Open notes: Deep learning research environment setup

June 23, 2025

tl;dr Setting up a typical PyTorch environment (using Mamba)

mamba create -n $ENV_NAME python=3.11
mamba activate $ENV_NAME
pip install torch torchvision torchaudio --index-url https://download.pytorch.org/whl/cu128
 
pip install tqdm einops jaxtyping
pip install ipykernel ipywidgets
 
python -m ipykernel install --user --name "$ENV_NAME"

IPython and Jupyter

Installing Jupyter notebook

pipx install notebook --include-deps # notebook 7.3.2
pipx inject notebook jupyterlab-vim jupyter-collaboration jupyterlab-freeze widgetsnbextension

Adding and removing IPython kernels

# list existing kernels
jupyter kernelspec list
 
# add a kernel
python -m ipykernel install --user --name "$ENV_NAME"
 
# remove a kernel
jupyter kernelspec uninstall "$ENV_NAME"

autoreload and how it works