“The Hacker Within” research community launched in Melbourne with an inaugural “Software Carpentry” bootcamp
By Damien Irving.
While the rest of UniMelb was winding down at the end of last year, 35 PhD students and early career researchers subjected themselves to an intensive two-day (four-afternoon) Software Carpentry bootcamp.
Why do researchers need to learn basic computer programming skills?
In today’s web-enabled world of big data and cloud computing, researchers from all corners of the campus are spending more and more time wrestling with software. Since most researchers are self-taught programmers, they spend hours doing things that should take minutes, reinvent a lot of wheels, and still don’t know if their results are reliable.
What is Software Carpentry?
Not knowing the basics of programming is an inefficient (and stressful) way to work, so it’s no surprise that Software Carpentry - a volunteer organisation that teaches basic software (i.e. programming) skills to researchers - has exploded in popularity in recent years. They recognise that researchers don’t need to be professional software ‘engineers’ to get their work done, but a solid understanding of basic software ‘carpentry’ skills is now essential for modern-day researchers. Check out their website for more information.
Given the success of our inaugural Software Carpentry bootcamp, the ITS Research Services department is committed to running more in 2014. If you’re a researcher who has to code (via Python, Matlab, Rstat, etc) and would like to learn how to be a better “hacker,” please get in touch.
Beyond bootcamps… The Hacker Within
More bootcamps for researchers is obviously great news, but it’s not enough. The adoption of good programming practices takes many years, so ongoing support through a community of practice is critical to improving the computational competency of researchers. Accordingly, ITS Research Services recently announced a new community called “The Hacker Within,” where researchers can come together to collaborate with one another.
The Software Carpentry bootcamp was the first of many events that The Hacker Within will be hosting over the next 12-months. If you’d like to get involved with this exciting new research community, we’d love to see you at our next meeting.
