Science Hack Day, Belgaum

Science Hack Day, was one of the great event attended by me. I feel lucky to be there as everything was so perfect from venue to the arrangements made by Praveen Patil, Sankalp Bhumi is a very beautiful and peaceful place with all the natural beauty. After reaching there it was a beautiful evening and then we had dinner which was so good. After having dinner we went to sleep as we all were tired after a long journey. 

Day-1

In morning I got up by a natural alarm which was not set by me, it was the voice was cock, who were there at Sankalp Bhumi. After getting up I just opened the door and a cool breeze blew on my face making me more refreshing, it was such a beautiful morning. Then I stepped out of my room, and sat on the chair outside my room watching the lake and small fishes in the lake in front of my room, by that time Hong was also up from her sleep and joined me outside. It was such a pleasure to see Ducks swimming in the water. After spending some time there, I went to take shower as breakfast was to be served at 9am, and after that the event was going to start. So after the breakfast, the event started with the introduction, Praveen Patil and Hitesh started the event with the introduction, " What the event was and what we are going to do in these two days". Then mentors shared their ideas that what they are going to do, so that people who were their without any ideas can join them according to their interest. It was so interesting that school student were also going to join us, even student from 5th standard came there for the event, it was so good to see them. After the lightening talks from mentors, hacking began at the place which was decided for hackers and it was also so beautiful. We all were set to start with our ideas, I was just planning to join Nisha in making the "Cookie Smarter", then I came to know that the School student are making a Solar Latern and they might need help in Soldering and I was perfect in this as I have two years experience so I made up my mind to help them to convert the solar energy to electrical energy. And I was surprised to see a huge number of students were interested in it. Then we just distributed the components to the student, and told them about the precautions to be taken while soldering and we started to make solar latern which was a workshop organised by Jithin who came from Delhi , thanks to him for all his time and the components. Also some students were making Science Toys at another place. 

Then the day ended with hacking and ligtening talks by hackers and mentors. Also there was a demo by Prabhu Sir on Fuel conservation by burning bio-organic mass. Then we all had dinner and discussion with people, I was able to meet a lot of new people . In the end we had a laser show by Praveen Patil and it was awesome, enjoyed by everyone there. After seeing the show everyone was wishing to have a Physics teacher like him.

Day-2

Again the day started with a alarm by the cock, and I went for a walk with Praveen around Salkalp Bhumi to explore it more. Then we all had breakfast and set for hacking again. Again there was a Science workshop for kids. I was again with the students for helping them in soldering, after the workshop I went to hacking place where everyone was ready to present their project, as after lunch they have to show demo of their project. So after lunch demos begin each team was given time to represent their project. There were 11 teams in total, they all described about their projects. Projects are listed below:

1. Sun Tracking

2. Making Cookie smart 

3. Nodemcu and MicroPython

4. Web VR

5. Alarm System using NodeMCU

6. Chrome Extension to convert Text to Speech 

7. Symposium 

8. Organic Map

9. Beautiful Belgaum Map

10. Moodlight and IoT switch

11. Motion Detector

There were four categories on the basis of which the award was given:

1. The Most Socially Useful Hack- Sun Tracking

2. The Best Education Hack-  Chrome Extension to convert Text to Speech

3. The Best Science Hack- Organic Map

4. The Audience Favorite Hack-  Motion Detector

Then the medals were given to the winning teams which were bought by Hong. Then we all had discussions over tea. Everyone was exchanging their ideas and were making new friends. The time was moving so fast and the night came. Before dinner we have Rahul Prabhukhanolkar with us who was describing us about Bat Conservation on which he was working,as Siddhesh want to know more about it as he also want to contribute. It was so interesting how he was using the ultrasonic frequencies to detect a Bat movement, and  he also told us about different Bat species which were unknown to us. Also he showed us the device used by him to detect Bat, then we had  a practical with it. We went out to detect the motion of Bat and we were able to detect the Bat movement. I, Nisha and Siddhesh tried listening the noise and we were able to detect it.  Then we had a get together where we discussed about our experiences, event and many more things. After that we went for the dinner, there also we had  a long discussion, it was like no one wants to sleep as next morning we were going to leave, so we want to utilize each and every momemt of that day. But as some people were leaving in night only, so we ended up with the discussion and were in our room. Hong and I planned to see a movie or series with others but it was too late and we had to leave early also, so we both slept. 

On 24th, we woke up at early and left at 5.30 am, as all of us had office, so we said bye to Hong, looking forward to meet her at FOSSASIA, Singapore next year.

For Belgaum:

It was a great event with a lot of energy, you all were awesome. Students were so interested and keen to learn new technology. Best of luck to the students for future. We all got lot of positive energy from this event, I personally got motivated by seeing the environment at Belgaum. I want to come to Belgaium for the next event. Thanks to all the organizers ( Hong Phuc Dang, Praveen Patil, Rahul, Shrikrishna Prabhu, Bandu Majukar, Sanjay Kulkarni, Suyash, Hitesh, Jithin, Minal, Nitesh, Akshai, Abdul and many more.....) for such a great event and hope you will continue it, so that we can visit Belgaum again and get a chance to meet you all : ) .

