NeSI Otago region workshop well received
NeSI partnered with the University of Otago to present a two-day Software Carpentry Workshop in Dunedin on June 18-19. The instructors included lead instructor John Rugis from NeSI, Professor Michael Black and graduate students James Boocock and Tom Kelly from the University of Otago, as well as Cameron McLean from the University of Auckland.
The event was hosted in the Department of Biochemistry with the majority of 30 attendees being from that department. The program covered Bash Shell, R Programming, version control with GIT and data management using SQL. The event was warmly received with feedback included comments such as:
"Ten out of ten. Would encourage a friend to undertake."
"This was a really helpful session. Please organise such sessions on a regular basis."
"Really good level to start at. It was nice having a real world example."
"Easy to follow instructions. Liked the simplicity of the explanations."
John Rugis says: "A significant aspect of the NeSI mission is to propagate the skills required for effective high-performance computing amongst the science community. NeSI's affiliation with Sotfware Carpentry is advancing that mission."
Notably, all of the instructors for this event have been through a Software Carpentry instructor training programme which was held in Melbourne early this year. To keep up the momentum, NeSI is now planning to host a Software Carpentry instructor training event in New Zealand early next year.
John says: "Software Carpentry instructor training is more than a fantastic professional development opportunity. It opens up a context in which to truly engage with and contribute to the scientific computing user community."
