5 September, 2016

Otago Polytechnic gets involved in Kiwi PyCon

Otago Polytechnic is hosting Python ‘sprints’ as part of the annual Kiwi PyCon – the Python coding language conference – which will be held in Dunedin from 9-11 September, 2016, at the Dunedin Centre.

The sprints, which will take place on Monday 12 and Tuesday 13 September at the Polytechnic’s Forth Street campus, will involve two of the world’s leading experts on the language: Barry Warsaw from the USA, and New Zealander Robert Collins.

Python is an open source programming language originally created in 1989 and now widely used around the world. It is a language that is constantly evolving due to its open source nature. Anyone can submit ideas or contributions to the language, which can then be approved and incorporated into it by the Python Core Team. Warsaw and Collins are on this team.

Because this process can be daunting, the ‘sprints’ will guide up to 20 participants on this journey – choosing a project to work on, outlining how these will ultimately be assessed, and the process for submitting their contribution. Participants get to go through the process with the experts guiding them, and actually do make these submissions and contributions in the end.

Tom Clark, Senior Lecturer at Otago Polytechnic’s College of Enterprise and Development is helping organise the sprints and hopes for a good result. “The Python team wants contributions,” he says, “but a lot of people feel they don’t really know how to go about it – or they find the concept intimidating.”

Participants may be students but also professionals or others interested in coding.

-ENDS-

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