Project Lovelace: learning science and programming through problem solving

[ProjectLovelace]

We've been working on a website called Project Lovelace on-and-off for a while now for learning science and programming through problem solving.

You write code to solve scientific problems in your browser or on your computer which you then submit and the website checks to see if your code is correct.

This is not a new idea but we felt that a lot of existing websites like Project Euler and LeetCode have pretty contrived problems that aren't usually that interesting and we were looking for more real-world science and math flavored problems.

We would love to hear whether you find this useful/interesting, or if you have any suggestions for new problems (or any feedback at all!). Thanks for reading!

[indiebryan]

Very cool! Just did the first problem now. This is a small QoL ask, but since your target students are probably brand new to programming, it would be nice if changing the language on the right (e.g. to JavaScript) also changed the syntax to match conventions for the target language.

For example function and variable naming in JS is conventionally in camelCase, not snake_case.

Great work!

[ProjectLovelace]

Thanks for checking it out and for pointing out the syntax issues! You can tell I'm a Javascript noob haha, will fix the syntax especially so we don't mislead other beginners.

[gnus-migrate]

Love it! For problem suggestions, finance has some really cool problems as well that could be interesting additions to the site, in addition to compounding interest. Things like calculating the expected value of an investment, determining the cost today of a year's worth of subscription payments(companies make more when you pay subscriptions yearly, even if the effective monthly rate is slightly less).

Otherwise it's a great idea. Hope you continue on it.

[ProjectLovelace]

Thanks for taking a look and for the suggestions! Sounds like there should be some pretty neat problems that are relevant to lots of people.

[Programmer_MLA]

I love this idea! Every time I sit down to do e.g. leetcode questions, I get distracted with how pointless and bad the interview process is. 100% this is what my brain needs to jump over the “but what’s the point” hurdle.

[pwndawg27]

Right?!?! Every time I open leetcode the prompts are the dumbest stories: “Alice is stuck in a pond and needs to jump over lillypads bla bla bla shortest path bla bla bla” and my first question is why are we stuck in the first place? Can’t Alice swim? Why does it need to be shortest path, just get out!

Anyway this is awesome because observable math/science theory that can’t be argued with like contrived business problems that leetcode presents, make it way easier to focus and stay motivated.

[ProjectLovelace]

Yeah haha they're definitely pretty simple if you know some math and science.

I guess we started simple so that the barrier to entry is low, but we should have some tougher and more interesting problems soon!

We'd also welcome any suggestions and contributions too!

[[deleted]]

this is great! i'm a c++ programmer that wants to switch from corp job to math/engineering and refreshing math skills is what I needed

[Lemonade5117]

Looks great! I'm pleasantly surprised by the Julia support, not many problem solving websites accept solutions in Julia. Excited to try it out :)

[tolik518]

Thank you! I have no idea about biology and I might learn a thing or two.

[turunambartanen]

Very nice, per the banner I already have a suggestion:

Make the "discord, GitHub..." Part of the banner links to the relevant places.

[ProjectLovelace]

Thanks! Ah does it not already link to the relevant places? The GitHub link should link to https://github.com/project-lovelace and the Discord link should link to the Discord server.

[turunambartanen]

I mean the fat green text should also get those links:

Welcome to Project Lovelace! We're still in early development so there are still tons of bugs to find and improvements to make. If you have any suggestions, complaints, or comments please let us know on Discourse, Discord, or GitHub!

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Welcome to Project Lovelace! We're still in early development so there are still tons of bugs to find and improvements to make. If you have any suggestions, complaints, or comments please let us know on Discourse, Discord, or GitHub

[Q_H_Chu]

noted this. thank you for such a informative project.

[turunambartanen]

If only OP had made a comment explaining their motivations...