Our next session will take place on 10th May 2023. This is a physical even with the option to attend virtually. Please note our policy on reducing the spread of infectious diseases such as Covid-19.

The format is (roughly)

• 18:00 Pizza for those who are joining us in person
• 18:30 Talk - details below
• 19:15 A practical challenge
• 20:30 Project round-ups

"Animal face-off: Pandas vs. Polars – The battle of data analysis libraries in Python" - Arturo Regalado

In this talk, Arturo will present a relatively new data analysis library: Pola-rs. The new library claims to be a lightning-fast data frame library and a substitute to the industry standard Pandas. He will provide data analysis examples and challenges to discover the use cases of each library.

Biography

Arturo is a doctoral researcher with the University of Aberdeen and the National Decommissioning Centre. His research interest remains in the study of the economic effects of financial security instruments in decommissioning of oil and gas structures. He is an economist and data analyst with five years of experience in processing and interpreting data to give actionable insights to decision makers. His previous experience in the energy sector includes market advisory on oil and natural gas markets with special emphasis in modelling energy demand-supply outlooks as well as financial modelling of upstream activity. He has also worked for the Mexican Government in agencies like the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Anticorruption System where he developed predictive and machine-learning models to increase evidence-based decision making for the public sector. He holds a MSc in Petroleum, Energy Economics and Finance from the University of Aberdeen, where he studied the effects of auction design on investment and deployment of renewable energy projects, and a BA in Economics from the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Challenge

After the talk at each APUG session we have a coding challenge for attendees - often based on the talk topic, and normally announced on the night. Challenges can be tackled in small groups or solo.

So, if you can, bring a laptop or other device that you can run Python on. If you don’t already have Python set up, we can help you with that too. Coding in pairs or small groups (especially mixing beginner and more experiences coders) is strongly encouraged, though you can also code solo.

Registration

Register for the meeting.

Keep in touch

We recommend joining our Slack channel.

If you are a beginner looking to get started in Python have a look at our Learning Resources page where we recommend a free video course on Youtube.