Monday 10 November @ TBC

The corpus of knowledge in the research software and digital research infrastructure community is constantly growing and evolving. It is impossible for a single group, person or institution to hold all the knowledge in their field. Knowledge exchange has become more crucial than ever. And it seems so easy - everyone can access huge amounts of information and data within seconds. But how to navigate the sheer mass of this information? How to reach the right people with the knowledge you want to share amidst all the noise? How to decide what knowledge is important and what can be discarded? How to build connections with those you want to exchange knowledge with? And how to do all of this in the framework of a day job that often does not list knowledge exchange as essential task?

We want to explore these questions and more in a panel discussion with members of the research software community who do knowledge exchange, training and outreach in various forms.

Tuesday 11 November @ 13:30 - 15:00 BST

This session provides an introduction to Integrated Development Environments (IDEs), powerful tools for software development. We will explore how various features built into IDEs can streamline your software development workflow, especially through their built-in debugging tools — which allow you to identify and fix issues with your code efficiently.

Tuesday 11 November @ 14:00 - 17:00 BST

From spreadsheets to R” will take place on Tuesday 11 November at 14:00 GMT, as part of the Research Software Camp: Careers and Skills in Research Software.

RStudio certified instructor, Yanina Bellini Saibene has put together this R introductory course for new or beginner coders. “From spreadsheets to R” is intended for people who use spreadsheets for data manipulation and analysis, but have never programmed and would like to learn how to work with R. This course aims to answer questions such as: "Why use R?" and "Where to start?"

Yanina will work with R in an orderly and reproducible way, using a workflow that allows those who take this course to apply good programming practices, work collaboratively and present their work in a single document that includes the analysis and the results.

Whenever she can, Yanina will indicate how the issues she proposes to solve with R can also be solved with spreadsheets and the advantages and disadvantages in each case.

Each section includes exercises and challenges together with the examples and uses some useful data sets for the problem we want to solve. These data is realistic so that anyone can find similarities with their own data and can apply what they have learned to other situations.

Pre-workshop requirements

Please install R and RStudio.

Wednesday 12 November @ 13:30 - 15:00 BST

This session introduces the importance of code style and linting in writing clean, consistent, and maintainable code. You will learn how following a defined style guide improves code readability and collaboration, and how automated tools, known as linters, can help identify and fix style issues early in the development process. We will explore common linting tools and how to integrate them into your software development workflow.

Thursday 13 November @ 13:30 - 15:00 BST

Basic Git training usually covers the essential concepts, such as adding files, committing changes, viewing commit history, and checking out or reverting to earlier versions. But for RSEs working in collaborative, code-intensive projects, that is just the tip of the iceberg. More detailed topics like branching and merging strategies, and understanding merge conflicts are critical for managing code across teams and maintaining clean, reproducible development workflows.

In this session we will explore branching and feature branch workflow, a popular method for collaborative development using Git, along with some intermediate Git features (merging, rebasing, cherry-picking) and handling merge conflicts that can help streamline your development workflow and avoid common pitfalls in collaborative software development.

Thursday 13 November @ 15:00 - 17:00 BST

Las tablas son un componente central en la comunicación de resultados de investigación. Es por ello que resulta clave que su diseño garantice una comunicación precisa, favorezca la reproducibilidad y se ajuste a estándares de publicación. 

En este taller, introduciremos la "gramática de tablas" usando el paquete {gt} de R. A partir de actividades prácticas, aprenderemos a configurar las distintas secciones de una tabla, a ajustar el estilo en que se muestran los datos y a incorporarlas en documentos reproducibles creados con Quarto. Al finalizar el taller, sus participantes habrán aprendido estrategias para mejorar la calidad de sus tablas e incorporarlas en flujos de trabajo reproducibles.

Requerimientos

- Una versión de R >= 4.4

- Una versión de Quarto >= 1.7.33

- Versiones recientes de los siguientes paquetes: gt, gtsummary, gtextras, broom y tidyverse. 

Effective outreach is key to growing and diversifying the scientific computing community, engaging everyone from students and researchers to policymakers and the public. Yet, many organisations struggle to build or sustain outreach programmes, especially without dedicated staff or resources. This session is designed to ease those challenges by showcasing practical ways to reinvent, reuse, and repurpose existing outreach materials to meet diverse needs and audiences. By considering important factors such as accessibility, communication style, and background knowledge, participants will leave with a ready-to-use strategy for adapting outreach, lowering the barrier to more inclusive and impactful HPC outreach efforts. 

