Mike Jackson on The Carpentries

Experiences Adding a Lesson on Make

Thu, 20 Aug 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

In June I added a lesson on Automation and Make. In this blog post, I describe how the lesson evolved, my experiences in porting it into the Software Carpentry lesson template, and the community's response...

Software Carpentry Returns to Edinburgh

Mon, 08 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Last week, EPCC's ARCHER training team ran another Software Carpentry workshop here in Edinburgh, on 3rd and 4th of December. The workshop provided attendees with an introduction to version control and Git, building programs with Python, automating tasks with Make, and how (and how much) to test programs. These were set within the context of best practices for scientific computing.

ARCHER Software Carpentry workshop at The University of Edinburgh

Tue, 07 Oct 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

ARCHER, the UK's national supercomputing service, offers training in software development and high-performance computing to scientists and researchers across the UK. As part of our training service we are running a 2 day Software Carpentry workshop at EPCC, The University of Edinburgh, UK, on 3-4 December.

Feedback from Imperial College London

Wed, 24 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

On 16-17 September, EPCC's ARCHER headed down to Imperial College London to run a Software Carpentry bootcamp. My colleague Arno Proeme made his instructor debut, covering version control and Git and good programming practice, while I covered shell hints and tips, automation and Make, and testing.

Feedback from Cranfield

Mon, 28 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

On 21-23 July, EPCC's ARCHER training team visited a sun-drenched Cranfield University to run a Software Carpentry bootcamp and Introduction to Scientific Programming in Python. The 3 days combined a traditional bootcamp with a new day course providing an Introduction to Scientific Programming in Python.

ARCHER Software Carpentry Bootcamp at Imperial College London

Fri, 11 Jul 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

ARCHER, the UK's new national supercomputing service, offers training in software development and high-performance computing to scientists and researchers across the UK. As part of our training service we are running a 2 day Software Carpentry bootcamp at Imperial College London, UK, on 16-17 September.

ARCHER Software Carpentry Bootcamp and Introduction to Scientific Programming in Python

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

ARCHER, the UK's new national supercomputing service, offers training in software development and high-performance computing to scientists and researchers across the UK. As part of our training service we are running a 3 day Software Carpentry bootcamp and Introduction to Scientific Programming in Python at Cranfield University, UK, on 21-23 July.

Feedback from Edinburgh

Thu, 05 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

On the 3rd of December, Software Carpentry returned to Edinburgh with EPCC hosting a bootcamp as part of its involvement in both the PRACE Advanced Training Centre and The Software Sustainability Institute.

A new UK administrator for Software Carpentry

Tue, 08 Oct 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

We are pleased to welcome Luke Tweddle of EPCC, The University of Edinburgh, to Software Carpentry. Luke is taking over as UK administrator from Mike Jackson on behalf of The Software Sustainability Institute. In his role, Luke will help UK researchers organise bootcamps for their research groups, institutions and communities; help the local organisers of bootcamps create and customize content; attract instructors and helpers; manage registration; advise on publicity; and provide support in all aspects of organising a bootcamp. If you'd like help organising a bootcamp, or if you're interested in becoming an instructor or helper, please get in touch.

What Makes Good Code Good at INTECOL13

Fri, 23 Aug 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

On 21st August, I attended INTECOL13 in London's Docklands. The 11th International Congress of Ecology, hosted by the British Ecological Society and INTECOL, is one of the world's premier conference for ecologists.

At the invitation of Matthew Smith from the BES Computational Ecology Specialist Interest Group and Microsoft Research, and Greg Wilson from Software Carpentry, I ran the latest instalment of The Software Sustainability Institute's "what makes good code good" discussions...

DiRAC Driving Test Ready to Roll

Thu, 18 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Since June 2012, The Software Sustainability Institute and Software Carpentry have been working with the DiRAC consortium to develop a "driving test" or basic software skills aptitude test. The test is now ready to be rolled out across DiRAC.

Feedback from Bath

Thu, 18 Jul 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

This week saw Software Carpentry head to Bath in England's South-West. The bootcamp was organised by Alex Chartier, as part of his role as a fellow of The Software Sustainability Institute. Chris Woods from the University of Bristol, joined me as co-instructor, making his bootcamp instructing debut.

Bootcamp in Bristol, September 12-13, 2013

Sat, 15 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Our bootcamp at the University of Bristol on September 12-13, 2013, is now open for registration. Please register here if you would like to take part.

