Editing OctConf 2013

Following the success of [[OctConf 2012]] which brought together users and
developers for five days in July in the French Canadian summer,
the first european OctConf was be held in Milan, Italy on June 24-26
2013.  

OctConf is a good opportunity to meet Octave developers and users from all over the world and discuss current and 
future directions of the Octave project.

== Summary of activities ==
=== Opening keynote speaker: John W. Eaton ===
John (aka, jwe) gave us another update on GNU Octave's development in the last year. Things look good for Octave but we still need to improve the flow from users to contributors. The optimal way would be to get more core developers (i.e. people who update and improve the core of Octave's) however users can contribute in many ways, some ideas follow: 
* Helping with the Wiki.
* Commenting on bugs/features in [https://savannah.gnu.org/projects/octave/ tracker]. 
* Maintaining/updating/contributing packages to [http://octave.sourceforge.net/ Octave-Forge].
* Organizing events (talks, courses, etc.).
* Donating.

Finally, we discussed a lot about economic sustainability of the project. How can people make money using GNU Octave without damaging/endangering its freedom? Do you know business models that could fit? How can we organize a pool of developers to offer support for companies wanting to use GNU Octave?

 * [[File:slides_octconf_jwe.pdf|Slides]]

=== Octave overview===

As usual, and meant for the new comers, there was an overview of GNU Octave. 
This is an ongoing collaborative effort initiated by Jordi at OctConf 2012,
it was modified and extended by Carlo who presented it in varios occations (including 
[http://femtec2013.femhub.com/ FEMTEC2013]).
The source of the presentation is available in a [http://inversethought.com/hg/what-is-octave/ mercurial repository] 
and is distributed under the [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ CC-by-SA] license.
The sources for this presentation are available under a Creative Commons 
license for anybody who wants to use them. Get it here!

*[http://wiki.octave.org/wiki/images/b/b0/Slides_octconf_gdf_jgh.pdf Slides]

=== Octave in numerical methods courses ===
Paola Gervasio gave a presentation about how she and her colleagues ([http://mox.polimi.it/qs/ authors of several books])use Octave in their courses at the university. You cansee exmaples used for the classes and some interesting pedagogic techniques in the slides.
[http://www.ing.unibs.it/~gervasio/ Contact her] if you have questions!

*[http://wiki.octave.org/wiki/images/2/27/Slides_octconf_paola_gervasio.pdf Slides]

=== Teaching engineers with GNU Octave ===
[https://staff.ti.bfh.ch/sha1/ Andreas Stahel] from Biel, Switzerland gave a talk about teaching GNU Octave for Engineering. All his material (code, lecture notes, etc) is available for download, reuse, remix, reshare.

*[http://wiki.octave.org/wiki/images/4/4c/Slides_octconf_andreas_stahel.pdf Slides]

=== NCLab ===
Martin Novak and Martin Balek, from [http://www.nclab.com NCLab], showcased their product and commented in the technology their are develping to have a fully functional GNU Octave server online. We hope this guys manage to earn they coins respecting the Free software community. Good luck! 
*[http://wiki.octave.org/wiki/images/a/ac/Slides_octconf_martin_novak.pdf Slides]

=== LTFAT and Octave ===
Realtime sound processing with GNU Octave? It seems that the Czech-Danish team of [http://ltfat.sourceforge.net/ LTFAT] formed by Zdenek Prusa and Peter L. Søndergaard believes it is possible and are working towards it. We will hear (pun!) a lot from them in the coming months.

Apart from that, LTFAT provides an implementation of wavelets for GNU Octave.

* [http://wiki.octave.org/wiki/images/d/d1/Slides_octconf_zdenek_prusa.pdf Slides]

=== FEM mash-up and Octave ===
[http://www.graduate-school-ce.de/index.php?id=481 S. Schöps] showed a mash-up of proprietary and libre (FOSS) software to solve 3D coupled electromagnetic problems.

