How did it go?
For my event, I chose to go to a meeting of the Austin Python Meetup Group. They typically meet up every month and, as part of the meeting, there are presentations, Q&A, and general discussion. The group is open to people of all coding levels, although it seemed like many of the people there were professionals with a good amount of experience. The people there were very welcoming. It was easy to tell they were very engaged and connected to the world of coding, and were curious about learning new things. I could definitely see this being a good place to go for learning more about Python, to learn more about particular applications, or to get help on projects. I definitely found the presentations and discussions to be informative.

What did you learn?
At the meetup, there were two presentations. One was from Dima Kniazev, an engineer at Redis, and his talk was “Using Redis as Online Feature Store for Real-time Inference.” I had never heard of Redis before but he explained that it’s an open-source data store platform that supports a range of data types. It’s also good for caching (I had to look up what that was!), a higher-speed data storage layer, which can serve up data faster than information stored in a database. This is helpful for anything that requires real-time processing such as inventories, gaming, or financial applications. He showed a loan approval demo using Redis and a program called Streamlit. It was a real time-oriented program rather than a batch program, which is important if you apply for a loan and want immediate results. He also posted Github information on the applications so people could see the back end of the application.

The other talk was from Nick Schenone, an engineer at Iguazio. His talk was “Building an AI App in Under 20 Minutes Using OS MLOps tool MLRun.” He explained that MLRUN is a “one stop shop” for MLOps, which is an open source Redis-backed program for managing the more mundane parts of machine learning, beyond algorithms, (i.e. infrastructure such as storage, applications talking to each other, container organization, and orchestration). Its a useful tool for combining data science, dev ops, and data engineering tasks. The tool allows you to set up projects that show the GitHub source code, as well as model links to code and build logs. MLRun allows uses a Python SDK that transforms code into an application.

I learned a lot from the presentations and discussion. I did have to look up some of the terminology as I went along, as I wasn’t totally familiar with some things. But I was able to learned more about computing, the processes of creating applications, and how Python can be leveraged to do so.

Would you find value in this kind of event after class?
I found the meetup to be interesting. Even though I didn’t quite understand the intricacies of what was being discussed, I did learn a lot more about different open-source apps and what they can be used for. I also think it was helpful to have examples of how Python can be used in real-world applications. Having people in the field discuss their work and their projects helped to illustrate how versatile Python can be in developing useful tools with practical applications. It also showed how important sharing information is to those within the community. The fact that the programs were open-source and available to everyone illustrated an emphasis on learning and sharing knowledge, which I appreciated.

How was the experience different from your expectations?
I didn’t really have a lot of expectations going in. I think in general it was similar to what I was expecting, with people within the tech community coming together to share some of their expertise and discuss how Python can be used in different apps and programs. There was also an open Q&A and chat session where people could discuss the programs and how they might be applied. There was a good amount of engagement in thinking through how the to use the tools in their own programs or applications. It’s helpful that both speakers provided their own Github accounts so you could see the back end of what they were creating. Before starting this class, I would have had no idea what any of it meant. But now, I can recognize classes, functions, etc. and know what they mean in a program.

Could you see yourself becoming a member of a professional community like this in the future?
I think it would be interesting to join a meetup group. I’m interested in building my skills and practicing more coding. I think if I would join one, it would have to be a beginner-level group. I think there was a certain level of coding knowledge in this meetup that I didn’t really understand, so I didn’t contribute much to discussions. However, I would come to learn more about Python’s use in real-world applications and to learn more about different tech tools. I found that to be really useful and it definitely helped to broadened my knowledge base.