Whether you are experienced, brand new, or simply curious about outreach, come along! Your perspective is valuable in helping us grow outreach activities and inspire the next generation to pursue a career in scientific computing.

This session is being organised by: Andrew Gait, Eleanor Broadway, Marion Weinzierl, Nick Brown, Oscar Seip, Stefan Piatek, Tobias Weinzierl, Eva Fernandez Amez

Monday 17 November @ 14:00 - 17:00 BST

Does your visualisation tell a story? Data is continuously expanding and becoming more complex. On its own, data can feel daunting. However, through visualisation, we can transform raw numbers and text into captivating narratives. During this workshop, which is tailored for beginners, Annajiat Alim Rasel and Md Intekhabul Hafiz will assist you with the skills to use Python libraries to create a variety of visualisations, ranging from simple bar charts to intricate heatmaps.

Why Visualise Our Data?

• Simplify the Complex: Break down large and complicated datasets into visuals that are easy to grasp.
• Uncover Hidden Patterns: Identify trends, outliers, and correlations that might be missed in raw data.
• Enhance Understanding: Share insights in a more effective and intuitive manner.
• Make Data Accessible: Create visualisations that are inclusive, considering factors like color blindness.

What You'll Learn:

• Fundamental Visualisation Techniques: Understand the basics of creating various types of charts, including bar charts, line charts, scatter plots, and more.
• Customising Your Visualisations: Discover how to tailor your visualisations to fit your specific needs, including colors, labels, and formatting.
• Effective Storytelling with Data: Learn how to use visualisation to communicate data-driven insights in a clear and engaging way.

By the end of this workshop, you'll be ready to use data visualization to tell stories with your data.

Requirements

A Google account for using Google Colab.

Tuesday 18 November @ 13:30 - 15:00 BST

This session introduces key practices for effective coding and collaboration within research software projects. You will learn how to work together on code through structured approaches such as code review, understand common workflows and tools that support collaborative development, and explore the processes that help maintain code quality and team productivity. We will then take a practical look at how to carry out code reviews using GitHub, one of the most widely used platforms for collaborative software development.

Tuesday 18 November @ 13:00 - 14:30 BST

Kathryn Entwistle is a Professional Career Coach with over 20 years of experience. She has helped more than a thousand clients, from a very wide variety of roles and sectors, find the best way forward in their career and align their work with what matters most to them. She is very skilled in facilitating great career decisions.

Participant criteria: 

• write software for research purposes as a PhD candidate, researcher, RSE, DTP or other similar role.
• from an underrepresented group in RSE/academia including, but not limited to, race, gender, social class, disability and sexuality.

Wednesday 19 November @ 13:30 - 15:00 BST

Testing is a critical part of writing reliable, maintainable code — especially in collaborative or research environments where reproducibility and correctness are key. In this session, we will explore why testing matters, and introduce different levels of testing — from small, focused unit tests, to broader integration and system tests that check how components work together. We will also look at testing approaches such as regression testing (to ensure changes do not break existing behavior) and property-based testing (to test a wide range of inputs automatically). Finally, we will cover mocking, a technique used to isolate code during tests by simulating the behavior of external dependencies.

Thursday 20 November @ 13:30 - 15:00 BST

Doing tasks manually can be time-consuming, error-prone, and hard to reproduce, especially as the software project’s complexity grows. Using automation allows computers to handle repetitive, structured tasks reliably, quickly, and consistently, freeing up your time for more valuable and creative work.

Thursday 20 November @ 12:00 - 13:30 BST

This workshop will provide an opportunity for Research Software technicians to think about their careers, including self-awareness, opportunities, decision-making and planning. 

You will consider your own skills, strengths and motivations around work and identify how different career opportunities match these. You will be able to think about and discuss your own career development as well as explore some activities which could help you achieve your next steps. 

At the end of this session, you will be able to: 

• Analyse your own transferable skills and strengths
• Identify some possible career and professional development opportunities
• Evaluate some development ideas to help build your experience
• Create an action plan for career related next steps

This session is being led by Sarah Allen, who is the Career Pathways Lead for the UK Institute of Technical Skills and Strategy. She supports the HE and Research technical community to plan and implement careers initiatives at a strategic, local and individual level. Sarah is a careers educator and coach and is passionate about supporting technicians to be fulfilled at work.