From Python to Raspberry Pi - Celebrating Pi Day with data science - College & Research Libraries News
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ACRL TechConnect
Ariel Deardorff and Dylan Romero
From Python to Raspberry Pi
Celebrating Pi Day with data science
T he University of California-San Francisco
(UCSF) Library is a graduate-only health
science university with four professional
has expanded to a vibrant space within the
library. The Makers Lab encourages the
UCSF community to unleash its natural cre-
schools (medicine, pharmacy, nursing, and ativity by learning how to 3-D print, make a
dentistry), a graduate division, and an aca- button, try a knitting project, or tinker with
demic medical center. For several years UCSF an Arduino. Staffed by library volunteers, as
has been the number one public recipient well as staff from across UCSF, the Makers
of NIH funding, reflecting the school’s Lab is open Monday through Friday from
dedication to biomedical research. Around 10 a. m. to 6 p.m., and hosts a variety of
2015, the UCSF Library began investigating pop-up workshops and activities throughout
new ways to serve the university’s research the month. UCSF community members can
population. Seeing a need for more compu- bring personal or work-related projects to
tational and entrepreneurship training the the Makers Lab with the idea that the proj-
library piloted two new programs: the Data ects will help students, faculty, and staff be
Science Initiative (DSI) and the Makers Lab. better prepared to address health science
The UCSF Library DSI began in 2016 as a challenges in novel and creative ways.
way to address a lack of computational train- The DSI and Makers Lab are natural part-
ing opportunities on campus. The broader ners as they both focus on building skills
mission of DSI is to teach computational and around visualization, programming, and
data skills to UCSF students, faculty, and staff electronics. While many members of DSI
to improve health. In practice this means volunteer in the Makers Lab, they wanted a
that the DSI team of four teaches classes and chance to showcase the overlap in their two
offers consultations on programming (in R, areas of expertise and formally collaborate
Python, Unix, and SQL), data visualization, on a community event. Given its emphasis
data management, machine learning, statis- on math and computation, Pi Day (March
tics, and bioinformatics. The majority of DSI 14, so named because the numbers 3/14
classes are targeted toward beginners, and resemble the first three digits of pi) seemed
aim to get researchers and research staff up like an excellent opportunity for the two
and running with the skills they need to har-
ness large biomedical datasets and manage
their research in a reproducible manner. As
of August 2018, approximately 1,700 UCSF
Ariel Deardorff is data services librarian, email:
community members had participated in a ariel.deardorff@ucsf.edu, and Dylan Romero is
DSI class. Makers Lab manager, email: dylan.romero@ucsf.
The UCSF Library Makers Lab began as edu, at the University of California-San Francisco
a series of pop-up workshops in 2015 and © 2018 Ariel Deardorff and Dylan Romero
December 2018 613 C&RL News
teams to work together. Drawing inspiration lab staff set up six Raspberry Pi devices with
from the Pi Day events organized in part by computer monitors and keyboards.
Lisa Federer at the NIH Library,1 the teams The event started with a quick introduc-
decided to collaborate on two Pi Day events tion to Raspberry Pi and Python, as well as
in March 2017 and 2018. an overview of the two library programs.
The 2017 and 2018 Pi Day festivities had The introduction was followed by a brief
two major goals: to introduce the UCSF demo from a UCSF researcher who de-
community to the computational resources scribed how she used the Raspberry Pi in her
(chiefly coding courses and programmable own research (to track optical mice move-
electronics) available through the DSI and ments), as well as for fun (as an automatic
Makers Lab, and to build community and garage door opener).
create opportunities for interprofessional Next, workshop participants broke into
education. A third groups of three around
internal goal of the each of the worksta-
collaboration was tions, and a DSI staff
to give library staff member led the group
members a chance through a basic Python
to collaborate and script that would access
improve their own temperature data from
programming skills. the Raspberry Pi (which
has a built-in tempera-
The 2017 ture sensor) and output
workshop a basic graph.2 Working
The 2017 Pi Day together, and with as-
event was designed sistance from DSI staff,
to be a fun, inter- the teams were able to
active workshop type out the code and
to introduce UCSF see the resulting graph.
