PYPTUG Monthly Meeting (December): Training Tools - Utilizing Jupyter Notebooks

Details

Come join PYPTUG at out next monthly meeting (Deceber 18th 2018) to learn more about the Python programming language, modules and tools. Python is the language to learn if you've never programmed before, and at the other end, it is also a tool that no expert would do without.

Main talk:     Training Tools - Utilizing Jupyter Notebooks
presented by Joan Pharr

bio:
Joan Pharr is currently a Lead Business Analyst at Valassis Digital. On the side she seeks to save the world with math, facts and a penchant for comedy. Collaborating with others to solve problems and share stories is one of the her favorite aspects of PyData.

Abstract:

Jupyter Notebooks can be a great tool for teaching and learning in a corporate setting. In this talk I’ll cover three ways I’ve incorporated Jupyter Notebooks into my daily routine:

 

(1) Using notebooks as templates with information, questions and examples for training new team members. 

(2) Collecting notebooks to share code for infrequent requests across our team. 

(3)  Using notebooks to try new techniques, play with new packages, and quickly test new code.

Lightning talks!

We will have some time for extemporaneous "lightning talks" of 5-10 minute duration. If you'd like to do one, some suggestions of talks were provided here, if you are looking for inspiration. Or talk about a project you are working on.

When:

Tuesday, Decemberr 18th 2018
Meeting starts at 6:00PM

Where:

Wake Forest University, close to Polo Rd and University Parkway:
Manchester Hall
room: Manchester 241
Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27109

 Map this

See also this campus map (PDF) and also the Parking Map (PDF) (Manchester hall is #20A on the parking map)

And speaking of parking:  Parking after 5pm is on a first-come, first-serve basis.  The official parking policy is:

"Visitors can park in any general parking lot on campus. Visitors should avoid reserved spaces, faculty/staff lots, fire lanes or other restricted area on campus. Frequent visitors should contact Parking and Transportation to register for a parking permit."

Mailing List:

Don't forget to sign up to our user group mailing list:

https://groups.google.com/d/forum/pyptug?hl=en

It is the only step required to become a PYPTUG member.

PYPTUG Monthly Meeting (October): Altair, Ansible and more

Details

Come join PYPTUG at out next monthly meeting (October 30th 2018) to learn more about the Python programming language, modules and tools. Python is the language to learn if you've never programmed before, and at the other end, it is also a tool that no expert would do without.

Main talk:     Altair
presented by Martin DeWitt

bio:
Originally from Winston-Salem, Martin DeWitt is a former assistant professor of physics, who frequently used Python and IPython notebooks to teach both introductory and upper-level physics courses and labs. He is currently transitioning to a career in data science.

Abstract:
Altair is a statistical visualization Python library designed to facilitate the exploration of data by making it easy to generate interactive web-based visualizations. Using Pandas dataframes as data sources, Altair's API provides functionality to transform data (bin, sort, filter, and aggregate) and produce common graphs including histograms, line charts, scatter plots, and heatmaps. Graphs can be made interactive with features like panning, zooming, and filtering by mouse pointer selections. Most of the aspects of generating the visualizations -- axes, scales, legends, and interactive features -- are handled automatically, only requiring the user to employ Altair's concise declarative syntax to specify the connections between data columns in the dataframe and the various properties of the graph (axes, color, size, etc). With very few lines of code, you can generate rich, interactive, and portable web-based graphs.

In this presentation, I will first briefly introduce importing and viewing data using Pandas. I will then demonstrate some of the features of Altair for transforming data and creating both static and interactive graphs. We will work through a number of examples, step-by-step, from importing the data to a finalized graph. I intend for you to code along with me, so please be sure to bring your laptop.

For those who are interested in how the magic happens, Altair is based on Vega/Vega-Lite, which is a high-level grammar for producing interactive visualizations. "With Vega, visualizations are described in JSON, and generate interactive views using either HTML5 Canvas or SVG."(http://vega.github.io/) Altair works by taking specifications from the user through Python objects, generating the proper JSON code, and then using Vega to add a Canvas or SVG-based visualization to a web page. There are also renderers that allow Vega visualizations to be displayed in IPython and Jupyter notebooks.

Lightning talks!