Software Carpentry at INTECOL13

Sun, 02 Jun 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

On 21st August 2013, we'll be attending INTECOL13 in London's Docklands. The 11th International Congress of Ecology, hosted by the British Ecological Society and INTECOL, is one of the world's premier conference for ecologists. At the invitation of Matthew Smith of the BES Computational Ecology Specialist Interest Group and Microsoft Research, Software Carpentry and The Software Sustainability Institute have a talk and a session.

Experiences with the Oxford DTCs

Fri, 17 May 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Mario Antonioletti has posted his experiences on being a first-time instructor at our bootcamp for the Oxford doctoral training centres, our second in Oxford, last week.

Feedback from the EGI Forum

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

At last week's EGI Forum in Manchester, we ran a day of bootcamp "highlights". These were 1.5 hour taster sessions drawn from bootcamp sessions. Our sessions covered,

Using version control to record provenance and collaborate more easily.
Using testing to help ensure your software, and results, are correct.
Data management using a NoSQL database to manage your data more easily.

We had 15-20 attendees for each session, mostly from a computer science or software development background, and in systems support or technical roles. The interests of the attendees were on the specific technologies covered in each session (Git, Python and nosetests, MongoDB) rather than the concepts underlying these, as most attendees were already familiar with these.

Second Dry-Run of DiRAC Driver's License Exam

Wed, 13 Feb 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Back in August we did an alpha test of our driver's licence for DiRAC in conjunction with The Software Sustainability Institute. In the spirit of iterative development, we revised our test in light of our experiences and two weeks ago we did a 2nd dry-run. Four researchers based at University College London kindly agreed to take part as examinees, Dr. Jeremy Yates of DiRAC made the local arrangements, and James Hetherington of UCL, a newly-appointed fellow of The Software Sustainability Institute, provided local assistance.

Feedback from Edinburgh

Wed, 12 Dec 2012 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

This week saw the first bootcamp to be held at The University of Edinburgh. The bootcamp was organised by the The Software Sustainability Institute and EPCC as part of the PRACE Advanced Training Centre. We had 36 researchers from geosciences, astronomy, biology, statistics, chemistry and mathematics and based at 8 institutions across the UK. Azalee and myself led the workshop and we had 7 helpers including Nancy Giang of the University of Dundee who we recruited after she attended the Newcastle bootcamp back in October, and David Jones of the Climate Code Foundation. We also had as helper/observers Mike Mineter of The University of Edinburgh and Norman Gray of The University of Glasgow also came along to help and to see what a bootcamp is like, with a view to running bootcamps for the physics and geosciences communities.

More Oxford feedback

Wed, 07 Nov 2012 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Following on Phil's analysis of the feedback from the first Software Carpentry workshop in Oxford, here are the round-the-room comments from the attendees, helpers and instructors, good and bad...

Good

Learned something.
Mercurial, very useful yet simple. Can apply straight away.
Practical at end seemed useful way of tieing everything together.
Doing things in synch with lecturers.
Scientific approach to programming.
Whole approach.
Good overview of the key concepts and foundation to learn more.
Focussed.
Course as a whole is good.
Thorough - basic to advanced - and see new ways to do basics.
Good practice, can take forward.
Best practice.
Really good overview and intro to things not heard of before but would be very useful (version control, MDAnalysis).
Make and use for things other than C.
Other instructors chipping in on current instructor was good.
Loved it, especially version control and make.

Bad

Keeping up with the instructors typing on the projectors, so slow the pace.
Resources and case-studies from the simple examples to complex examples.
Would like more of a chance to apply what was learned with the instructors around, or at least feedback on a plan.
Most sessions ran over.
Problems with later aspects of Python.
Balance between beginner and advanced - always wasting someones time.
Knowing simpler Python commands might've helped beforehand.
Sometimes a bit too fast.
More time for exercises.
Target the course a bit more to their area.
Helps to start with, but good to have more courses and more on each area.
More time to work on problems and work through case-studies.
Downloading all the files for every exercise.
Days away from work.

Feedback from Newcastle

Wed, 24 Oct 2012 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

This week the Digital Institute at Newcastle University with The Software Sustainability Institute ran a second bootcamp at Newcastle University. This bootcamp was run for attendees from the North East of England, from whom there was demand after the first Newcastle bootcamp, back in May.

Feedback from the attendees was good though some wanted more time or detail on specific subjects. The most popular comment was the desire to have the slides and instructor scripts available so that attendees could catch up if they fell behind the instructor. The other major challenge, again, was Cygwin. We may want to provide a VM for attendees who typically use Linux but have a Windows laptop.