SciPy 2015: Scientific Computing with Python Conference (Videos)

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07-24-2015 01:53 PM
JoshuaBixby
MVP Esteemed Contributor

The SciPy2015 conference was hosted in Austin, TX a few weeks back.  Unfortunately, I wasn't able to attend, but a small consolation was that the videos were posted the week after the conference:  SciPy 2015: Scientific Computing with Python Conference - YouTube.

Esri may have had a false start with adding SciPy to ArcGIS 10.3.1, but SciPy will be coming to an ArcGIS Version near you sooner than later.  In fact, SciPy and Pandas are included (What's new in ArcGIS Pro) in ArcGIS Pro 1.1 that was released last week.  So what is SciPy and what is the big deal about it being added to ArcGIS?  "SciPy (pronounced “Sigh Pie”) is a Python-based ecosystem of open-source software for mathematics, science, and engineering."  The big deal is that having Esri add it to ArcGIS, instead of having users add it themselves, lowers the bar for accessing and using an impressive and ever growing range of scientific computing libraries with your geospatial data.

Although most of the presentations I have watched were interesting and informative, there is one that I think is worth every new ArcGIS scripter's time:  Keynote: State of the Tools | SciPy 2015 | Jake VanderPlas.  The presenter does an excellent job of summarizing where SciPy is today, how it got here, and where is might go in the future.  I think there are lessons to be learned not just from using powerful numerical tools, but also from how a community of people came together to build such a powerful platform, and open source platform at that.

Lots to watch, lots to think about, and lots of fun to be had!

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4 Replies
XanderBakker
Esri Esteemed Contributor

I watched the keynote that you recommended and it is really worthwhile to see where the Stack is going (and where it is and came from). And made a small list of things that I really need to check out:

bokeh.pydata.org

xray.readthedocs.org

dask.pydata.org

numba.pydata.org

conda

Thanks for sharing!

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DanPatterson_Retired
MVP Emeritus

Great... more reading...thanks Xander

Just got ArcGIS Pro installed so I could examine its compatable numpy 1.9, scipy, pandas and sympy modules.  I still find it strange that they couldn't have rolled these out earlier for Python 2.7 since they can be installed to work inside or outside of the Arc-free environment.   It was easy with PythonWin and PyScripter anyway.

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JoshuaBixby
MVP Esteemed Contributor

My primary language is now Python, but I didn't start learning programming with it.  A couple years back, I came across a really interesting and informative video of Raymond Hettinger:  Transforming Code into Beautiful, Idiomatic Python.  Raymond is a Python consultant/trainer who is also a Python core developer.  He is a very high-energy guy who I think can communicate well to a large range of audiences.  For people coming to Python from other languages, I think some unlearning is necessary to write idiomatic Python, and Raymond's talk does a good job of getting you on that path.

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XanderBakker
Esri Esteemed Contributor

I just came across this book: "Python Data Science Handbook, Tools and Techniques for Developers" By Jake VanderPlas. I liked his keynote at SciPy and if I look inside it contains a lot of goodies...

Python Data Science Handbook - O'Reilly Media

It is an early release ebook...