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Hi, I'm Damien.

I'm interested in science, research, education, and technology.

I work as a Research Data Specialist in the Melbourne Data Analytics Platform at the University of Melbourne in Australia. My background is in research in the area of perception (vision and hearing; more information about my research) and in teaching perception and research skills. I have a particular interest in the development of computational skills in researchers, and I have created resources such as "Programming for psychology in Python" and "Fundamentals of data and coding for psychology". I also enjoy using the functionality of the modern web to create interactive instructional material, such as an image Fourier analysis explorer, a simulator of visually-responsive neurons, and an explorer for spectral distributions in a visual scene.

Technology-wise, I use Python for pretty much everything—except for web-based projects, where I use JavaScript (recently via TypeScript, using Deno). Recently, I have been particularly enjoying using xarray for structured data representation and storage. I am also a fan of veusz for creating figures, pymc for Bayesian analyses, and Code Ocean for producing reproducible analysis workflows. I am a long-time Linux user and like using simple interfaces.

Personally, I enjoy running and usually get out for a run a few times a week.

I occasionally write posts on various topics:

• Using custom data types in Python: reflections on the use of type hints
• Race report: Orange Running Festival half-marathon
• Labelled multi-dimensional arrays for representing research data
• Creating heatmap visualisations for posterior distributions
• Extracting files from a remote zip archive
• Race report: Carcoar Cup half-marathon
• A Bayesian approach to perceptual difference scaling
• Benefits of storing and accessing research data in zip files
• Reproducing intention in research programming
• Camera shake and the stream-bounce effect
• Presenting images on the web with a higher apparent bit-depth
• Fitting models with circular data in PyMC
• Using containers for reproducible and collaborative computation
• An interactive image Fourier analysis website
• A web version of an interactive visual neuron simulator
• Rendering stimuli for perception studies using Mitsuba 2
• Motion-defined surfaces and surface lightness
• Code review as part of a research workflow

Please feel free to contact me at [email protected].