University of Manchester’s Research IT and the Software Sustainability Institute (SSI) have been funded by NERC (grant NE/X009181/1, “Software Development for Earth and Environmental Scientists: Reproducible Research through Reusable, Reliable Code”) for the second consecutive year to deliver the course on intermediate research software skills for Earth sciences. The course will be delivered at an in-person workshop in Manchester, from 18-22 March 2024.
The course helps researchers improve their existing computational research practices within the context of Earth, atmospheric and oceanic sciences, covering the following topics:
- Tools and practices for code development, testing, debugging and sharing (including using virtual and integrated development environments, Git and GitHub, and command line tools)
- Verifying software correctness (automated and at scale)
- Programming and software architecture design paradigms for engineering software
- Coding conventions, documenting code and code review for improved software readability, accessibility, correctness and quality
- Best practices in collaboratively developing, releasing, maintaining and supporting software for improved reusability and sustainability
The workshop will consist of instructor-led coding-along sessions, individual self-learning sessions aided by helpers, and small-group exercises mimicking working on real-life collaborative software projects. There will also be opportunities to apply the skills taught to learners’ own projects. We are hoping to emulate the success of and improve upon the first pilot of the course from 2023.
The applications for attending the workshop have now been closed, but if you are interested in hearing more about the course - please get in touch with Anja Le Blanc (University of Manchester) or Aleksandra Nenadic (SSI’s Training Lead).