We will have some time for extemporaneous "lightning talks" of 5-10 minute duration. If you'd like to do one, some suggestions of talks were provided here, if you are looking for inspiration. Or talk about a project you are working on.

When:

Tuesday, October 30th 2018
Meeting starts at 6:00PM

Where:

Wake Forest University, close to Polo Rd and University Parkway:
Manchester Hall
room: Manchester 241
Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27109

 Map this

See also this campus map (PDF) and also the Parking Map (PDF) (Manchester hall is #20A on the parking map)

And speaking of parking:  Parking after 5pm is on a first-come, first-serve basis.  The official parking policy is:

"Visitors can park in any general parking lot on campus. Visitors should avoid reserved spaces, faculty/staff lots, fire lanes or other restricted area on campus. Frequent visitors should contact Parking and Transportation to register for a parking permit."

Mailing List:

Don't forget to sign up to our user group mailing list:

https://groups.google.com/d/forum/pyptug?hl=en

It is the only step required to become a PYPTUG member.

PYPTUG Monthly Meeting (September): Introduction to Packet Manipulation with Scapy

Details

Come join PYPTUG at out next monthly meeting (September 25th 2018) to learn more about the Python programming language, modules and tools. Python is the language to learn if you've never programmed before, and at the other end, it is also a tool that no expert would do without.

Main talk: Introduction to Packet Manipulation with Scapy

by Samuel Mitchell

Abstract:

Scapy is a very powerful framework written in Python that allows the forging and manipulation of packets. It's a swiss army knife of sorts for dealing with capturing, interacting, and manipulating packets down to the packet frame itself. It sees a lot of usage in the security community as a result but can also be used by anyone who needs to reverse engineer odd/unique protocols, QA test products at the lowest levels of the OSI layers, or come up with or test your own communication protocol. This will be an intro to the usage and capabilities of scapy targetted at anyone familiar with the basics of networking at the OSI layer and basic Python programming.

Bio:

Samuel Mitchell lived a former life as a sysadmin and in the DevOps field. In his current life, he works as an Offensive Security Researcher/Tester for a large financial institution. He's also a husband/father of three kids, and dreams of some day finishing one of his multitude of side projects.

Lightning talks!

We will have some time for extemporaneous "lightning talks" of 5-10 minute duration. If you'd like to do one, some suggestions of talks were provided here, if you are looking for inspiration. Or talk about a project you are working on.

When:

Tuesday, September 25th 2018
Meeting starts at 6:00PM

Where:

Wake Forest University, close to Polo Rd and University Parkway:
Manchester Hall
room: Manchester 241
Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27109

 Map this

See also this campus map (PDF) and also the Parking Map (PDF) (Manchester hall is #20A on the parking map)

And speaking of parking:  Parking after 5pm is on a first-come, first-serve basis.  The official parking policy is:

"Visitors can park in any general parking lot on campus. Visitors should avoid reserved spaces, faculty/staff lots, fire lanes or other restricted area on campus. Frequent visitors should contact Parking and Transportation to register for a parking permit."

Mailing List:

Don't forget to sign up to our user group mailing list:

https://groups.google.com/d/forum/pyptug?hl=en

It is the only step required to become a PYPTUG member.

 

RSVP on meetup:  https://www.meetup.com/PYthon-Piedmont-Triad-User-Group-PYPTUG/events/ddlvxgyxmbhc/

PYPTUG Monthly meeting: Wrangling Geospatial Data

Details

Come join PYPTUG at out next monthly meeting (June 26th 2018) to learn more about the Python programming language, modules and tools. Python is the language to learn if you've never programmed before, and at the other end, it is also a tool that no expert would do without.

The meeting will start with a back to basics introduction.

Then on to the main talk:

"ArcPy: Wrangling Geospatial Data with Python"

by Laura Tateosian

Abstract:

ArcPy, the Python interface for ArcGIS Desktop/ArcGIS Pro, allows you to work with geographic datasets and invoke the powerful tools that have been developed by ESRI for analyzing and visualizing geospatial. This talk will provide an overview of the functionality exposed by the ArcPy API and demonstrate how these functionalities can be invoked.  Python can be used to invoke any of the built-in tools for processing geospatial data (e.g., finding buffer zones to identify streams near proposed highways, intersecting geospatial data layers to find overlap of historical habitat and urban sprawl, calculating changes in landscapes with raster algebra, and so forth).  Attendees will learn how to interpret the ArcPy help documentation  and how Python can be used to call geoprocessing tools, to programmatically manage proprietary GIS data formats (list and describe the data), read and modify proprietary data formats such as shapefiles with arcpy, work with ArcGIS map documents, generate custom ArcGIS GUIs. 

