[python-nl] Teaching scientists to write better code: Software Carpentry, Amsterdam, May 2-3

[Onno Broekmans]

Dear all,

If you're interested in teaching Python, and/or interested in science,
do read on...!


========== Summary / TL;DR ==========

For the first time, Software Carpentry is coming to the Netherlands.
Supported by the Mozilla Foundation, they teach scientists to write
better code, which is very much needed...
On May 2-3, SC are teaching a Python-based workshop in Amsterdam, for
40 young scientists. If you're interested in helping out, either
during this particular workshop, or in general, we'd love to hear from
you!


========== Scientists & Spaghetti Code ==========

Scientists are becoming more and more dependent on custom-written
software for collecting and analyzing their data. How else are you
going to control the sheer complexity of a particle accelerator, DNA
sequencer or Hubble Space Telescope?
However, many researchers are entirely self-tought, which leads to a
lot of problems and spaghetti code. See [1] for some interesting
background stories...

An important part of the solution consists of teaching young
scientists core skills such as program construction, version control,
testing, command-line scripting and data management — something that's
not properly taught yet at universities.

[1] http://www.nature.com/news/2010/101013/full/467775a.html


========== About the Software Carpentry Workshop ==========

Software Carpentry helps researchers be more productive by teaching
them basic computing skills. They run Python-based boot camps at
dozens of sites around the world, and also provide open access
material online for self-paced instruction. The benefits are more
reliable results and higher productivity: a day a week is common, and
a ten-fold improvement isn't rare. SC is a volunteer organization,
supported by the Sloan Foundation and the Mozilla Foundation.

On Thu-Fri May 2-3, SC are giving their first workshop in Holland, at
VU University Amsterdam. If you're interested in Python education for
scientists, and helping us out, we'd love to hear from you! Ways you
could get involved are:

 - Join the workshop, and help participants by walking around and
answering questions. If you have experience with UNIX, the shell and
Python: we could use a few more people... (Joining for just a single
day is possible).

 - There will be informal drinks on Friday 3rd (tentative), on the VU
campus. This'd be a great opportunity to meet up, and talk to the
people from Software Carpentry about ways to contribute to the
project.

Please feel free to contact me (onnodb [AT] g/mail.com) with any
questions you might have, or for more information.

For more general information, please see:
http://www.software-carpentry.org
http://www.data2semantics.org/bootcamp

Thanks for your time!


Onno Broekmans
(PhD student in biophysics, VU University Amsterdam)