Federal Reserve Board

August 20-21, 2018

8:30-4:30

Instructors: Jennifer Gilbert, Tony Primerano, Brian Seok, Damian Thomas

Helpers: TBD

General Information

Software Carpentry aims to help researchers get their work done in less time and with less pain by teaching them basic research computing skills. This hands-on workshop will cover basic concepts and tools, including program design, version control, data management, and task automation. Participants will be encouraged to help one another and to apply what they have learned to their own research problems.

For more information on what we teach and why, please see our paper "Best Practices for Scientific Computing".

Who: The course is aimed at graduate students and other researchers. You don't need to have any previous knowledge of the tools that will be presented at the workshop.

Where: 1709 New York Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20006. Get directions with OpenStreetMap or Google Maps.

When: August 20-21, 2018. Add to your Google Calendar.

Requirements: Participants must bring a laptop with a Mac, Linux, or Windows operating system (not a tablet, Chromebook, etc.) that they have administrative privileges on. They should have a few specific software packages installed (listed below). They are also required to abide by Software Carpentry's Code of Conduct.

Accessibility: We are committed to making this workshop accessible to everybody. The workshop organizers have checked that:

Materials will be provided in advance of the workshop and large-print handouts are available if needed by notifying the organizers in advance. If we can help making learning easier for you (e.g. sign-language interpreters, lactation facilities) please get in touch (using contact details below) and we will attempt to provide them.

Contact: Please email fixme@example.org for more information.


Surveys

Please be sure to complete these surveys before and after the workshop.

Pre-workshop Survey

Post-workshop Survey


Schedule

Day 1

Before Pre-workshop survey
09:00 Basic CSV and the Unix shell
10:30 Coffee
12:00 Lunch break
13:00 Building programs with Python
14:30 Coffee
16:00 Wrap-up
16:30 END

Day 2

09:00 Version control with Git
10:30 Coffee
12:00 Lunch break
13:00 Building programs with Python part 2
14:30 Coffee
16:00 Wrap-up
16:30 Post-workshop Survey
16:40 END

Syllabus

Spreadsheets (abbreviated)

  • Basic Principles for data organization
  • Data Organization
  • Exporting data
  • Reference...

The Unix Shell

  • Files and directories
  • History and tab completion
  • Pipes and redirection
  • Looping over files
  • Creating and running shell scripts
  • Finding things
  • Reference...

Programming in Python

Version Control with Git

  • Creating a repository
  • Recording changes to files: add, commit, ...
  • Viewing changes: status, diff, ...
  • Ignoring files
  • Working on the web: clone, pull, push, ...
  • Resolving conflicts
  • Open licenses
  • Where to host work, and why
  • Reference...

Programming in Python Part 2

  • Plotting and visualization
  • Working with databases
  • Reference...