Bio:

Laura G. Tateosian is a professor at the Center for Geospatial Analytics at North Carolina State University where she leads an active research program in geovisualization and recently authored a textbook on Python for ArcGIS. Her lab works with geoparsing, eye trackers, and open source web mapping and visualization tools to investigate plant disease spread and human trafficking and to develop innovative digital reading environments. She earned her B.A. in Mathematics from Towson University, her M.S. in Mathematics from the University of Oklahoma, and her Ph.D. in computer science from North Carolina State University. She teaches Python Geospatial Programming and Geovisualization in the Geospatial Analytics Ph.D. and the Master’s in Geospatial Information Science and Technology.  She has traveled extensively and likes to body surf.

Lightning talks!

We will have some time for extemporaneous "lightning talks" of 5-10 minute duration. If you'd like to do one, some suggestions of talks were provided here, if you are looking for inspiration. Or talk about a project you are working on.

When:

Tuesday, June 26th 2018
Meeting starts at 6:00PM

Where:

Wake Forest University, close to Polo Rd and University Parkway:
Manchester Hall
room: Manchester 241
Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27109

 Map this

See also this campus map (PDF) and also the Parking Map (PDF) (Manchester hall is #20A on the parking map)

And speaking of parking:  Parking after 5pm is on a first-come, first-serve basis.  The official parking policy is:

"Visitors can park in any general parking lot on campus. Visitors should avoid reserved spaces, faculty/staff lots, fire lanes or other restricted area on campus. Frequent visitors should contact Parking and Transportation to register for a parking permit."

Mailing List:

Don't forget to sign up to our user group mailing list:

https://groups.google.com/d/forum/pyptug?hl=en

It is the only step required to become a PYPTUG member.

 

RSVP on meetup:  https://www.meetup.com/PYthon-Piedmont-Triad-User-Group-PYPTUG/events/ddlvxgyxjbjc/

PYPTUG monthly meeting: Exploratory Visualization of Data and Text

Details

Come join PYPTUG at out next monthly meeting (May 29th 2018) to learn more about the Python programming language, modules and tools. Python is the language to learn if you've never programmed before, and at the other end, it is also a tool that no expert would do without.

The meeting will start with a back to basics introduction on lists, arrays and other similar data types.

Then on to the main talk:

"Exploratory Visualization of Data and Text"

by Francois Dion

Abstract:

What can you learn from visualizing your data? What techniques should you use for a given scenario? If you've missed the presentation at the Renaissance Computing Institute last month, you have another opportunity to learn about various tools. As an extra bonus we will touch a little bit of machine learning.

Lightning talks!

We will have some time for extemporaneous "lightning talks" of 5-10 minute duration. If you'd like to do one, some suggestions of talks were provided here, if you are looking for inspiration. Or talk about a project you are working on.

When:

Tuesday,May 29th 2018
Meeting starts at 6:00PM

Where:

Wake Forest University, close to Polo Rd and University Parkway:
Manchester Hall
room: Manchester 241
Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27109

 Map this

See also this campus map (PDF) and also the Parking Map (PDF) (Manchester hall is #20A on the parking map)

And speaking of parking:  Parking after 5pm is on a first-come, first-serve basis.  The official parking policy is:

"Visitors can park in any general parking lot on campus. Visitors should avoid reserved spaces, faculty/staff lots, fire lanes or other restricted area on campus. Frequent visitors should contact Parking and Transportation to register for a parking permit."

Mailing List:

Don't forget to sign up to our user group mailing list:

https://groups.google.com/d/forum/pyptug?hl=en

It is the only step required to become a PYPTUG member.

 

RSVP on meetup:

https://www.meetup.com/PYthon-Piedmont-Triad-User-Group-PYPTUG/events/ddlvxgyxhbmc/

PYPTUG Monthly Meeting April 2018: Stock selection and automated trading

Come join PYPTUG at out next monthly meeting (April 24th 2018) to learn more about the Python programming language, modules and tools. Python is the perfect language to learn if you've never programmed before, and at the other end, it is also the tool that no expert would do without.

