Computational Modelling Group

Seminar  2nd May 2014 10 a.m.  Building 7, Room 3031 - Highfield Campus

IPython: from interactive computing to computational narratives

Prof Fernando Perez

Categories
e-Research, Education, NGCM, Python, Scientific Computing, Software Engineering
Submitter
Luke Goater

Abstract

IPython is an open source environment for interactive and parallel computing that supports all stages in the lifecycle of modern scientific computing and data analysis: individual exploration, collaborative development, large-scale production using parallel resources, publication and education. The web-based IPython Notebook takes full-advantage of web technologies to integrate rich media and client-side Javascript into the data science workflow. It allows scientists to share their work in an open document format that is a true “executable paper": notebooks can be version controlled, exported to HTML or PDF for publication, and used for teaching.

I will describe how a single architecture covers this entire use spectrum: the underlying protocols provide a language-agnostic environment to explore data, run production analyses and share results in a variety of output formats, from websites to printed books. I will illustrate this with use cases taken from a variety of disciplines and programming languages.