NumFOCUS Expands Research and Education of Data Science with IBM

Funding Supports Open Source Data Science Tools Widely Used in Academia and Industry

NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / September 27, 2016 / NumFOCUS, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit supporting and promoting open source scientific computing, today is announcing IBM as a Platinum Corporate Sponsor to further research, education and development of data science tools using Python, Julia and R.

Data Science tools fiscally sponsored by NumFOCUS serve as a catalyst for scientific discovery and industry breakthroughs in the management of data. "IBM's work with NumFOCUS continues the advancement of open source data science tools. Our communities' contributions have enabled countless companies to build data driven environments. With IBM's support, we continue to help our community sustain and innovate. This contribution will help fund special projects and outreach to a diverse community that we hope continues to fuel innovation throughout the world," said Andy Terrel, NumFOCUS board president.

Through the sponsorship, IBM is supporting for the Python community of approximately 30 million users by providing native support for Python within its IBM Analytics portfolio. IBM's support will help to fund both the needs of NumFOCUS projects, as well as the needs of the community, through continued diversity and educational programs such as PyData conference series. The PyData conference series helps to connect users and developers of the Python data science stack, Julia, Stan and R-based scientific tools, resulting in invaluable opportunities to share knowledge of varied use cases and provide instruction to new users. To advance the industry, 200 diversity scholarships are given out each year to ensure a diverse group is able to attend events and engage in the community.

As one of the global leaders in data analytics and management, IBM has invested in software and technology solutions designed to help enterprises gain powerful insights from data. The company relies on Python, among other data languages, to help create innovative solutions. As a Platinum sponsor of NumFOCUS, IBM will share these insights as it engages with the community through a seat on the NumFOCUS Advisory council, providing advice and input to the organization.

Today's news furthers IBM's commitment to advance Spark as the analytics operating system helping to accelerate innovation and drive analytics across businesses. IBM continues to partner with leading data science organizations, including Continuum, Galvanize, H2O, LightBend and RStudio, to promote an integrated and unified data science ecosystem. Additionally, in June, IBM joined the R Consortium to help accelerate data science readiness for the enterprise.

About NumFOCUS:

NumFOCUS is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that supports and promotes world-class, innovative, open source scientific software. The mission of NumFOCUS is to promote sustainable high-level programming languages, open code development, and reproducible scientific research. We accomplish this mission through our educational programs and events as well as through fiscal sponsorship of open source data science projects. From the LIGO Gravitational Waves Discovery, confirming the observation of gravitational waves emanating from the merger of two black holes; to a real-time automated trading platform, these projects are empowering users to solve some of today's greatest challenges facing the world.

To learn more about NumFOCUS, visit www.numfocus.org.

Contact:

Savannah Mercado
NumFOCUS Communications
media@numfocus.org

SOURCE: NumFOCUS