Website Redesigned and Improved

Python for the lab has a completely new look. And now you can also leave comments!

To start a new year, we have decided to give Python for the Lab a complete new look. We hired a very talented designer to work on improving the look and feel of the website. It is incredible how many different details must be taken into account when deciding how a website should look. From color palette, and icons, to typography. We really hope you enjoy the new version of the website. We know we do love how it looks now!

New Courses

Together with the redesign of the website, we have also added new courses to our offer. We have developed an introductory course for scientists. It is designed to focus onto the work that needs to be done in order to analyze data and finish with a the figures that would go on a paper. Following our style, the course is hands-on, working on real data and following best-practices. This course has two options: either 3 or 5 full-days.

After a lot of brainstorming, we have also revamped the advanced python for the lab course. After giving it a lot of thought, we have come up with a program that will satisfy developers who want to bring their skills to the next level. This workshops will focus on the use of a camera as a device able to generate a high volume of data. We will explore different ways of handling processing in parallel, we will see how to build documentation and how to release the code to the public.

New Features on the Website

The redesign is not the only change we have done to the website. We also switched from a static website to a wagtail-powered blog. You can see the source code on our github repository. Thanks to having a dynamic website, we can now accept comments on our articles, as well as we have made improvements to the newsletter handling.

We take privacy very seriously. That is why we have developed our own analytics solution, being sure we don't store personal information, nor we share it with any corporation. We have included also a self-hosted newsletter. This allows us to be in contact with our subscribers without sharing data with third-parties. This is a very large effort, which will open the door to bugs, but we are confident we can show a path of self-sustainable solutions without the need to give away user information in exchange of services.

Updates to the Book

The Python for the Lab Book has also been updated. It is an ever-improving resource, and we need your feedback to make it better. Just send us a message if you have any suggestions or corrections that would like to be addressed. We have many plans for 2020 that we need to give shape and organize. We are still busy developing the user-interface sections of the book. Even though the book covers several aspects of GUI development, we do believe it can be done in a much more pedagogical way.