Topic: "Modern Approaches to Profiling in Python with Scalene"

Speaker: Tyler Collins, SHARCNET

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Python is a language developers choose to write in for convenience rather than speed. However, speed can be recovered by offloading calculations to libraries which leverage lower level languages like NumPy, Cython, and more. Scalene is a high-performance CPU, GPU, and memory profiler which can illustrate where code should be passing calculations to other libraries for significant increases in speed. Scalene also includes support for Jupyter Notebooks, OpenAI suggestions for vectorizing code, as well as a significantly lower overhead and higher accuracy than other profilers. This talk will introduce the concepts required for understanding why external libraries are faster than native Python, interactions with approaches such as Cython and Just-in-Time compilers, as well as a live demonstration of Scalene on the Alliance systems inside of a Jupyter Notebook. Familiarity with Python, virtual environments, and Jupyter notebooks will be assumed.

The Compute Ontario Colloquia are weekly Zoom presentations on Advanced Research Computing, High Performance Computing, Research Data Management, and Research Software topics, delivered by staff from three Compute Ontario consortia (CAC, SciNet, SHARCNET) and guest speakers. The series began January 2023 and superseded similar series previously delivered by individual consortia (e.g. General Interest Seminars by SHARCNET or User Group Meeting TechTalks by SciNet). The colloquia are one hour long and include time for questions. No registration is required. Presentations are usually recorded and uploaded to the hosting consortium video channel (colloquia hosted by SHARCNET go to our youtube channel).