*[http://www.schoeps.org/octconf_2013.pdf Slides]

=== JIT Compiler ===
L Y.H., the student who will follow up the work of Max Brister, presented the difficulties with changes in LLVM and the JIT compiler for Octave.
Apparently, a re-structuring of this part of Octave is imminent.

*[http://wiki.octave.org/wiki/images/a/a4/Slides_octconf_lyh.pdf Slides]

=== New sparse matrix format for Octave ===
[http://librsb.sourceforge.net/ Michele Martone]
presented his (soon to be released) Octave package for sparse matrices "sparsersb".
The package enables Octave users to transparently use the "librsb"
multithreaded sparse matrix library from Octave, gaining performance 
in the application of sparse matrix-vector multiplication operations on
large matrices (e.g.: when applying iterative methods).
Early testing efforts are very welcome.
Code and information is already available on [http://librsb.sourceforge.net] .

* [http://wiki.octave.org/wiki/images/9/92/Slides_octconf_michele_martone.pdf Slides]

=== GSoC project: Incomplete factorization ===

In future releases incomplete [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incomplete_LU_factorization LU-] and [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incomplete_Cholesky_factorization Cholesky-]factorizations will be part of Octave. In a short presentation one of this years Google Summer of Code students [[User:Siko1056|Kai T. Ohlhus]] talked about the project progress.

* [http://wiki.octave.org/wiki/images/0/01/Slides_kai_torbrn_ohlus.pdf Slides]

=== Spectral Variational Integrators ===
This project may take off with the acceptance of Octave into the ESA summer of code in Space. Very interestign for people working in Mechanics and Control.

* [http://wiki.octave.org/wiki/images/2/29/Slides_octconf_roberto_porcu.pdf Slides]

=== Hardware and Octave ===
The Octave-Forge [[Instrument control]] package allows to interface Octave with hardware. [http://reslab.elis.ugent.be/drjpi Juan Pablo Carbajal] gave a very short demo on how to do serial communication with the [http://www.dwengo.org Dwengo] board. [http://www.dwengo.org/node/486 Here are the details], [http://youtu.be/d1If8XOL73c watch the video].

<!-- == Registration (closed) ==
Please go to 
[http://www2.mate.polimi.it/ocs/index.php?cf=42 the registration website] if you wish to attend.
There is no fee for participating but registration is mandatory as places are limited.
If you also wish to give a presentation please post a one page abstract with your registration.
Limited amount funding for travel and accommodation support is available, if you need such support
please mention it in your registration.
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<!-- {{Note|in order to give you wireless access during the
conference, our host university requires your name and address 3 weeks
in advance to the conference date. Email this information to Jordi so
he can make arrangements.}}

[[File:octave-poster.png|200px|thumb|right|OctConf 2012 poster]] 
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== Social Events ==

[https://maps.google.com/maps?q=Cooperativa+La+Liberazione,+Via+Lomellina,+Milan,+Province+of+Milan,+Italy&hl=en&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=39.456673,79.013672&oq=cooperativa+la+liberazione&t=h&hq=Cooperativa+La+Liberazione,&hnear=Via+Lomellina,+Milano,+Italy&cid=3958574233276347267&z=16&iwloc=A Cooperativa La Liberazione]

[https://maps.google.com/maps?q=union+pub+milano&ll=45.473027,9.228687&spn=0.008547,0.01929&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&fb=1&hq=union+pub+milano&cid=0,0,7068269447117484891&t=h&z=16&iwloc=A Union Pub]

== Location ==

=== Hosting Institution and Local Sponsors ===

OctConf 2013 was hosted by the [http://mox.polimi.it MOX]
Modeling and Scientific Computing lab at the
[http://www.mate.polimi.it Department of Mathematics] of Milan Technical University ([http://www.polimi.it Politecnico di Milano]), 
and was  partially supported by [http://moxoff.com/ MOXOFF] and [http://nclab.com/ NCLab].

=== Venue ===

The meeting was held on the 7th floor of Building 14 ("La Nave")
of the "Leonardo" campus of Politecnico di Milano in the
[http://www.mate.polimi.it Department meeting room].

