University of Wisconsin - Madison on The Carpentries

Connecting Bootcamp Content to Motivation and Best Practices

Wed, 03 Apr 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

As our next Software Carpentry bootcamp quickly approaches, we have been struggling with many of the usual questions of what to teach and what not to teach. We expect a broad array of skills and experience (pre-assessment is yet to be completed), and want to make sure that all the learners leave with a clear motivation to build on what they learn.

Knowledge of the Second Kind

Sat, 19 Nov 2011 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Over the last three years, a group of students has quietly been converting snacks and enthusiasm into scientists who can program.

The Hacker Within is a student club at the University of Wisconsin — Madison which came about when a number of nuclear engineering graduate students needed a forum to exchange tools and share best practices for their increasingly software intensive research. The success that followed provides an example of an educational model that has fostered necessary software skills among science and engineering graduate students.

The Hacker Within

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

I got back to Toronto late last night from visiting The Hacker Within, a grassroots student organization at the University of Wisconsin — Madison that helps science and engineering students figure out how to use computing in their research. I think it's a great model for schools elsewhere to adopt, and despite truly awful "service" from Delta Airlines [1], it was worth going down to chat with Katy, Nico, Paul, and everyone else, and to see a large auditorium filled with people (80? more?) learning how version control, the shell, Doxygen, and other tools can make them more productive researchers. And as a bonus, I can now take "sleep in a frat house" off my list of 1000 things to do before I die... :-)

Software Carpentry Bootcamp Jan 12-14 in Madison

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Registration is now open for a three-day Software Carpentry bootcamp Jan 12-14, 2011, at the University of Wisconsin — Madison, organized by the folks at The Hacker Within. I'll be speaking on the first morning, and hanging out the rest of the time trying to learn as much as I can. Look forward to seeing you there!

Interview with The Hackers Within

Tue, 20 Jul 2010 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Today's interview is with Nicholas Preston, Katy Huff, and Milad Fatenejad of the The Hacker Within at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Tell us a bit about your organization and its goals.

The Hacker Within is a student-run, skill-sharing, interest group dedicated to scientific software development at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. We typically meet every week or two discuss programming and computation. The meetings are also a good place to ask questions, share ideas, and meet others who use computation in their research.

The Hacker Within

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

I did a web search for "software carpentry" a couple of weeks ago to update my impressions of how the material was being used, and stumbled across The Hacker Within,a self-help group at the University of Wisconsin for grad students in science who want to improve their computing skills. I had a great chat with the organizers by phone on Thursday, and hope to get there in the spring to meet them in person. It's always great to meet the people the course is designed to help; I'd welcome pointers to other groups if you have them.