SciPy 2017 General Conference
Talk and Poster Presentations
SciPy 2017, the fifteenth annual Scientific Computing with Python conference, will be held this July 10th-16th in Austin, Texas. SciPy is a community dedicated to the advancement of scientific computing through open source Python software for mathematics, science, and engineering. The annual SciPy Conference allows participants from academic, commercial, and governmental organizations to showcase their latest projects, learn from skilled users and developers, and collaborate on code development.
Talk and Poster Submissions are now closed. Accepted talks and posters will be posted May 12 and an initial schedule will be available May 19.Specialized Tracks
This year we are happy to announce two specialized tracks that run in parallel to the general conference track:
Machine Learning and AI
Machine learning and artificial intelligence are used in a wide range of fields: medical diagnosis, automatic stock trading, remote sensing, etc… Python’s flexibility and extensive set of libraries make it an attractive languages for many Artificial Intelligence and machine learning applications. This special track will bring together the scientific python community to discuss these applications, ranging from natural language processing to computer vision, robotics, etc.
SciPy Tools
This year, the conference brings special attention to what makes the strength of Python for scientific discoveries: the richness and diversity of the Scipy tool stack. We are dedicated a whole track to discuss these tools developped and used by the community.
Domain-specific Mini-symposia
Introduced in 2012, mini-symposia are held to discuss scientific computing applied to a specific scientific domain/industry during a half afternoon after the general conference. Their goal is to promote industry specific libraries and tools, and gather people with similar interests for discussions.
Mini-symposia on the following topics will take place this year:
- Astronomy
- Biology, Biophysics and Biostatistics
- Computational Science and Numerical Techniques
- Data Science
- Earth, Ocean and Geo Science
- Materials Science and Engineering
- Neuroscience
- Open Data and Reproducibility
- Python and Hardware Data Acquisition
- Social Sciences
Planning for your Proposal Submission?
Proposals must be submitted by March 27, 2017. Here's what you'll need for a submission:
The Brief Abstract
The brief description which will appear in the online program and give attendees a basic sense of your talk.
The Long Description
Your placement in the program will be based on reviews of your detailed description. This should be a roughly 500 word detailed outline of your presentation. This outline should concisely describe software of interest to the SciPy community, tools or techniques for more effective computing, or how scientific Python was applied to solve a research problem. A traditional background/motivation, methods, results, and conclusion structure is encouraged but not required. Links to project websites, source code repositories, figures, full papers, and evidence of public speaking ability are encouraged.
Tips for Submitting a Proposal
The SciPy Conference is in awe of the work that is being done in the community. We receive many interesting and thought-provoking proposals but we have a limited number of spaces. Please take a look at our tips below to improve your chances of having a talk or poster accepted by the conference. In the unfortunate event that your proposal is not accepted, please keep in mind that you are welcome to give a lightning talk, book a room for a Birds of a Feather discussion, or talk to the Program Committee about displaying your work as a poster in lieu of a talk.
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Submit your proposal early.
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In your abstract, be sure to include answers to some basic questions:
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Who is the intended audience for your talk?
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What, specifically, will attendees learn from your talk?
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Ensure that your talk will be relevant to a broad range of people. If your talk is on a particular Python package or piece of software, it should useful to more than a niche group.
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Include links to source code, articles, blog posts, or other writing that adds context to the presentation.
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If you've given a talk, tutorial, or other presentation before, include that information as well as a link to slides or a video if they're available.
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SciPy talks are generally 25 minutes with 2-3 minutes for questions. Please keep the length of time in mind as you structure your outline.
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Your talk should not be a commercial for your company’s product. However, you are welcome to talk about how your company solved a problem, or notable open-source projects that may benefit attendees.
Many of these tips are adapted from the PyCon Proposal Resources. Thanks PSF!
How Proposals Are Reviewed and Selected:
For those of you new to the SciPy community, we wanted to demystify the process we use to select talks and posters. The talks, posters and tutorials go through a similar process consisting of open reviews (i.e., the identities of the submitter and the reviewers are public).
Submissions are automatically assigned to reviewers with expertise in the domain specific topic. Each submission is reviewed by 3 reviewers. Each reviewer provides general comments and a numerical score from 1 to 5 in the following categories:
- Overall Score
- Rate from 1 (not new nor interesting) to 5 (Brand new and interesting)
- Does this abstract concisely describe software of interest to the SciPy community, tools or techniques for more effective computing, or how scientific Python was applied to solve a research problem?
- Does it have a traditional background/motivation, methods, results, and conclusion structure?
The submissions and their reviews are provided to the Track or Mini-Symposia Chair. The Program Committee Co-Chairs fill this role for the general track. The Chairs review the abstracts, scores and comments for all the submissions and make recommendations to the Program Committee Co-Chairs. The Program Committee Co-Chairs take the recommendations and build the initial SciPy schedule. Those that submitted talks or posters that are selected are contacted by the Committee and they are asked to confirm their attendance at the SciPy Conference. The Program Committee works with the Mini-Symposia and Track chairs to identify a second tier of talks that will be added to the schedule in the event that some of the initial selections are not able to attend. The Tutorial Co-Chairs review the scores and comments for all tutorials and build the schedule. They consider the scores as well as balancing the level of the tutorials (beginner, intermediate, advanced) and striving for a broad mix of topics. If you have questions about the process, feel free to reach out to the Program Committee Co-Chairs at scipy-organizers@scipy.org.
Proceedings
Even if you aren't going to write a paper, please consider volunteering to help review!