 

 

What

Meeting will start at 6:00pm.

We will open on an Intro to PYPTUG and on how to get started with Python, PYPTUG activities and members projects, then on to News from the community.

This will be followed by the main talk.

Main Talk:

 Using Python to Push Stock Selection information to you and automate trading

By: 

 Ken Hogue

Bio:

I have been using Python for several years specifically for stock research, backtesting strategies and trading automation. Recently I have started using python notebooks for documenting research.

Abstract:

The talk will cover three main topics.

The first is the use of python to push information to you for consistent evaluation.  Customized stock charting and stock screening displayed on charts.

The second area is the use of Python for lights out automated Forex trading.  

The third area is the use of python notebooks for machine learning and trading research.

Lightning talks! 

We will have some time for extemporaneous "lightning talks" of 5-10 minute duration. If you'd like to do one, some suggestions of talks were provided here, if you are looking for inspiration. Or talk about a project you are working on.

When:

Tuesday, April 24th 2018

Meeting starts at 6:00PM

 

 Where

Wake Forest University, close to Polo Rd and University Parkway:

Manchester Hall
room: Manchester 241 

Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27109

 Map this

See also this campus map (PDF) and also the Parking Map (PDF) (Manchester hall is #20A on the parking map)

And speaking of parking:  Parking after 5pm is on a first-come, first-serve basis.  The official parking policy is:

"Visitors can park in any general parking lot on campus. Visitors should avoid reserved spaces, faculty/staff lots, fire lanes or other restricted area on campus. Frequent visitors should contact Parking and Transportation to register for a parking permit."

Mailing List

Don't forget to sign up to our user group mailing list:

https://groups.google.com/d/forum/pyptug?hl=en

It is the only step required to become a PYPTUG member.

 

RSVP on meetup:https://www.meetup.com/PYthon-Piedmont-Triad-User-Group-PYPTUG/events/249204224/

PYPTUG Monthly Meeting (March): Python 3, Klein and more

Come join PYPTUG at out next monthly meeting (March 27th 2018) to learn more about the Python programming language, modules and tools. Python is the perfect language to learn if you've never programmed before, and at the other end, it is also the tool that no expert would do without.

What

Meeting will start at 6:00pm.

We will open on an Intro to PYPTUG and on how to get started with Python, PYPTUG activities and members projects, then on to News from the community.

Then on to the main talk. Philip Semanchuk will help us to migrate to Python 3. We'll also learn about Klein in the lightning talks.

 

Main Talk: How to Plan to Migrate to Python 3

by Philip Semanchuk of PySpoken LLC

Bio:

I started writing BASIC on a TRS-80 and have been building software ever since using everything from C to Visual Basic to Python. For the past several years, I’ve been a freelancer focused on Python, especially where it meets C and other compiled languages but also for Django work. Some of my clients are Fortune 50 companies and others have just a handful of employees.
In the past, I have given talks at PyCarolinas, PyOhio, PyData, and the Triangle Python Users Group. This is my first opportunity to speak to the Python Piedmont Triad UG, and I’m grateful for the invitation.
Currently I’m using Python to perform etymology-focused lexical analysis. It’s a subject I know very little about, so I’m glad NLTK exists to hold my hand! Later this year I hope to use Python to collect data from a photovoltaic solar system that’s installed where I live.

You can learn more about me at http://PySpoken.com where I also have a blog (http://blog.PySpoken.com)

Abstract:

Python 2 will no longer be supported past 2020, yet many organizations still haven't made the switch to Python 3. This talk is for anyone facing a 2-to-3 migration that they'd like to feel more confident about. Attendees will leave with the outline of a migration plan, some suggested focus areas, a knowledge of helpful tools, and links to resources they can use after the talk.

 Detailed Abstract

Many organizations haven't yet made the switch to Python 3. Time is running out for them since Python 2 will no longer be supported past 2020. Organizations with larger projects to migrate will need to start very soon in order to meet the deadline.

Migrating from 2 to 3 can seem overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be if you make a plan, take it step by step, and use the right tools. What's more, there's a great deal you can do immediately (while still in Python 2) to make your code more compatible with Python 3.