community mem- During the last part
bers to the concept of the activity, a staff
of programming in Social post highlighting the Pi Day 2017 event. member walked around
Python (a program- with a hair dryer to
ming language popular in the sciences), watch how temperature change impacted
using a Raspberry Pi (a tiny, $40 program- the graph output. After the activity con-
mable computer), and introducing them to cluded, attendees moved into an adjoining
the resources available to learn more about room for refreshments (pizza and pie, of
these tools. course), as well as a pi recital—a contest to
Like most events held in the Makers Lab see who could recite the most digits of pi.
there were no prerequisites. Instead the event The 2017 Pi Day event was considered
was marketed as a chance to learn and ex- a success. There were 20 attendees, the
plore new tools in a welcoming environment. majority of whom were beginners in both
The teams hoped that the event would bring Python and Raspberry Pi, the perfect target
together people from across the university audience. Even given their lack of experi-
and give them a chance to experience the ence, all the teams were able to complete
Makers Lab. and run the Python program by the end
The workshop was held from 11:30 a.m. of the session and were able to produce a
to 1 p.m. in the Makers Lab, which limited graph of the temperature change. Even more
the number of attendees to approximately compelling from a community-building per-
20 people. In preparation for the event, the spective, workshop attendees represented
C&RL News December 2018 614many different user groups (including nine The 2018 Pi Day event was also hosted
staff members, six postdocs, three students, in the Makers Lab, so once again space was
and one faculty member) and schools within limited to approximately 20 people. To fit
the university (including each professional the more meetup-style vibe of this event, the
school and the graduate division). During time was changed to 4 to 6 p.m. To arrange
the social portion of the event several par- the space, staff setup four workstations with
ticipants entered the pi recital (the winner the live sensors, as well as a table with spare
recited 23 digits!),3 and many stayed late to electronics that people could borrow.
enjoy pizza, chat, and network. On Pi Day, after an introduction to the
projects, attendees were invited to try out
The 2018 workshop the sensors and brainstorm potential medi-
Given the success cal applications on
of the 2017 Pi Day whiteboards next to
event the DSI and each station. After
Makers Lab decided an hour of explor-
to team up again ing, attendees were
for Pi Day 2018. For once again invited
this second event the next door for another
two teams wanted to pi recital, pizza, and
focus on the use of pie.
programmable elec- The 2018 Pi Day
tronics—like Rasp- event had slightly
berry Pi and Ardui- fewer attendees at
nos (a programmable 16 people, but they
microcontroller)—in once again reflected
healthcare. Original- a wide range of us-
ly they envisioned ers (including staff,
a larger hackathon- postdocs, faculty, and
style event where students) and depart-
researchers could Biomedical sensors attached to the Arduinos from ments (including den-
investigate potential the 2018 workshop. tistry, medicine, phar-
healthcare applica- macy, and the gradu-
tions for the programmable electronics in ate division). Engagement levels were high,
low resource settings. Unfortunately there as evidence by the number of suggestions
wasn’t enough time to host this larger that were written on the whiteboards. The
event, so instead the teams decided to try Pi Recital was especially popular in 2018,
more of a showcase-style meetup, where even more so since the winner was able to
researchers could try out biometric sensors recite 100 digits of pi.4
and brainstorm potential health science ap-
plications. Discussion
This version of Pi Day required more The Pi Day events of 2017 and 2018 were
advance planning as the DSI and Makers successful in engaging members of the
Lab teams needed to source a handful of UCSF community with the resources avail-
biometric sensors, learn how to attach them able through the Makers Lab and DSI. In
to the Raspberry Pi/Arduinos, and find and 2017 attendees had a chance to gain hands-
run the code to operate them. Eventually the on exposure to Python and Raspberry Pi,
teams chose a heart rate sensor, fingerprint and learn about the classes that the DSI
sensor, force sensor, and a motion sensor (see and Makers Lab teach on those topics. In
Appendix A for the sensors and code used). 2018 attendees tried out biomedical sen-
