Python for IEEE

By Dan Sandiford

Fresh off the production line, new ResComs Alistair, Tim and Dan were tasked with providing Python training to a group of Melbourne IEEE members, including many alumni of the University. Who are IEEE? That would be the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers…and they’re not some boutique social club for those who preach Ohm’s law: check out the headquarters in NYC (#functionoverform):

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Software Carpentry and Dit4c

This was my first gig as a Software Carpentry instructor. Luckily I had SWC old-hands Alistair (magic fingers) Walsh, and Tim (LaTex gloves) Rice with me (along with Talitha Ford from Swinburne, thanks Talitha). SWC is a non-profit membership organisation devoted to improving basic computing skills among researchers in science, engineering, medicine, and other disciplines. Thanks to Research Platforms and the efforts of Dr Climate, SWC trainings are regularly offered at the University of Melbourne.

We teach using Data Intensive Tools for the Cloud, (DIT4C) a Cloud-based platform, served through Docker containers. It allows us to teach programming languages like Python or R in a homogenous environment which scales to the size of the class, and can be rapidly spun-up (like, for instance, when someone erases the compute nodes at midnight the night before a workshop…sorry Tim D)


I’m an engineer, why Python?

How do you preach Python to electrical engineers with a Matlab background?

  • I’ll be writing Django based websites in few weeks!
  • No need to read technical reports anymore, I’ll use NTLK.
  • I want to mine the social web…
  • Numpy + complex number for DFT

It’s true that Python is wonderful because it’s like…

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But for preaching purposes, I couldn’t go past this example of the (Discrete) Fast Fourier Transform algorithm: https://jakevdp.github.io/blog/2013/08/28/understanding-the-fft/

And here’s another great set of resources for digital signal processing: https://github.com/AllenDowney/ThinkDSP

Future workshops

If you’re interested in the Research Platform Services training Menu, check out the calendar of events. And Software Carpentry courses run through ResPlat. .

Thanks…

This workshop was run by Research Platform Services and sponsored by the IEEE Young Professional Victorian Section

Instructors: Alistair Walsh, Dan Sandiford, Tim Rice, Talitha Ford. Helpers: Maggie Webb