Composable abstractions, the productivity secret behind both maths and Python

NOTE: Location change to CSIT, due to exams
Not our usual room, we will be in "The Hive" in the CSIT building #108 (next to usual building), main entrance from North Road.

Abstract:
What is it that makes good Python code so productive and expressive? How do we build higher mathematics from basic arithmetic and logic? It turns out that these two questions have the same answer: we create objects with well-defined properties, and we compose simpler objects together to make more complex objects. In both maths and programming, constructing and composing abstractions is the secret to achieving sophisticated results one (relatively) simple stage at a time.

This talk will cover some of the Python features that enable us to build sophisticated objects with simple, mathematical interfaces. My usual target audience are undergraduate maths students, so I’ll illustrate this by sketching how we might represent some core maths in code, but don’t worry, the maths won’t be heavy.

This talk is based on the course I teach to second year undergraduate mathematicians at Imperial College London. The book that accompanies the course is available online here: https://object-oriented-python.github.io/ or in dead tree version on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B09NR9R9P3

Bio:
Dr. David Ham is a reader in computational mathematics at Imperial College London. He studied mathematics and law at the ANU followed by a doctorate in numerical methods for ocean modelling at TU Delft in the Netherlands. He leads the Firedrake project, which provides high level open source Python software for scientific simulation. David is on sabbatical at the Research School of Earth Sciences at the ANU.