December 2018 615 C&RL Newssors and brainstormed how they might be sor project as they had spent considerable used in the healthcare setting. Example time getting it up and running. This built ideas included using the fingerprint sen- confidence in library staff and increased sor as a lab security system, using the their ability to advertise and advocate for force sensor to measure pressure points DSI and Makers Lab classes. Additionally, in a patient’s bed, or as physical therapy DSI and Makers Lab staff were introduced for finger injuries. These ideas will inform to other low-cost programmable electron- the development of a hackathon style ics through feedback from the event and event tentatively scheduled for 2019. follow-up research. As evidence of the high level of en- Soon after the Pi Day 2018 event, the gagement, one attendee commented in Makers Lab purchased Arduino Trinkets, the follow-up survey: “This was an amaz- Arduino Shields, and small breadboards ing event—thank you! Really opened my to better align our services and equip- eyes regarding how fast the hardware is ment with the needs of the health science evolving and how easy it is to write code community. to interact with sensors.” Given the positive results of the 2017 Another key success of the events was and 2018 Pi Day events, the UCSF Library that they brought together many different will likely continue to hold similar events groups from across campus, including in the future. Potential ideas for next year students, faculty, postdocs, and staff. One include holding more of a hackathon-style attendee noted this in their follow-up event or moving the event outside the survey by sharing that, “This was a great Makers Lab to open up the event to more opportunity to learn something completely attendees. out of my wheelhouse, and interact with others I’m unlikely otherwise to meet. I Appendix A: Biomedical Sensors and worked with someone from another cam- Code pus . . . pretty neat.” Community building Heart rate was especially evident during the pi recital • Sensor: https://www.adafruit.com and social part of each event as attendees /product/1093 networked and chatted over pizza and pie. • Code: https://tutorials-raspber- Finally, the events gave Makers Lab rypi.com/raspberry-pi-heartbeat-pulse and DSI staff a chance to gain hands-on -measuring/ experience programming in Python, and Fingerprint using the programmable electronics. Be- • Sensor: https://www.adafruit.com fore helping with Pi Day some of the team /product/751 members had never used a Raspberry Pi or • https://learn.adafruit.com/adafruit written a line of code. In the preparation -optical-fingerprint-sensor?view=all for the first workshop, they were able to Force practice as a group so that they could act • Sensor: https://www.amazon.com as helpers during the event. /Adafruit-Round-Force-Sensitive-Resistor In 2018 library team members were -FSR/dp/B00XW2MIRQ required to stretch their skills even more • Code: (used manual from above) as the biomedical sensors were challeng- Motion ing to setup and run. Some of the sensors • Sensor: https://www.parallax.com required additional soldering in order to at- /product/555-28027 tach them to the Arduinos, and others had • Code: https://projects.raspberrypi.org errors in their code that needed to be fixed. /en/projects/parent-detector By the day of the event the team members were able to talk in detail about their sen- (continues on page 628) C&RL News December 2018 616
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(“From Python to Raspberry Pi,” continues from page 616)
Notes day. Leslie Went Home w/ a @Raspberry_Pi
1. “The NIH Library Is Participating in NIH Kit … Https://T.Co/LPKOzt2o97,’” accessed
Pi Day | NIH Library,” accessed August 3, August 7, 2018, https://twitter.com/ucsf
2018, https://www.nihlibrary.nih.gov/about _library/status/841800973584494592.
-us/news/nih-library-participating-nih-pi 4. UCSF Library, “Mario a @UCSFGradDiv
-day. Student in Biomedical Sciences Was the Vic-
2. “Temperature Log—Introduction | tor of the Day for Our #piday Recital Contest
Raspberry Pi Projects,” accessed August 16, with a Whopping 100 Digits Recited! He Won
2018, https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en a @Raspberry_Pi 0. High Five to All Who
/projects/temperature-log. Participated Today!Pic.Twitter.Com/CpKZFf-
3. “UCSF Library on Twitter: ‘#PiDay Con- wB0D,” Tweet, @ucsf_library (blog), March
test Winner: Leslie Wu (@1wu) Who Recited 14, 2018, https://twitter.com/ucsf_library
23 Digits in #pi for Our #piday2017 Event To- /status/974078909267427328.
C&RL News December 2018 628You can also read
