for you, here's a link: How does biology explain the low numbers of women in computer science? Hint: it doesn't.

Enjoy!

Entry tags:

gsoc,
python

Congratulations to Python's Google Summer of Code students and mentors!

Congratulations to all 36 of Python's students and our many mentors; everyone passed midterms and will be continuing for the second half of the summer!

The midterms wrapped up while I was still recovering from surgery, so I've only just this week started going through the midterm reports submitted by students and mentors. It's a real treat to hear stories from students about how helpful their mentors and communities have been, how they've been able to bring perspective to hard problems and help students reshape their ideas and learn. The mentors have told stories about students who were clever, thought deeply about problems, and willing to adapt to work better with their communities.

I'm really looking forwards to seeing what our students produce in the second half of the summer! If you're curious, don't forget that you can check out the aggregated blogs from all of Python's GSoC students. And students, don't forget that though we took some time off so everyone could work on midterms, we're now in week 8, which means you should have another blog post up by Monday, August 12.

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Mailman Virtual Hackathon

We're having a mailman virtual hackathon right now on #mailman on freenode. The plan is to run 'till around 2300 UTC today, so another 4h or so. Link for figuring out what that means in your time zone.

We're doing a variety of things: bug triage and fixing, discussion of architecture, new feature development, helping each other with any blocking problems, spouting off crazy new ideas, code review and merging, etc. We're especially hoping to make sure we clear any issues we can relating to GSoC projects, but there's plenty of work to go around. New folk are welcome too.

If you don't read this 'till after the fact, don't despair! There will likely be another such hackathon next Sunday, July 21. Keep an eye on the mailman-developers list for more details.

Entry tags:

gsoc,
python

What should you say in your status updates?

The Google Summer of Code students working under the Python umbrella are required to blog about their work over the summer, at least bi-weekly. It helps me keep track of how the students are doing, and hopefully helps their mentors keep track as well. I've just emailed a bunch of folk whose blog posts for the first two weeks are now late, and I included the following list of questions to get them thinking about what to write:

1. What have you accomplished the past two weeks (list specific items accomplished)?
2. What issues or roadblocks have you encountered the past two weeks?
3. Have they been resolved, and if so, how?
4. Do any of the issues or roadblocks still exist and what steps have been taken to resolve them?
5. Is further assistance necessary to resolve existing issues?
6. What do you plan to accomplish in the next two weeks?
7. How does your progress compare to your project schedule?

This list is the one that Systers uses for their required weekly status updates, and it's one that I've found very useful as a guide even for my own status updates at my day job. So I figured I'd post it here in case any of you are stumped on what to include in your next status update!

Entry tags:

gsoc,
python

Quick reminder for PSF GSoC students: Your first blog posts are due today!

Just a reminder for all the Python Software Foundation Google summer of code students. You are required to blog, and although I've given you two weeks to settle in, you need to have at least one blog post written by today if you're hoping to pass this term. You've got a few hours before I start reading and sending emails cc'ing your mentors, so if you haven't started yet, hop to it!

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Python student blogs

One of the things that Python asks of all students under our "umbrella" is that they blog regularly about their projects. This helps me keep track of how all the students are doing, and helps advertise the interesting work they'll be doing to a larger community. I've set up a blog aggregator here for Python's Summer of Code Updates and you can see that folk are already talking about their projects as they settle in.

Coding starts June 17th. Here's to a great summer!

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Welcome Summer of Code 2013 students!

The Python Software Foundation has 36 Google Summer of Code students starting next week!

If you'd like to learn more about any of the student projects as they were proposed, you can also see the list and descriptions on the GSoC Website. But here's a list, grouped by project:

Core Python
Phil Webster, IDLE Improvements
Jayakrishnan Rajagopalasarma, IDLE Improvements

ASCEND
Ksenija Bestuzheva, ASCEND: dynamic modelling improvements
Pallav Tinna, Porting to gtk3 and GUI improvements

Astropy
Madhura Parikh, Astropy: Develop the Astroquery toolkit into a coherent package
Axel Donath, AstroPy: Extending the functionality of the photutils package.

GNU Mailman
Manish Gill, Mailman: Authenticated REST-API in Postorius/Django.
Abhilash Raj, GNU Mailman - Integration of OpenPGP

Kivy
Abhinav, Kivy: Kivy Designer
Ivan Pusic, PyOBJus

MNE-Python
Mainak Jas, Real-time Machine Learning for MEG in MNE-Python
Roman Goj, MNE-Python: Implement time-frequency beamformers

OpenHatch
David Lu, Data Driven Mentorship App
Tarashish Mishra, OpenHatch: Rewrite training missions using oppia (Training missions, version 2)

PyDy
Tarun Gaba, PyDy: Visualization of the simulated motion of multibody systems
Tyler Wade, wxPython Bindings for PyPy using CFFI

PyPy
Manuel Jacob, Implementing Python 3.3 features for PyPy

Pyramid
Andraž Brodnik, Better Debug tools
Domen Kožar, Substance D improvements

PySoy
Juhani Åhman, PySoy: Improve Android and HTML5 Soy clients

Scikit-Image
Chintak Sheth, scikit-image: Image Inpainting for Restoration
Marc de Klerk, scikit-image: Segmentation Algorithms as a basis for an OpenCL feasible study
Ankit Agrawal, scikit-image : Implementation of STAR and Binary Feature Detectors and Descriptors

Scikit-learn
Kemal Eren, scikit-learn: Biclustering algorithms, scoring, and data generation
Nicolas Trésegnie, Scikit-learn : online low rank matrix completion

SciPy
Surya Kasturi, SciPy: Improving functionality and Maintainability of SciPy Central
Arink Verma, SciPy/NumPy : Performance parity between numpy arrays and Python scalars
Blake Griffith, Improvements to the sparse package of Scipy: support for bool dtype and better interaction with NumPy

SfePy
Ankit Mahato, SfePy: Enhancing the solver to simulate solid-liquid phase change phenomenon in convective-diffusive situations

Statsmodels
Ana Martínez Pardo, Statsmodels: Discrete choice models
Chad Fulton, Statsmodels: Time Series Analysis Extensions (esp. regime-switching models)

SunPy
Michael J. Malocha, SunPy - Interfacing with Heliocphysics Databases
Simon Liedtke, SunPy: Database of local data

Tahoe-LAFS
Mark Berger, Upload Strategy of Happiness in Tahoe-LAFS

Twisted
Shiyao Ma,Twisted: Switching to Formal Parsers
Kai Zhang,Twisted: Deferred Cancellation

We had a great number of talented applicants and I only wish we'd been able to take more of them. Congratulations to those accepted and to the rest of you, I hope you'll apply again next year!