An Interview with Andrew Sverdrup
Tags: python, learning, api
Published: 2018-07-02 18:32:58

---
title: An Interview with Andrew Sverdrup
published: true
description: An interview with Andrew Sverdrup, author of the new Next XYZ Python OpenWeatherMap course.
tags: python,learning,api
---

> “The ability to provide something of value to many people is the driving force behind my love of technology.”
― Andrew Sverdrup

**Hey Andrew, excited to be sitting down with you and doing this interview! To get started, mind telling me a little about yourself?**

Sure thing! I am a recent college grad and am excited to put the programming knowledge I have learned to use. My degree is in Software Engineering from Embry-Riddle in Arizona. And I recently joined Next XYZ as their first full time software engineer!

I like to stay active by working out and playing basketball. I love learning and trying out new programming languages to see what they’re like. I learn by doing so I enjoy finding new languages and libraries and seeing what I can build with them.

**Awesome. So tell me about your course!**

The Python OpenWeatherMap (PyOWM) course teaches you how to use the OpenWeatherMap API with Python. OpenWeatherMap is a powerful API that lets you retrieve weather data for virtually any location in the world, and they have a generous free tier to get you started! The PyOWM library allows you to easily use the OpenWeatherMap API with Python.

The first half of the course covers the basics that you need to know to get weather data using PyOWM, including the temperature, wind speed, and humidity. The second half is my favorite though. That’s where we use the temperature data to create a graphical user interface (GUI) to display the temperature forecast! And finally at the end you’re challenged to modify that GUI to display the humidity forecast.

**What made you decide to build this course?**

I decided to build the course because I’ve learned many cool things while programming and I want to share them with others so they can learn too! Programming provides seemingly endless possibilities to create both fun and useful projects. Next XYZ allows me to easily share what I’ve learned with others and I look forward to hearing what people think of the course!

**What got you interested in technology in the first place?**

I’ve been fascinated by computers ever since I was a kid. It takes a lot of money to build things such as houses, but with programming you can create something valuable with very few resources. All you need is a computer, some programming skills, and some ideas! The ability to provide something of value to many people is the driving force behind my love of technology.

**Do you have any ideas for future courses you might build?**

I love sharing what I’ve learned with other people so they can see all the cool things that can be done with programming. I’m always exploring new languages and libraries and I will be creating more courses for some of my favorites, so stay tuned!

**Where can readers find your course?**

The course is published on Next XYZ [here](https://www.next.xyz/xyz/python-open-weather-map). Give it a try and let me know what you think!

_You can find Andrew [on Twitter](https://twitter.com/AndrewSverdrup)._