Python - Interactive data visualization and AlphaZero

Hi everyone,

In July we have our beloved Australian Python trainer, Ed Schofield from Python Charmers, back in the office to get us IMC'ers to the next Python level. Obviously we are happy to share his knowledge with you so time for our next meetup!

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About the talks

• Interactive data visualization in Python
  Python has a wide array of plotting tools, many of which pre-date the impressive capabilities of modern browsers. This talk will compare and contrast a range of plotting and visualization packages in Python with a promising new technology: Vega. Designed for modern browsers (based on D3), expressive, emerging as a web standard, and now also supporting a "grammar of interactivity", Vega is worth understanding. This talk will demonstrate Vega and its related technologies, including Python tools for generating interactive Vega (and Vega-Lite) charts, including Altair, pdvega, and Starborn.

• AlphaZero - background, how it works, and a general Python implementation
  AlphaZero is a major recent advance in self-play-based reinforcement learning from DeepMind that can learn complex 2-player strategy games like Go and Chess from scratch (with no human knowledge) and quickly surpass human capabilities. Ed will review the algorithm, how it works, what its future applications could be, and a general-purpose Python package for implementing the algorithm.

About the speaker
Ed has consulted to or trained dozens of organisations in data analytics using Python. Ed is the co-chair of the Python for Data Science miniconf for PyCon AU, co-organizes the Python user group in Melbourne, and regularly presents at conferences related to Python and data analytics in Australia and internationally. He is a former release manager of SciPy and the author of the widely used future package. Ed holds a PhD in computer science from Imperial College London, where his thesis was in machine learning. He also holds BA and MA (Hons) degrees in mathematics and computer science from Cambridge University. He has 20+ years of experience in programming, teaching, and public speaking.
For more information about Python Charmers we refer you to their website: https://pythoncharmers.com/.

The schedule
06:00 PM – Socializing with food and drinks
06:55 PM – Intro
07:00 PM – Talk part 1
07:30 PM – Break
07:45 PM – Talk part 2
08:15 PM – Questions
08:30 PM – Closing drinks
09:30 PM – The end

Don't worry if you cannot make it at 6.00 PM but try to be there before the talk starts at 7.00 PM.

The location
IMC is hosting this event. The office is located in the Infinity Building, Amstelveenseweg 500 in Amsterdam. Since there are no parking facilities available, we recommend you to come by public transport. The office is located just 2 minutes’ walk from metro station Amstelveensweg. The meetup is taking place on the 8th floor!