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?¶

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):