About Project Pythia

Project Pythia is the education working group for Pangeo and is an educational resource for the entire geoscience community. Project Pythia is a home for Python-centered learning resources that are open-source, community-owned, geoscience-focused, and high-quality.

Why do we need Project Pythia?

Scientists working in a multitude of disciplines rely heavily on computing technologies for their research. Numerical simulations run on supercomputers are used in the study of climate, weather, atmospheric chemistry, wildfires, space weather, and more. Similarly, a tremendous volume of digital data produced by numerical simulations, or observations made with instruments, are analyzed with the help of powerful computers and software. Thus, today’s scientists require not only expertise in their scientific discipline, but also require high-level technical skills to effectively analyze, manipulate, and make sense of potentially vast volumes of data. Computing environments change rapidly, and two technologies that have emerged and are being adopted by scientific communities relatively recently are Cloud Computing platforms and a software ecosystem of scientific tools built around the open source programming language called Python. Project Pythia provides a public, web-accessible training resource that will help educate current, and aspiring, earth scientists to more effectively use both the Scientific Python Ecosystem and Cloud Computing to make sense of huge volumes of numerical scientific data.

Why the name Pythia?

In ancient Greek mythology, the god Apollo is said to have slain the monstrous Python. Apollo’s temple was later served by the Oracle of Delphi, who was known as the Pythia.

Like the Oracle of old, Project Pythia will help you make sense of things that seem mysterious. We will not, however, slay your Python, but instead help you improve it – and help you to help others do the same!

Who is Project Pythia?

The current core Pythia team can be found here. Pythia is an open and inclusive community! Look here for info on how to get involved.

Project Pythia Goals

  1. The Pythia Portal: A searchable online portal that provides scientists at any point in their career with educational content and real-world examples needed to learn how to navigate and integrate the myriad packages within the Python ecosystem for the geosciences.

  2. Cloud-Deployable Pythia Platforms: A light-weight, Binder-based platform that will make it possible to launch portal content in customizable executable environments in the Cloud with only a “single click.”

Presentations about Project Pythia

To learn more about Project Pythia and its history, see this list of presentations (listed in reverse-chronological order):

Forum

Date

Presenter

Format

Title (with link)

AMS

2022-01

Drew Camron

slides

Project Pythia: A community update

AMS

2022-01

Kevin Tyle

slides

Leveraging Project Pythia in an Advanced Geoscience & Visualization Course

AMS

2022-01

Max Grover

slides

Rethinking CESM Diagnostics through the Lens of Earth System Data Science

AGU

2021-12

Kevin Paul

e-poster

Pangeo and Project Pythia: Helping Geoscientists Navigate the Scientific Python Ecosystem

AGU

2021-12

Kevin Paul

e-poster

Project Pythia: A Resource to Help Geoscientists Navigate the Scientific Python Ecosystem

AGU

2021-12

Julia Kent

abstract

ESDS Educational Efforts

Pangeo Showcase

2021-06

Brian Rose

video + slides

Project Pythia: a community learning resource for Python-based computing in the geosciences

AMS

2021-01

John Clyne

video

Project Pythia: a community learning resource for geoscientists