Unlimited Coding Practice Courtesy of FiveThirtyEight
09 May 2017 · by bathompso · in Data Science
One of the hardest things about learning coding is the fact that there isn't a large base of fairly easy coding questions that let you learn a ton by doing, instead of reading enough books and other materials to tackle more challenging word problems. When asked by several friends to...
Hidden Tips For Transitioning From Academia To Data Science
24 Apr 2017 · by bathompso · in Data Science
I'm hardly alone in my path from academia into the world of data science, which means there exist a multitude of guides and blog posts explaining the steps you need to take to also make the transition. Most focus on how to transition skills gained via a Ph.D. into those...
Setting Up Flask on AWS
21 Mar 2015 · by bathompso · in Data Science Insight
I recently completed the Insight Data Science program, which involved the creation of a data science project from ideation through deployment (if interested, you can see my Insight project here). For deployment, a Flask webapp was created, and Amazon Web Services (AWS) was used to host it. I found that...
#AAS225 and What's Next
07 Jan 2015 · by bathompso · in Research Data Science
For those of you who know me personally (or follow me on Twitter), you know that I am currently in Seattle for the American Astronomical Society (AAS) meeting. Tomorrow I'll be doing a dissertation talk, distilling the entirety of my work at TCU over the past 4 years into a...
From Astronomy to Data Science: One Size Fits All?
29 Jul 2014 · by bathompso · in Data Science
Academia has been undergoing a crisis as of late. Many disciplines (even "hot ones," such as biomedical research) have been finding that they are producing too many short-term jobs (post-docs), and too few permanent positions to sustain the outflow of Ph.D.s. Astronomy (my chosen field), is no exception. Heaped on...
Solving Astronomy Software-Rot
22 Apr 2014 · by bathompso · in Research
There is a problem in astronomy (probably in other sciences too, but I see it mainly in my field), which I will term "software-rot," after the better known term link-rot. There are several key packages of software that many astronomers rely on to do basic data reduction that are either...
Big Bang breakthrough: astronomers report signs of the universe's creation
21 Mar 2014 · by bathompso · in Science
Astronomers, using a small telescope in the South Pole have made an amazing discovery. If this finding turns out to be real (via confirmation from another observatory), it may well be the most important astronomical breakthrough of this century. The detected signal not only would be, I believe, the first...
Google Moving Forward With Project Ara
27 Feb 2014 · by bathompso · in Technology
I was initially skeptical (and still am) of Project Ara's viability, it looks like Google is moving forward with the project, with some suggesting that devices might go on sale in the next year. This could be a huge shift in how mobile is done, and is at least an...
Why I Shifted from Wordpress.org to Jekyll
07 Feb 2014 · by bathompso · in Technology
A personal website is useful in the current age, both as a marketing mechanism for me, and an outlet for things I want to share with everyone. Perhaps not many people read my blog posts, but my research code and my class outlines will hopefully be used by others. First...
The Problem with New Methods
17 Dec 2013 · by bathompso · in Research
My research involves detecting binary star systems in star clusters. Binary star systems are systems where two stars are orbiting each other. The most famous binary system is Tatooine from Star Wars, with its famous double sunset. The "closest star to the Sun," Alpha Centauri, is actually a binary system...
3D Systems to Manufacture Project Ara’s Modular Smartphones
23 Nov 2013 · by bathompso · in Article Technology
Motorola is moving forward with their Project Ara modular cell phone initiative. While I don’t think the idea of a modular cell phone will ever take off, there are benefits in exploring the tech. Perhaps studying ways to modularize a cell phone will lead to improvements in antenna, battery or...
Programming for GPGPUs
23 Nov 2013 · by bathompso · in Research
My research efficiency depends greatly on the amount of computer processing power I have access to. To detect binary systems, I compare observed stars to models of singles and binaries in a brute-force manner. Each observation is monte-carlo sampled within its errors many times, and the final results is the...
Why the S in STEM is under-appreciated
28 Sep 2013 · by bathompso · in Article Science
Mark Schneider of The Atlantic believes that the S in STEM is overrated: It’s rote that we need more STEM students – more science, technology, engineering and math grads – sprinting off American campuses into the labor force. But according to the data, employers don’t like paying science grads quite...
Popular Science shutting off comments
28 Sep 2013 · by bathompso · in Science
I for one completely support this tactic. As they put it eloquently in their post on the decision: A politically motivated, decades-long war on expertise has eroded the popular consensus on a wide variety of scientifically validated topics. Everything, from evolution to the origins of climate change, is mistakenly up...
iOS 7: The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly (Icons)
19 Sep 2013 · by bathompso · in Technology
After resisting the urge to upgrade to any iOS 7 beta, I finally installed it on my iPad yesterday, along with the rest of the world. Here are some first impressions of what Apple did right, and what needs to be changed in 7.1 and beyond. The Good iOS 7...
New Furniture
24 Aug 2013 · by bathompso · in Uncategorized
For a long time, Chrissy has nagged me to live healthier. “Go for a run,” and “what fruit did you eat today?” were some of the many (legitimate) comments I heard from her. The problem is: (a) I’m lazy, (b) the Texas summer is too dang hot to run in,...
The Universe is still weird and interesting
25 Mar 2013 · by bathompso · in Science
The first results from the Cosmic Microwave Background-mapping Planck space telescope have been released. What’s new? There is more dark matter in the Universe than previously thought, and less dark energy. Regular matter (everything we can see and touch), still makes up a paltry 5% of all energy in the...