For more photos visit: https://www.flickr.com/groups/3087939@N23/pool

Belgaum-Swimming class, Kayaking and Hack Day

Belgaum, unplanned journey and event, as I was not having any plan to attend it before I attended yesterday Pyladies Meetup, where Kushal and few other people told us to join them for the Hackers Day which was in Belgaum on 22nd and 23rd. So we planned to attend that as it sounds interesting, so quickly I mailed my manager(Swati) for that to take her permission and she replied yes for that, so sweet of her : ). So we planned to leave with Nisha as she was having space in her car, but then we came to know that Kushal is leaving early morning and we can reach there by 2, then we decided to leave with him so that after reaching there I can do my office work. Today we started 6.30 in morning from Pune and it was not that much traffic so we crossed Pune without any stucking in traffic and we were on the Highway. We were five people in the car I, Dang Hong Phuc(whom I meet in Pyladies meetup), Praveen, Sayan and Kushal So Kushal drive the whole way to  Belgaum, it was the longest distance covered by him till now( I guess around 350 km), in the way we enjoyed the mountains, greenery and too many tolls :P. After paying so much of toll I noticed one thing we paid least amount for the road which was best throughout our journey, I must say Karnataka highway is way too good, we all enjoyed the journey. Then we reached the venue where we were going to hack, Praveen Patil leaded us there. After that we went for lunch as all of us were very hungry.

After lunch we were back to the resort and then I just rushed to my room to connect the wi-fi and my laptop, then I started with my work. After completing the work for today, I went with Hong as we have seen the swimming pool in the resort and she told she will train me how to swim, then we went to the pool. After going there we realised the water was very cool, so I was afraid to go in and I was worried we will get cold, also I didn’t know the abc of swimming :P and we have to be there for next two days for Hack Day. But Hong was so excited that she entered the water and then I also followed her. As I didn’t know how to swim, it took a lot of her effort to make me float in water. She told me how I can balance my body, how to move my hands and legs. A great thanks to her as it was her effort and confidence that atleast I was able to float and balance my body in water without any support. For swimming she is my first Trainer, when I will swim the first person who will come to my mind is Hong. As it was evening already so we then came back to resort and changed. Upto that time Saptak and Praveen were there outside, so we joined them for Kayaking.

Then we went for Kayaking , and I was so confident after Hong swimming class that I can save myself if I will fall down :P. It was a great fun and we were missing Nisha who has not reached yet and Anwesha also who was not able to come due to some reason. The resort is very good, everywhere greenery is there, we were able to see rabbit, peacock and ducks here. They offered cocoa welcome drink, and cocoa was from their farm only, everything is so natural here. Also I got a chance to swim and do Kayaking without any guide, which was the best part of today. We just unwind the rope and started Kayaking. Now we all are excited for the Science Hack Day.

Eagerly waiting for the Hackers day and the workshop which is tomorrow, excited to meet new people and school children as they will also be joining us.

Python2 and Python3

Some of us still uses the final version 2.7 of Python 2 which was released in 2010, as Python2 will not be maintained after 2020, so it is a great time to switch to Python3 and accept it with the new changes.

Here I have listed the few changes which I came to know when I started using Python3.

1. Print Function

It was the first change which I came to know, that now the use of parenthesis is must for print as its now treated as function than a statement.

Python2 >>> print “hello world”

Python3 >>>print (“hello world”)

2. Raw_input deprecated

Python2 have two methods to read input from keyboard input and raw_input

In Python3 we only have input( ) and everything is treated as string.

Python2 >>> x = raw_input “hello”

Python3 >>> x = input(“hello”)

3. Integer Division

In Python2 result was rounded to nearest integer for 5/2 and getting a floating result have to give float type integer as 5.0/2.0

In Python3 5/2 result by default it result in float type if result is of float type.

Python2 >>> 5/2 = 2

             >>>5.0/2.0 = 2.5

Python3 >>> 5/2 = 2.5

4. Unicode String

In Python2 we need to type u if we want to store a string as Unicode.
print type(unicode("this is a unicode type")
<type "unicode">
print type(b"this is sting")
<type "str">

In Python3 it is stored as Unicode by default.
All the strings are now Unicode by default and you have to mark byte sequence with b. 

5. range( ) and xrange( )

In Python2 there were two functions range( ) and xrange( ).
Range retuen a list of integers and xrange return xrange object.

In Python3 only range( ) is there.
xrange( ) replaced with range( ).

6. Handling exceptions

In Python2 argument to exception can be declared without using keyword “as”.

In Python2 argument to exception declaration needs “as” keyword.

Python2 >>> except TypeError, err

Python3 >>> except TypeError as err

and there are more changes, but these were the major one I think which I have noticed till now while coding, so will go through the rest also, once I will use them in my code.