By Angie Chang (Co-Founder & Editor-in-Chief, Women 2.0)
Pasadena, CA — Come and learn the Python programming language on Sunday, May 15 in Los Angeles. The Intro to Python Workshop will be taught by Audrey Roy and Katharine Jarmul, and assisted by Christine Cheung, Esther Nam, Jessica Stanton, Sandy Strong, and Sophia Viklund. The PyLadies are a group of women in Los Angeles who use and love the Python programming language — and on track to increase the percentage of females in the Los Angeles Python community to 50%.

Never tried programming before? Not sure if you’ll fit in? Don’t worry. Intro to Python Workshop on May 15 in Pasadena is designed to be friendly to absolute beginners. Now, meet the PyLadies!
Audrey Roy (Instructor, PyLadies)
Audrey holds a degree in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from MIT and has worked at Microsoft, Sharpcast, Brown University and MIT. She used Python and JavaScript to create generative digital artwork for San Francisco galleries and art collectors. Her work has been featured in the New York Times, Wired News, Technology Review, and CNBC. She is especially passionate about Python/JavaScript development with the Django Web Framework. Audrey blogs about art, design, Python, JavaScript. Follow her on Twitter at @audreyr.

Christine Cheung (Instructional Assistant, PyLadies)
Christine is an active Front-End Web Developer and Django Developer who studied computer science in college. Christine is also a practicing musician as well as a trombonist for local ska bands. Born, bred and operating out of Los Angeles, Christine likes to scoot around in her Vespa in her spare time and pay homage to the Mighty Mighty Bosstones. Christine holds a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from the University of California at Riverside. Check out her website at www.xtine.net. Follow her on Twitter at @xtine.

Esther Nam (Instructional Assistant, PyLadies)
Esther spends her workday as an archivist for a large film archive in Los Angeles. She likes to make websites in her spare time using Django. Esther holds a B.A. in Psychology and French from UC Berkeley and an M.A. in Moving Image Archive Studies from UCLA. Follow her on Twitter at @estherbester.

Jessica Stanton (Instructional Assistant, PyLadies)
Jessica was born and raised in Texas to a family filled with scientists and engineers. Her mom studied computer science it was a math degree, code was punchcards and computers filled rooms. Jessica graduated from Loyola Marymount University with a Bachelor’s degree in computer science in 2006 and has since worked with such companies as E!, Mystyle, Fearnet and Evite. When not glued in front of a computer, Jessica can be found riding her horse, herding sheep with her dogs, or hiking. Follow her on Twitter at @tiny_mouse.

Katharine Jarmul (Lead Instructor, PyLadies)
Katherine is an open-source developer with a deep love for all things Python and Linux. She is a lead developer at Loud3r, a web content aggregation startup in Los Angeles. Katherine works primarily on web application development, but also manages a variety of server administration duties and database projects for the Pasadena-based real-time content discovery, curation and publishing platform. Follow her on Twitter at @kjam.

Sandy Strong (Instructional Assistant, PyLadies)
Sandy works on backend web applications development, infrastructure and site operations, and data mining experience as part of a small team of product-focused engineers. She develops applications, tools, and data warehouses; monitors and triages production site defects, stability, and performance; develops prototypes and updates existing application code for new technologies; and performs data mining, analysis and reporting. Follow her on Twitter at @sandymahalo.

Sophia Viklund (Instructional Assistant, PyLadies)
Sophia has founded 4 companies in the past 13 years, all of them in the field of software development and programming. She holds multiple technical certifications and got her masters from UCLA in interior design, graduating in 2009. Sophia is a LEED accredited professional who is actively involved in ASID, the Women in Architecture Foundation, and Women’s 50/50 Leadership. Sophia also specializes in real-time construction simulations and enjoys creating 3D architectural renderings of historic homes and modern architecture. Follow her on Twitter at @backcode.

The PyLadies keep notes of their meetings and hold regular events in Los Angeles.

Schedule

9:00am – Check-in and meet other attendees. Coffee and bagels provided.
9:30am – Intro to Python tutorial, based on Learn Python the Hard Way by Zed Shaw.
12:30pm – Lunch is provided.
1:30pm – Workshop breakout sessions, with separate stations for 2-3 Python programming topics.
3:30pm – Lightning talks.
4:30pm – Social hour at a nearby location TBD (optional but strongly recommended).

Requirements

• A laptop (don’t forget your power adapter!).
• The desire to learn.
• (Optional but recommended) Python 2.6 or 2.7 installed on your laptop. If you haven’t downloaded and installed it yet, you can do so here.

Why Python?

From python.org: “Python is a programming language that lets you work more quickly and integrate your systems more effectively. You can learn to use Python and see almost immediate gains in productivity and lower maintenance costs.”

Python is easy to learn. If you are comfortable with computers, you can learn the basics of Python programming from us in a day.

Python is in high demand, and in general Python software development jobs pay well. Most software companies that use Python can’t find enough developers to fill their job postings.

Python is fun to use. With Python, you can build pretty much any website, web application, or desktop GUI program that you can dream up.