PyDev of the Week: Déborah Mesquita

This week we welcome Déborah Mesquita as our PyDev of the Week! Déborah is a content writer at Real Python. You can see what she is up to over on her website or by checking out her GitHub profile.

Let’s spend some time getting to know Déborah better!

Can you tell us a little about yourself (hobbies, education, etc):

Sure! I have a BS degree in Computer Science and I’m a data scientist. My favorite hobby is reading, I really like to read about business and psychology. I’m also very active, I never miss a pilates class and I also started to roller skate. Oh, I recently got a bass and I’m learning how to play it, it’s really cool. I used to play the guitar when I was younger.

Why did you start using Python?

Because I wanted to be a Real Python author! Hahaha just kidding, I think the main reason to pick it as my first language was that all the main data science libraries are written in Python.

What other programming languages do you know and which is your favorite?

I’ve programmed in Bash, PHP, Objective-C, COBOL (yes), Haskell, Javascript, and so on. I don’t know which one is my favorite, but I think Javascript is my least favorite haha. Maybe it’s because I still didn’t have the chance to learn it properly.

What projects are you working on now?

I’m working on a deep learning project to recognize products on shelves. It’s been cool because I finally really understood how convolution networks really work, I’m been avoiding image deep learning projects since then.

Which Python libraries are your favorite (core or 3rd party)?

I think my favorite one is Scikit-learn. I’m in love with how good the documentation is and how the lib empowers everyone to use machine learning.

I see you are currently focusing on NLP. Can you explain what that is and why you chose to focus on it?

Sure, in simple words NLP is a field where we use text as our main data source. I like to write and read a lot so I thought it would be something good I could specialize in.

How did you get involved with Real Python?

Every time I make a google search on a programming topic I hope to get a Real Python result because the article will be great and I’ll really learn about the topic I’m searching for. This year I finally dared to apply to the Tutorial Team and I’m very glad I did it. Everyone is very talented and It’s been a pleasure to be part of the team.

Is there anything else you’d like to say?

I’m from Brazil! 😛

Thanks for doing the interview, Déborah!

Past PyDevs of the Week

• Aug 30, 2021 – Joshua Ebner, data science trainer at Sharp Sight
• Aug 23, 2021 – Paulus Schoutsen, founder of Home Assistant
• Aug 16, 2021 – Daniel Zingaro, author for No Starch Press
• Aug 9 2021 – Patrick Arminio, works on Strawberry GraphQL
• Aug 2, 2021 – Patrick Loeber, runs a popular Python YouTube channel