Our goal is to help researchers across college become more productive by teaching them basic computing skills like program design, version control, testing, and task automation. In this two-day workshop, short tutorials will alternate with hands-on practical exercises. Participants will be encouraged both to help one another, and to apply what they have learned to their own research problems during and between sessions. The course is aimed at UCL postgraduate students and research staff who are familiar with basic programming concepts (like loops, conditionals, arrays, and functions) but need help to translate this knowledge into practical tools to help them work more productively. We strongly recommend that cohorts from a research group register together if possible, to achieve best peer-support following the event.

Find out more about the Software Carpentry Foundation and access training materials on the Software Carpentry website.

Annual Schedule

Each year we hope to offer workshops including the following:

  • UCL Term 1 reading week - SwC and HPCC
  • UCL Term 2 reading week - SwC and HPCC – UCL only, but it could be opened if demand by UCL is low
  • April/May (i.e. sometime during UCL Term 3) - SwC and HPCC
  • One in the summer holiday (July/August) - Either SwC or HPCC

Register your interest if you would like to participate on a future workshop.

Course content

  • Using the shell to do more in less time
  • Using version control to manage and share information
  • Basic Python/R programming
  • How (and how much) to test programs
  • Documentation and debugging

Prerequisites

You are required to bring your own laptop to the course with the installed tools required for the workshop. If you have problems installing the software come earlier in the first morning and we will help you.

Contact

If you have any questions about this course, please contact ARC’s Research Software Development Group