=== Milano, Italy  ===

Milan is one of the most art and history rich cities in Italy, and it
is within 100 miles of all the most beautiful locations in northern Italy
including the Alps, the Mediterranean Sea and the lake region. With
new high speed train connections it is also about 2 and a half hours
away from Rome. There are 3 international airports in Milan all served
by Low-Cost companies that offer cheap flights to/from most cities in
Europe, Northern Africa and the Middle East. 

Summer in Milano can be quite hot and humid but rain is very rare. The
city has a very serviceable public transportation network of buses and
underground trains (metro), there is also a public bike rental service
but none of the bike rental stations is located conveniently enough to
serve the Politecnico campus at this time yet.

==== How to get there ====

The reference is: 

 MOX - Modeling and Scientific Computing
 Dipartimento di Matematica "F. Brioschi"
 Politecnico di Milano
 via Bonardi 9
 Edificio 14 ("La Nave") 

See [http://mox.polimi.it/it/informazioni/dove.php3?en=en this page] on the MOX website for
directions, or check out [http://goo.gl/maps/RPP35 this link] on Google maps.

<!-- === Lodging ===

See [http://mox.polimi.it/~carlo/accom.html this page] for lodging opportunities in
the vicinity of the Politecnico Leonardo campus.
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== Dates ==

June 24-26, 2013. Each day will be focusing on a specific topic 

* Day 1 : Octave in Education
* Day 2 : Octave in Academic Research
* Day 3 : Octave in Engineering Applications

== Detailed Schedule ==
<!--
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;"
|
|''Monday''
|''Tuesday''
|''Wednesday''
|-
|09:15
|'''Coffee & croissants'''
|'''Coffee & croissants'''
|'''Coffee & croissants'''
|-
|09:30
|Talk &mdash; TBA
|Talk &mdash; TBA
|Talk &mdash; TBA
|-
|10:15
|Talk &mdash; TBA
|Talk &mdash; TBA
|Talk &mdash; TBA
|-
|11:00
|'''Coffee break'''
|'''Coffee break'''
|'''Coffee break'''
|-
|11:15
|Open discussion
|Open discussion
|Open discussion
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|13:15
|'''Lunch'''
|'''Lunch'''
|'''Lunch'''
|-
|14:30
|Tutorial 1: TBA
|Tutorial 2: TBA
|Tutorial 3: TBA
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|15:45
|'''Coffee break'''
|'''Coffee break'''
|'''Coffee break'''
|-
|16:00
|Code sprints
|Code sprints
|Code sprints
|-
|17:30
|Status reports
|Status reports
|Status reports
|-
|18:00
|
|Social event
|
|}
-->

[[File:detailed_schedule_octconf_2013.pdf]]

== Participants ==

The registration procedure has now been moved [http://www2.mate.polimi.it/ocs/?cf=42 here] 
The complete list of participants will be published here after the conference.

<!--
* [http://jweaton.org John W. Eaton]
* Andreas Stahel, Bern University of Applied Sciences
* Jordi Gutiérrez Hermoso + Jan (OctConf bande dessinée illustrator)
* [http://wiki.octave.org/User:KaKiLa Juan Pablo Carbajal], Ghent University.
* [http://home.rzg.mpg.de/~mima/ Michele Martone] (Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics, Garching, Germany)
-->

=== Octave developers attending ===
'''Note:''' putting your name down in this list is not a valid form of registration. This is only to announce others that you'll be attending.

* [[User:Carandraug|Carnë Draug/David Pinto]]
* [[User:Siko1056|Kai T. Ohlhus]]
* [[User:KaKiLa|Juan Pablo Carbajal]]
* [[User:Gedeone|Marco V]]

== Funding ==

There is limited funding to cover the travel expenses of selected participants.

== Previous OctConf ==
[[OctConf_2012| OctConf 2012]]

== Next OctConf ==
[[OctConf_2014| OctConf 2014]]

[[Category:OctConf]]
[[Category:2013]]