# Stan General Meeting Thursday September 26, 2019 11am EDT

**URL:** <https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/stan-general-meeting-thursday-september-26-2019-11am-edt/11100>\
**Category:** Meetings\
**Created:** [September 24, 2019, 4:07pm UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/stan-general-meeting-thursday-september-26-2019-11am-edt/11100 "2019-09-24T16:07:48Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Showing post:** 17

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![breckbaldwin](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex030/user_avatar/discourse.mc-stan.org/breckbaldwin/32/9052_2.png) [@breckbaldwin](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/u/breckbaldwin)\
**Post date:** [September 30, 2019, 11:11am UTC](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/stan-general-meeting-thursday-september-26-2019-11am-edt/11100/17 "2019-09-30T11:11:35Z")

</div>

Brief notes:

Matthijs: Some StanC3.

Ben: Uploaded RStanArm, got rejected.

Steve: Met with Dan S, working on Sparse matrix, adding to design doc.

Andrew: Golf case study up, permission to have BDA free online

Charles: Working with Yi to get Newton solver into Stan. Working on monster model.

Rok: Buch of openCL stuff. Working on learning compiler.

Ben B: MRP stuff, had idea that didn’t work out.

Jonah: RStanArm release, RStanTools 2.0 out.

Sean:

- worked on javascript library exposing the stanc3 compiler. works as a  
command line in node already; needs some work to expose all the  
functionality RStan needs in R’s V8 package. :  
[A javascript stanc3](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/a-javascript-stanc3/11044)
  - streamed 2 hours with Rok, compiler overview and implementing simple  
GPU optimizations. link: [https://www.twitch.tv/seantalts/videos](https://www.twitch.tv/seantalts/videos)
  - made a PR adding a new higher order function to stanc3. About 20 lines  
in one file in stanc3 vs. 45 files, about 25 C++ files. up on youtube:  
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvLa1LIQvBA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvLa1LIQvBA)
  - fit[i] only thing left for the roadmap - almost done:  
[Interface roadmap - last draft before ratification vote](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/interface-roadmap-last-draft-before-ratification-vote/10955)
  - lots of exciting discussion around redesigning governance
  - want to draw attention to user defined gradients thread on discourse:  
[Soliciting syntax ideas for user defined gradients and user defined transformations](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/soliciting-syntax-ideas-for-user-defined-gradients-and-user-defined-transformations/11125)

General Meeting:

- Martin Modrak is discourse manager.
- Utrecht StanCon–answer by Friday
- Timestep adaptation
- Stan Weekly Report discussion: Have a wiki? Newsletter? Push tech?
- Stan Electorate: Has been kicked to SGB

---

_[View the full topic](https://discourse.mc-stan.org/t/stan-general-meeting-thursday-september-26-2019-11am-edt/11100)._