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Sunday, July 24, 2016

I did the thing.

Hackathons rarely happen at UCT and it has been at the back of my mind to organise one for a long time. Then two months ago this happened.


I organised the WICS(Women In Computer Science Society ) hackathon which happened yesterday and of course a lot of planning had to be done.This includes securing sponsorship, mentors, a venue, catering services, name tags and even more difficult, getting students to sign up.  Each had its own difficulties but it was worth it. I'm grateful for the support from my fellow committee members , Amazon CapeTown , Facebook and Google Developer Group CapeTown.







Seven teams competed by hacking solutions to their community problems. Their ideas greatly impressed the judges from Amazon. Solutions included apps to improve health, safety, security among many others. Students all the way from first years to final years were able to produce working prototypes in just about 8 hours. Winners walked away with exclusive swag feeling confident in their Computer Science skills. Considering that each team had at least one female member, I think our mission was accomplished.  I'm proud to have been made it happen.


Many participants commented that they were keen for more events like this. I might have found my life's purpose ..;). Jokes aside, it was a fun filled Saturday. Have a great week ahead!

Event pictures: https://www.facebook.com/Women.CS/photos/tab=album&album_id=1161941890495506
More event info: http://wcs.cs.uct.ac.za/index.php/blog/

Friday, July 15, 2016

#MachineLearning on steroids


This winter break I did something different. I didn't do a typical Software Engineering Internship. I used this break to learn as much as possible about Machine Learning mostly because of #FOMO and that it’s a field I have been interested in for a while.



My regime included an internship, Coursera course, open source contribution, reading books and papers (lots of them), competing on kaggle.com (or tried to) and following relevant blogs and twitter accounts. If you follow me on twitter, apologies for all the #MachineLearning tweets, in my defense I left a warning..;).
Here is how it went.

1) The internship
I interned local startup called Data Prophet that specializes in Machine Learning. I can't talk about it due to NDA but I'm very proud of the work I did there. I got to work with a smart and curious team from whom I absorbed a lot. I also got to work with iexperience interns from America. The company generously paid for my Machine Learning Course on Coursera (more info next). The highlight of the internship was the company hackathon where we got to play with brain waves.

This is a course taught by Andrew Ng, a professor at Stanford, founder of Baidu and co-founder of Coursera. He definitely is an influential figure in Machine Learning. The course runs over 11 weeks, it is free but a certificate costs $49. It covers basics of Machine Leaning, basic Math and programming knowledge are enough prerequisites. It gives a comprehensive guide to the vast array of algorithms. I completed it with the 100%. I highly recommend it for any beginner in Machine Learning. 


3) Open source contribution
I have been contributing to Scikit-Learn, an open source python Machine Learning library and SOMPY. I contributed by working on some issues. So far I have made 3 pull requests, all of which have been merged. Score! I have also contributed to SOMPY documentation. 


4) Reading research papers.
This one was tricky at first. It takes a while to get used to academics' language but I have found my way and actually enjoy it. Nothing beats reading an interesting paper over a cup of tea..;). I have read (and still am, actually am writing this post as a break from a paper) interesting papers on Natural Language Processing, Deep Learning and Kohonen Self Organising Map (for my thesis). Trust me when I say it gets addictive.

5) Following relevant content.
This one is easy, just click a button and you have found your tribe. It’s also very addictive. I have a bookmark folder that I’m happy to share with anyone interested. The following have been very useful for me:
·        http://www.wildml.com
·        http://karpathy.github.io/
·        Colah.github.io

Blogs are a good source for latest developments, opinions and tutorials (simpler language than papers)

6) Competing
 I love competitions, so the idea of participating on Kaggle resonated with me. Unfortunately, due to limitations of my PC, I can only participate in some competitions. Oh well, once I have worked around it, I’ll write a post about y progress. They also get quite addictive, on submitting a solution, you are more likely to spend hours improving your score by 0.1%.

My top 3 lessons from the experience:
1) Machine Learning is a very broad subject; you'll definitely get lost if you try to understand everything. Rather pick a topic or two, at most three to focus on.
2) Seek help if you are stuck.
3) Don't give up!

You are probably thinking, wasn’t that too much Machine Learning for 5 weeks? Well, it was intended to be a binge, remember. I did other things too, like attending DebConf, travelling (writing this from Tanzania), reading (Malcolm Gladwell’s David and Goliath  and Blink) , listening to Psychology podcasts and of course running #Balance.
As the break comes, I believe my objective has been met (at least partially). I'm definitely more comfortable with Machine Learning terms and the current trends. I also still have a lot more to learn, hence the papers, blogs and courses. I don’t know what this will lead to, perhaps a postgrad in Machine Learning, a job as a scientist, or just a hobby. I can’t tell, but I did and do enjoy making Computers intelligent. Here is to the last leg of my degree!


Sunday, July 3, 2016

What you might be missing out on .. #debconf16


How was your weekend?
I can tell you mine has been exciting. I attended DebConf2016, the international conference for Debian Developers. It was more of a spontaneous decision since I learnt that it is taking place on campus and free to attend. I ended up really enjoying it.

What is DebConf?
Debconf an international conference for Debian Developers. This year they chose CapeTown specifically UCT to host it. It has about 250 participants so far. It attracts delegates from all over the world with a diverse set of interests, skills and ethnicity. There were delegates all the way from Germany to India, from Senior Engineers to Students. It was quite an fascinating space to be in. 

What is Debian?FOSS?
Debian is an Operating System based on the Linux Kernel. Its free and open source and Ubuntu is derived from it. Learn more about it here. I don't use Ubuntu or Debian but I was drawn to attend because I'm a supporter of open source. I'm actively contributing to open source specifically scikit-learn a popular Machine Learning library for python.

Sessions 
There are varieties of talks. Topics range from Internet of Things to India! (that's right, India). I attended a talk by Karen Sandler on FOSS(Free and Open Source Software) and companies, FOSS in India by Keerthana Krishnan , Lessons from a year of contributing to Open Source Software Dieter Adriaenssens and a panel on Introduction to Debian. They were intellectually stimulating, not also of the 4 above, only one is actually about Debian. I particularly enjoyed the lightening talk on India by Keerthana who is also a University student


The Community. 
I have met incredible people in just a weekend. I was able to connect to Karen Sandler from the outreachy program with whom we had a lot to talk about #WomenInTech.  I also connected with Chirayu Desai,  a Google Summer of Code participant who was also a Google Code In prize winner as well as other GSOC Debian participants. The Debian community is absolutely welcoming and approachable. In the hallway you can strike up a conversation with anyone and talk about anything literally. They are particularly keen to get more people in Africa involved in contributing to FOSS, which would explain the hospitality. In addition to that, the conference is also very easy going, spontaneous sessions and arrangements are more than welcome. 


All in all, Debconf was a great way to spend the weekend. It is still running until 9th July. Of course a conference isn't complete without swag. 






Find out more about debconf here and if you are in CapeTown, don't hesitate to pop in at Menzies Building, UCT Campus. If you are not, you can livestream the sessions from the website. Have a great week ahead!