This talk is for anyone facing a 2-to-3 migration that they'd like to feel more confident about. The talk will discuss five areas of focus -- choosing a Python 3 version, identifying test gaps, reviewing dependencies, prepping one's code for Python 3, and the actual switchover. I'll discuss strengths and weaknesses of the tool `caniusepython3` for assessing dependencies. I'll also go into a fair amount of detail on Python's tool `2to3`, including how (and when) to use it effectively.

**Attendees will leave confident that the migration is manageable.** They'll have the outline of a plan, some specific areas on which to focus, a knowledge of helpful tools, and links to resources they can use after the talk.

Lightning talks! 

We will have some time for extemporaneous "lightning talks" of 5-10 minute duration. If you'd like to do one, some suggestions of talks were provided here, if you are looking for inspiration. Or talk about a project you are working on.

We already have a talk lined up on Klein by Chris Sheppard

When

Tuesday, March 27th 2018
Meeting starts at 6:00PM

Where

Wake Forest University, close to Polo Rd and University Parkway:

Manchester Hall
room: Manchester 241 

Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27109

 Map this

See also this campus map (PDF) and also the Parking Map (PDF) (Manchester hall is #20A on the parking map)

And speaking of parking:  Parking after 5pm is on a first-come, first-serve basis.  The official parking policy is:

"Visitors can park in any general parking lot on campus. Visitors should avoid reserved spaces, faculty/staff lots, fire lanes or other restricted area on campus. Frequent visitors should contact Parking and Transportation to register for a parking permit."

Mailing List

Don't forget to sign up to our user group mailing list:

https://groups.google.com/d/forum/pyptug?hl=en

It is the only step required to become a PYPTUG member.

RSVP on meetup:
https://www.meetup.com/PYthon-Piedmont-Triad-User-Group-PYPTUG/events/ddlvxgyxfbkc/

PYPTUG February Monthly Meeting: VPython (3D Programming for Ordinary Mortals)

Come join PYPTUG at out next monthly meeting (February 27th 2017) to learn more about the Python programming language, modules and tools. Python is the ideal language to learn if you've never programmed before, and at the other end, it is also a tool that no expert would do without.

 

Main Presentation:

VPython: 3D Programming for Ordinary Mortals

by Bruce Sherwood

Abstract:
 

The Python module vpython makes it remarkably easy to write programs that generate navigable real-time 3D animations, as a side effect of computations. This is in contrast to most 3D graphics libraries, which require as a prerequisite very high computing skills. VPython programs can run in standard Python environments such as IDLE, Spyder, or a Jupyter notebook. They can also run in mobile devices, thanks to the use of the RapydScript-NG Python-to-JavaScript transpiler. Previous short presentations on VPython focused on its architecture and implementation. This presentation will instead be in the form of a tutorial on how to use VPython. No programming background other than basic Python is required. At glowscript.org click "Example programs" to see a variety of applications, which run in your browser. At vpython.org are instructions on installing the vpython module.

Bio:

Bruce Sherwood is an NCSU emeritus professor of physics and a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association of Physics Teachers, and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is currently the main developer of VPython. He is co-author with Ruth Chabay of the introductory physics textbook "Matter & Interactions" for science and engineering college students (matterandinteractions.org). In North Carolina, this textbook is currently used at NCSU, High Point University, UNC-Greensboro, Wake Forest University, and Guilford College.

When:

Tuesday February 27 2018

Meeting starts at 6:00PM

Where:

Wake Forest University, close to Polo Rd and University Parkway:
Manchester Hall

room: Manchester 241 

Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC 27109

 Map this

See also this campus map (PDF) and also the Parking Map (PDF) (Manchester hall is #20A on the parking map)

And speaking of parking:  Parking after 5pm is on a first-come, first-serve basis.  The official parking policy is:

"Visitors can park in any general parking lot on campus. Visitors should avoid reserved spaces, faculty/staff lots, fire lanes or other restricted area on campus. Frequent visitors should contact Parking and Transportation to register for a parking permit."

Mailing List:

Don't forget to sign up to our user group mailing list:

https://groups.google.com/d/forum/pyptug?hl=en

It is the only step required to become a PYPTUG member.

Meetup:
https://www.meetup.com/PYthon-Piedmont-Triad-User-Group-PYPTUG/events/ddlvxgyxdbkc/