Sage Days 88: Opening Workshop for a Year of Coding Sprints at the IMA

General Information

Sage Days will kick off a year-long series of open-source software coding sprints at the IMA. This workshop will bring together mathematicians, engineers, educators, members of industry, and researchers from the national labs to discuss, design, and implement new algorithms and computational tools that will be of use to scientists and industry professionals. All software developed during the workshop will be made freely available as part of the open-source mathematics software system Sage (http://www.sagemath.org).

Themes of the workshop include applied representation theory, optimization, data science, machine learning, algebraic combinatorics, and computational number theory. The workshop will include talks on target features and the logistics of Sage development, including time for design discussions and coding sprints to implement the developed algorithms.

In the ensuing year, workshop participants will be invited to return to the IMA in small groups to push the software development even further in coding sprints.

More Information at the IMA Webpage: https://www.ima.umn.edu/2017-2018.2/W8.21-25.17

Organizers:

• Jennifer Balakrishnan (Boston University)
• Benjamin Brubaker (University of Minnesota)
• Matthias Köppe (University of California, Davis)
• Gregg Musiker (University of Minnesota)

When and where?

August 21-25, 2017, at the IMA, University of Minnesota, in Minneapolis, MN, USA.

Year-long Program at the IMA

https://www.ima.umn.edu/2017-2018.2

The program aims to further develop software that will be of use to academia and industrial scientists, as well as introduce SageMath to graduate students and researchers and train them to become part of the developer community. Activities include an opening workshop and ongoing coding sprints that will allow teams of 2-8 participants to spend 3-5 days at the IMA. Projects must include a coding component using SageMath; for example, coding sprints might propose to:

write new code for research in mathematics, science, or for industrial applications integrate a piece of open source software into the SageMath platform develop interactive Sage worksheets for disseminating mathematics or use in mathematics education Visitors will receive office space in Lind Hall, access to the computing network, and additional technical support as needed.

More information and how to apply (https://www.ima.umn.edu/2017-2018.2#full-description):

Coding sprints are designed for teams 2-8 participants to spend 3-5 days at the IMA. Interested applicants should first initiate a trac ticket (or describe an existing one) on the SageMath trac server, explaining the proposed code. (Proof-of-concept code is not necessary at this stage, but welcome.) This will allow developers and users to comment on proposed changes and is the first, important step in the git workflow.

Applicants should then complete a short online application and email a 1-2 page proposal to [email protected]. The proposal should include a description of the design proposals for any code to be written and how the potential functions of the code or materials to be developed will impact researchers in academia and industry and/or educators. Proposals should discuss prior history of related code in SageMath, or other open-source software, and a brief description of the relevant mathematical and coding background of the proposers.

Please note only one participant of the coding sprint team needs to fill out the online application and submit the proposal to [email protected]. The submitted proposal should include name, affiliation, and email address of all collaborators.

Selection Process

Each proposal will be evaluated by the scientific board according to the following three criteria:

Effectiveness – does the proposed functionality successfully address an important development opportunity in Sage? Feasibility – can sufficient progress be made on the proposed functionality during the coding sprint? Interest from the community – is there a pressing need for the code? Deadlines

Applications will be accepted on a rolling basis according to the following schedule:

June 1, 2017—Deadline for initial round of decisions (Notification by July 1) Sept. 1, 2017—Deadline for second round of decisions, sprints must occur after Nov. 1 (Notification by Oct. 1) Nov. 1, 2017—Deadline for third round of decisions, sprints must occur after Jan. 1 (Notification by Dec. 1) Feb. 1, 2018—Final deadline for coding sprint applications, sprints to occur after April 1 (Notification by March 1) Please contact the organizers with additional inquiries.

The goal of this year-long program to continue expanding the developer base of SageMath while fostering connections between mathematics and industry.