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Maths Whimsy with Python

Saturday 1:30 PM–2:00 PM in Hall C

The more whimsy the better. First, it's about having fun solving interesting problems, and second it's about breaking projects down into manageable chunks and harvesting useful results. Also Python.

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I've always enjoyed coding interesting maths and data problems, and in the last few years I've done this many times over in the Python ecosystem. This talk will highlight some projects, and also explore why I choose particular problems, how I broke down the work into manageable chunks, and how I harvested useful results. In the process, it will explore how to integrate play in your work.

Project highlights include weird gravity, atypical visualisations, solving puzzle toys, graph processing in various domains, AI wheelie coaches, and more. I'll share the mathematical basis, the Python libraries used and my experience with them in each case. In sharing my approaches with the audience, I also hope to learn how I could have solved these problems better!

By reflecting on each project, I'll build general considerations for what makes an "interesting" problem, strategies for breaking down the work in order to see progress and create intermediate results, and how to find practical applications for the outputs. I hope these considerations will help the audience find ways to combine their own playful interests with their work.

David Colls He/him • @davidcolls

David is an innovative technology leader, with over 20 years’ experience leading the strategic and technical delivery of data and AI, digital strategy and change solutions. David combines diverse experience delivering complex technology solutions with his passion for customer outcomes to develop high performing teams capable of solving our clients’ complex problems.

As a Director of the Data and AI Practice at Thoughtworks, David oversees all facets of developing Data and AI capabilities service offerings. David’s technical background is in developing simulation software for training and manufacturing.