Should Mechanical Engineering courses use Python/Jupyter notebooks consistently, to teach computational thinking for solving engineering problems? And what about "vibe coding": using AI to generate solutions, then learning from them? I'd love your views. 🧵
My hypothesis: AI-generated solutions work as worked examples to audit, debug and extend, but only if students must verify and explain them. Should we assess the solution or the ability to validate it? What would you change in an ME curriculum? #EngineeringEducation #Python #Jupyter
A 2026 experiment: 52 Python programmers learned a new library, some with AI help. In a final test without AI, the AI group scored 17% lower, mostly on debugging. Those who used AI to ask for explanations kept their learning (Shen & Tamkin, small sample).
Why notebooks: equations, code, plots and reasoning live in one place, so the solution becomes a readable narrative, not just a number. As Jeannette Wing argued (CACM, 2006), computational thinking is abstraction, decomposition and modelling, not programming itself.
Making scientific presentations in LaTeX Beamer used to be slow and fiddly. With an AI assistant it's now far more agile: layouts, figures, equations and fixes in minutes.
I compared two assistants on this: GPT-5.6 Sol (xhigh) and Claude Opus 5.5 (xhigh). In my experience, GPT-5.6 Sol came out ahead for Beamer slides, though both are very capable.
Have you tried it? Which assistant works best for you?
JetBrains Air turns @pycharm into a proper multi-agent workspace: Claude, Codex, Junie and more as tabs, first-class citizens in the IDE. It would be fantastic if @cursor_ai offered something equivalent. jetbrains.com/help/pycharm/a…
Curiosity project: I ported the correlation kernel of iCorrVision, our open-source Python DIC software, to Mojo, and the speed-up is striking.
Uniaxial tensile test, every node, full test:
🐍 Python (1 thread): 18.3 min
🔥 Mojo (1 thread): 3.3 min (5.6x)
🔥 Mojo (24 threads): 26.7 s (41x)
Biaxial: 16.0 min → 32.0 s (30x).
Congrats @clattner_llvm on opening up Mojo and MAX! #Mojo #DIC #ExperimentalMechanics
José Xavier retweeted
An agent writes the code now. Do you still need an IDE?
You do if you want to understand and verify what the agent did.
🎥 In our new video, we talk about the role of an IDE now that humans aren't the only ones working on the code. youtu.be/AHFGMkzrfwM
Seminar | Experimental & Computational Biomechanics (MSc Mechanical Eng., NOVA FCT): Prof. Stéphane Avril (Mines Saint-Étienne) on "Optical techniques and inverse methods in soft-tissue mechanics: the Virtual Fields Method". Wed 28 Oct, 14:00–16:00, Room 3.05, Bldg VIII. #Biomechanics
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🔬 Excited to share the publication "Experimental Protocols to Test Aortic Soft Tissues: A Systematic Review"👉mdpi.com/2306-5354/11/8/745
#aorta #biaxial_tests #digital_image_correlation
#experimental_protocols #hyperelastic_behaviour #soft_tissue
José Xavier retweeted
Tech enthusiast? Educator? Computationally curious?
Check out the "Computational Conversations" podcast - a series of lively discussions on the challenges and opportunities of technology in education, society, and beyond!
youtube.com/playlist?list=PL…
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Announcing GitHub Copilot Free!
A new free tier for GitHub Copilot, available for everyone today in @code
No trial. No subscription. No credit card required.
Learn more in our blog: aka.ms/copilot-free
ALT A thumbnail with a blue, black, and green gradient background, with the VS Code and GitHub Copilot logos in the foreground and a graphic of the Copilot Chat window hovering below.
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Wolfram Notebook Assistant + LLM Kit Announcement and Demo with Stephen Wolfram nitter.gq/i/broadcasts/1MYxNMPYq…
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Useful to the point of being revolutionary: introducing Wolfram Notebook Assistant!
writings.stephenwolfram.com/…
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#JupyterLab 4.3 and #Notebook 7.3 are now available! Find out more about the latest updates in this blog post: blog.jupyter.org/jupyterlab-…
José Xavier retweeted
New 20hr bootcamp on Probability & Statistics!!!
Videos released weekly but full playlist already posted:
youtube.com/watch?v=sQqniayn…
Probability & Statistics are cornerstones of data science and machine learning. This course rapidly covers the basics and gets into advanced topics.
José Xavier retweeted
📚 A pensar na saúde mental, a centenária Livraria Lello, no Porto, lançou uma petição para que os livros possam ser prescritos por médicos e dedutíveis no IRS como despesa de saúde.
Saiba mais: expresso.pt/webstories/livra…
📷 Horacio Villalobos - Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images
🚨 Webinar Alert! 🚨
Join Prof. Nele Famaey as she explores "Shift to the Mechanics: Distensibility as a Predictor for Ascending Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm Failure."
📅 16 Oct 2024, 2 p.m. WEST (Lisbon)
🔗 Link: meet.google.com/khy-svay-rfp
#Webinar #Biomechanics #AneurysmTool #FCT