Today, or yesterday, I celebrate a year of work in Python. Probably, nowadays and in the near future, it will be my main working tool. Every working day starts with running PyCharm and coding in Python.
What have I learned in the first year?
1) New mathematical models.
Within one year, I have learned and developed solutions using the following algorithms/models:
Empirical Mode Decomposition;
Neural Network: Dense and LSTM;
Boosts: XGBoost, LightGBM, CatBoost;
Prophet.
Some models are well developed, like Neural Network; some are still in their first draft versions, like EMD and Prophet. My boostings, now, are in the state of semi-products.
2) Kaggle.
I opened up Kaggle. I registered on this five years ago but, since then, had not opened it until fall 2019. In late October, I found the electric power, water, and steam consumption forecast competition for 1,500 buildings all over the world. I made my first and very immature solution and got an idea of the problem. But what impressed me most was the winner’s solutions, which they openly and kindly shared with the rest of the world. Going through their solutions, I have learned modern approaches and techniques in solving a problem of such a scale. Kaggle is unique; it lets us study best practice, discuss ideas and thoughts and, most importantly, share Python modeling code.
3) High demand for Python data scientists.
I become a more-demanded power analyst every time I mention Python. What I have learned: everyone wants mathematics in Python. Very easily, I organized my first Python workshop after 10 months of practice. Currently, together with the Education Center, we are planning a new one with the same subject “The Power Price and Consumption Forecast Using Neural Network in Python”. This time, it will last for two days. It is worth noting that 90% of participants in the Kaggle power consumption forecast competition used Python in their solutions.
What is the core difference between Python and MATLAB, R?
1) Level of “development.”
I have been working in MATLAB for 12 years, R for six months, and Python for one year, and I once made an application in Java (IDE Eclipse). From this experience, I have concluded the following: