Exploring K-means Clustering and Building a Gradebook With Pandas

Do you want to learn the how and when of implementing K-means clustering in Python? Would you like to practice your pandas skills with a real-world project? This week on the show, David Amos is back with another batch of PyCoder’s Weekly articles and projects.

David talks about a Real Python article about how to perform K-means clustering in Python. We also talk about a new project based article on the site about how to create a gradebook using pandas, practicing the skills of importing, merging, and calculating across groups of data. We cover several other articles and projects from the Python community including: JPEG image decoding, object-oriented development with interfaces and mixins, sparking joy with Python, five package picks from Real Python authors, and more.

Topics:

00:00:00 – Introduction 00:01:34 – Understanding and Decoding a JPEG Image Using Python 00:08:41 – K-Means Clustering in Python: A Practical Guide 00:12:49 – Pandas Project: Make a Gradebook With Pandas 00:17:54 – Video Course Spotlight 00:18:53 – Interfaces, Mixins and Building Powerful Custom Data Structures in Python 00:32:29 – Sparking Joy With Python 00:43:33 – Python Packages: Five Real Python Favorites 00:52:15 – zxcvbn-python: Dropbox’s Realistic Password Strength Estimator 00:55:43 – Manim: Animation Engine for Explanatory Math Videos 01:00:34 – Thanks and Goodbye

Show Links:

Understanding and Decoding a JPEG Image Using Python – Learn about the JPEG compression algorithm in this comprehensive guide to decoding JPEGs with Python.

K-Means Clustering in Python: A Practical Guide – Learn how to perform k-means clustering in Python. You’ll review evaluation metrics for choosing an appropriate number of clusters and build an end-to-end k-means clustering pipeline in scikit-learn.

Pandas Project: Make a Gradebook With Pandas – With this follow-along Python project, you’ll build a script to calculate grades for a class using pandas. The script will quickly and accurately calculate grades from a variety of data sources. You’ll see examples of loading, merging, and saving data with pandas, as well as plotting some summary statistics.

Interfaces, Mixins and Building Powerful Custom Data Structures in Python – How to supercharge Python’s built-in data structures and build powerful custom data structures with mixin classes.

Sparking Joy With Python – After a fling with TypeScript, one Python programmer shares some thoughts on keeping the flame alive with Python.

Python Packages: Five Real Python Favorites – In this tutorial, several Real Python authors share Python packages we like to use as alternatives to modules in the standard library. You’ll get to know a number of useful packages, including pudb, requests, parse, dateutil, and typer.

Projects:

zxcvbn-python: Dropbox’s Realistic Password Strength Estimator Manim: Animation engine for explanatory math videos

Additional Links:

JPEG - Wikipedia article YCbCr - Wikipedia article Python Type Checking (Guide) - Real Python article The Pandas DataFrame: Make Working With Data Delightful - Real Python article Implementing an Interface in Python - Real Python article TypeScript: Open-source language which builds on JavaScript 3Blue1Brown - YouTube channel Getting Started Animating with manim and Python 3.7

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Intro to Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) in Python Reading and Writing CSV Files Idiomatic pandas: Tricks & Features You May Not Know

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