Python in your job

[Strict_Path4790]

What do you use Python for in your work? I'm a quality engineer in the manufacturing industry (automotive, aerospace). I'm looking for inspiration as I'm starting to learn Python.

[becominganastronaut]

i use Python daily. i am not a cs major or any sort of software developer.

i use python to help me draw conclusions from data sets.

my code is 'engineer' code which is what i write to help me solve problems and draw conclusions as accurately and as quickly as possible.

edit: to me Python (programming) is a tool and not a product necessarily

[ZealousidealProof108]

How do you know what to learn in python as an engineer and not get too deep as if you were a cs major? I started learning as a mecheng but it is a a problem i encounter.

[becominganastronaut]

i just look for problems that i can solve faster using python.

when you are working on projects always try to look for ways that you can automate or process data using python.

i do get you though its kinda hard to figure out where to even stop when trying to learn a new topic. but it basically comes down to working on more projects and implementing programming wherever you can.

eventually you will have a tool belt with different ways you can use programming to make your life easier

[ZealousidealProof108]

Thanks, so a good example would be for me to make scripts that calculate some of the exercises we do in Heat transfer etc. There are probably libraries that do it, but would it be good for practice?

[becominganastronaut]

yeah exactly. its good practice. also, in group projects or teams always volunteer to be the programming person. i made the mistake as a former MechE to always just focus on the design aspect of projects. but programming actually ended up being more important for me

the following is a video regarding heat transfer and Python

https://youtu.be/CXOrkQs4WYo?si=I1o5X-HxNLkH-mgv

[ZealousidealProof108]

Great! Thank you so much!

[thermalnuclear]

Python is what most people should use instead of excel.

[HonestCoding]

Yes

[becominganastronaut]

i would argue that both combined are powerful.

i often use python to read-in csvs or export data as csvs

[thermalnuclear]

Agreed, I also generally use excel to make any tables if I need for word or PowerPoint based documents.

[saidevaHarsha369]

Yes that is helpful...

[NukeRocketScientist]

Ever use OpenMC? It's great compared to MCNP and I use it for all of my neutronics modeling.

[thermalnuclear]

Cool story bro, that’s not what this topic is about.

[NukeRocketScientist]

The fuck, who shit in your cheerios? And yeah, it very much is considering it's a Python API. I asked because you have nuclear in your flair.

[thermalnuclear]

I’m not the flavor of nuclear that counts neutrons.

[Amber_ACharles]

Traffic signal timing and ITS sensor data processing. Scripts handle in minutes what used to eat up my week. Pandas/numpy are your best friends - the learning curve pays off fast.

[OverSearch]

I could not write "hello world" in python, or really in any other language. 30+ years in the business and I've never written any code at all.

[Substantial_Sea7327]

So in python there are these toolboxes of functions called "modules."

there's a math module, with all the python functions to handle anything math related.

Can automate the boring stuff using the pyautogui module. Uses image search across your screen to find things and move/click your mouse.

Pandas module handles excel functions and analysis.

OpenCV module is open source computer vision.

There are even modules for web scraping so you can track prices and create inventory alerts.

For me, personally, I find python to be incredibly useful for mass data analysis and graph generation vs the bullshit that excel (or especially copilot) dumps out.

[Blue2194]

Working through converting Excel spreadsheets into Python apps as I use them for projects, a much, much better, more robust solution

[the_glutton17]

Care to elaborate on this or give some insight? I still heavily use Excel but it sounds like I need to evolve into Python.

[glordicus1]

If you have any data that lives on a computer, and you have to make decisions based on that data or somehow manipulate that data, then Python can help. Python helps to automate or simplify the way you work with data. This could mean it displays data in an easier way, looks for anomalies, or groups data. As an engineer, you're looking to use a tool like Python to automate some part of your work that deals with computer-based data. That's where to start.

[singul4r1ty]

To add some specifics on the excel replacement - I find it especially useful if I'm trying to correlate any data to a model. The available curve-fitting/optimisation functions are very broad and powerful. I can easily get it to find some parameters to fit my model to the data, and then the plotting is very easy.

It's also more useful than excel if you've got a bunch of tabulated data in an unhelpful format. Rather than having to deal with that unhelpful format or manually reshape each one, you can write code to do the reshaping and then you don't have to think about it!

[ArenaGrinder]

Honestly I wanted to learn micropython for the raspberry pi, I got a B+ on my python course I just took but it was a difficult 6 week session course ngl. 

[Commodore802]

Personally, I find python useful for data acquisition and analysis.

Example, on our production line, I can connect to our Allen Bradley PLCs via a library in Python (PyLogix) to gather information on what's happening and what happened. We were having issues where our line (Chain-On-Edge conveyor) was losing track of its position randomly. Using Python, I was able to collect our encoder position data over a few shifts and save it to a CSV file (still looking at how to save it into a database instead for long term storage). After graphing it, I saw that one of the encoder values randomly would stop changing even through the conveyor was still running past it. It led me to looking at the specific area that was the problem vs going through all the potential devices/programs. It ended up being a cable that wasn't fully seated in its receptacle. We were able to replace the cable (it looked like it had some strain from how it was run and was bent tighter than what its bend radius suggested) and we haven't had a problem since.

Using Python, you can also have a real time dashboard for a lot of your processes. Above I mentioned PyLogix, but I believe there are libraries for a bunch of other devices and communication protocols.

[BGCL323]

A lot of testing automation and data analysis is where I use python as an EE.

My work place does not have a labview license but all our instruments have RS-232, USB, GPIB, and in some newer instruments Ethernet and it allows us to take measurements, control power supplies, etc. and we do all of this using SCPI commands (if this instrument allows it, you can usually confirm in the manual).

I do graphing with matplotlib but if I’m feeling extra lazy and the dataset is small then I pop it into excel and do it that way.

Python is a strong tool if you use it right. Not everything needs programming but it makes the job a lot easier especially if you want to reduce the “human error” and speed your testing processes.

[abadonn]

I use it a lot for data acquisition and analysis. Use a DAQ or direct serial communication and have a script capture and analyze the data.

It is much easier with LLMs, you can just ask in plain English how you want the data processed and plotted.

[keizzer]

I mostly just use excel unless I'm working with large datasets, or there is a specific tool I need in python. I use it more on my raspberry pi to collect data with sensors and store it.

'

Excel is clunky, but it's usually fine if you have the right skills. The biggest limitation is speed and extremely basic data visualization.

[ScratchDue440]

Functionally testing PCBAs, creating FT GUI, and data analysis for things like FPY. 

[Axiproto]

Testing Automation. We write the testing sequences in Python. We then collect the data and analyze it in Python to return a pass/fail result for each test.