NeSI workshop gets a warm reception
In the midst of New Zealand being hit by record cold temperatures and floods, NeSI successfully co-hosted a Software Carpentry workshop in collaboration with the Institute of Fundamental Sciences at Massey University in Palmerston North. The workshop went extremely well thanks to a very warm reception from participants.
NeSI’s own Software Carpentry instructors, Sung Bae and John Rugis, teamed up with Richard Brown from Massey University to deliver the two-day training event for 25 researchers from Massey University, WelTec, Horizons Regional Council and Crown Research Institutes such as Scion and Landcare Research.
Software Carpentry workshops are designed to help researchers and engineers get more research done in less time and with less pain by teaching them basic scientific computing concepts and tools, including program design, version control, data management and task automation.
NeSI is an affiliate member of the Software Carpentry Foundation and has already delivered three workshops in Christchurch, Auckland and Dunedin in 2015.
Sung Bae, the lead instructor of the workshop, explains: “Computing has become an integral part of research, yet many researchers learn essential computing skills ‘on the job’ rather than through structured training, which often results in suboptimal use of computing capability and reduced productivity."
“NeSI, as a national HPC services provider, is strengthening partnerships within the New Zealand research sector and is providing training events like Software Carpentry to help grow New Zealand researchers’ computational capability.”
NeSI is planning to host three more Software Carpentry workshops in 2015.
