STXNext.print("Python has Power")

We are happy to announce the next edition of the PyAmsterdam meetup
co-organised and hosted by STX Next.

Get energised for the weekend with a Saturday morning full of Python talks and tech networking.

About STX

STX Next is Europe’s Python Powerhouse. Based in Poland, their development teams include a total of over 350 professionals
consisting of not just developers, but also UX designers, automatic QA testers, DevOps specialists, machine learning consultants, and
communication experts ensuring smooth cooperation with every partner. In 2004, their founder gained his first experience as a Python developer in the Netherlands. With the new STX Next Netherlands branch, they’re coming back to their roots.

Schedule

Saturday, 7 December 2019, 10:00

10:00 Welcome
10:15 First talk, AsyncIO + Music
10:45 Using micropython in IOT devices
11:15 Small break
11:30 Third talk, How I did not win js13kgames?
12:00 Fourth talk, The day I didn't do TDD?
12:30 Networking
13:30 Closing time

AsyncIO + Music

Can Python help musicians play hardware instruments? Is there anything specific about AsyncIO that makes it well suited to the task? Come see how AsyncIO can be used to aid music production and real time performance through MIDI processing.

About Łukasz Langa: Python Core Developer, Python 3.8 Release Manager. Creator of Black, a popular opinionated code auto formatter for Python. Previously Software Engineer at
Facebook.

Using micropython in IOT devices

Micropython is a python implementation for microcontrollers and other low-level hardware. It implements a subset of the python language and adds some hardware specific modules. This talk aims to give an overview and a demo of micropython. We will cover the following topics

1. brief history
2. Cpython <> micropython
3. Why use micropython (instead of arduino/C++)
4. Some cool features: machine, async, mqtt & more
5. practical example: blinking lights and a button

Marc Wagner is a passionate maker and amateur python developer. While attempting to create a sunrise alarm clock he stumbled upon micropython and hasn't looked back since. Now he has at least 10 lights and sensors in his home running off an esp8266 and micropython and that collection is only growing.

How I did not win js13kgames; or, using genetic algorithms for training neural networks

What are neural networks? How do genetic algorithms work? Is backpropagation the only way of training neural networks? This presentation will explain the details of one particular js13kgam
es submission that tried to train neural networks using genetic
algorithms live in the player’s browser.

About Tomasz Maćkowiak: Full stack developer, ML enthusiast and
one of the first 10 people to join the ranks of STX Next. He conducted workshops, hackathons and presentations on all possible topics,
from baremetal C physical programming for RaspberryPI to a hackathon competition in training AI to play a JavaScript action game.

The day I didn't do TDD?

Test-driven development has been the cornerstone of my coding for years. Recently, I did an experiment on myself: one task, one set of legacy code, two takes — with and without TDD. The difference got me thinking about how and why TDD works and what stops it from being more widely used. I'll walk you through my thoughts on this and, hopefully, help you do TDD better or get into it without frustration.

About Piotr Podgórski: Senior Python programmer at STX Next. Been coding since primary school, commercialised in 2012. Keenly interested in the history of software engineering, which is filled with cases of reinventing the wheel. Understanding agility made me realise that programming doesn't have to feel like mine sweeping and saved me from the shadow of burnout. Since then I feel an urge to share that revelation.