Ruby & Science

Presented at Eurucamp 2013, Berlin (http://2013.eurucamp.org/).
It contains the seed ideas for the Alpha.rb project: http://alpharb.com

Transcript

1. Juanjo Bazán @xuanxu Ruby & Science
2. Ruby & Science?
3. Ruby & Science? FACT: RUBY IS NOT WIDELY USED IN RESEARCH PROJECTS
4. Ruby ∩ Science ≃ ∅ ? Why? not suitable for scientific uses?
5. Can Ruby fill the needs of scientists? What people in academia need?
6. Research nowadays: Do something Collect data Manipulate data Interpret results
7. FACT: It doesn’t matter the scientific discipline,
8. FACT: It doesn’t matter the scientific discipline, It doesn’t matter the research field,
9. FACT: It doesn’t matter the scientific discipline, it doesn’t matter the research field, (almost) every research project needs code.
10. enter Ruby
11. Ruby Slow
12. Ruby Slow Lack of scientific libraries
13. Ruby Slow Lack of scientific libraries Small academic user base
14. Ruby Slow Lack of scientific libraries => Not suitable for science? Small academic user base
15. core research, simulations, modeling, calculations ... R, automatization tasks, graphs, formatting data ... Research Project’s code WHAT?
16. Wide spectrum of very different tasks Research Project’s code WHAT? Speed is not a factor
17. Not programmers Research Project’s code WHO? Experienced enough to tweak an existent solution Help wanted
18. What help are they getting?
19. Python SciPy, NumPy
20. Java Lots of libraries, easy to find
21. Excel Really!
22. How can we help?
23. Ruby
24. Ruby General purpose lang Increase developer happiness Powerful & beautiful syntax
25. Ruby Researcher General purpose lang Increase developer happiness Powerful & beautiful syntax Not programmers Experience tweaking existent solutions Wide range of different code tasks
26. Ruby Slow Lack of scientific libraries Small academic user base
27. Ruby Lack of scientific libraries Small academic user base Slow Speed not a factor
28. Ruby Slow Lack of scientific libraries Small academic user base Speed not a factor Let’s push here!
29. SciRuby Goal: SciPy/NumPy for Ruby: SciRuby/NMatrix pre-alpha/alpha state Active development SciRuby.com github.com/SciRuby/sciruby Help wanted
30. Let’s push Ruby into Academia Goals: - Make Ruby known to/used by researchers - Create an ecosystem of scientific ruby libs
31. Let’s push Ruby into Academia Goals: - Create an ecosystem of scientific ruby libs - Make Ruby known to/used by researchers
32. Let’s participate
33. Direct action
34. Direct action 1. Choose a discipline you like
35. Direct action 1. Choose a discipline you like 2. Find your closest university department
36. Direct action 1. Choose a discipline you like 2. Find your closest university department 3. Offer help & code
37. Why? What’s in it for you?
38. Why? More Ruby uses => Good for Rubysts & Ruby
39. Why? OpenSource: Same motivations
40. Why? Helping Science
41. Why? Doing Science
42. Why? OS rewards are good, helping science rewards are great
43. Why? Learning about interesting issues & problems
44. Why? Easy result/effort
45. Why?
46. Ruby & Science communities Sharing information is the norm Openness is a value Reputation based systems Members are welcoming and willing to help
47. Can we make Ruby the programming language of Science?
48. Probably No Maybe? Can we make Ruby the programming language of Science?
49. Can we make Ruby the programming language of Science? Probably No Maybe? Who cares?
50. Let’s make Ruby the favorite programming language of scientists!
51. Thank you! Danke! Juanjo Bazán @xuanxu
52. Questions? Juanjo Bazán @xuanxu hello@juanjobazan.com photo credits: http://www.flickr.com/photos/aai/6936657289 http://www.flickr.com/photos/3dking/148507938/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/morton1905/8638721846 http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanegorski/2449377038 http://www.flickr.com/photos/x-ray_delta_one/5865762878