Subject: Introduction to Research Computing

Description: We are starting a new weekly meeting; Introduction to Research
Computing. The style will be relaxed and a combination of discussion,
hands-on examples and presentations.
The course will be split into two parts. Initially we will be talking
about practical computing;
- A general introduction to Linux & Bash (Filesystem & users,
environmental variables, basic commands, process control, regular
expressions)
- An introduction to scripting with Python
- Version Control Systems (git/mercurial)
- Creating Reports Posters & Presentations (Word,Lyx,Latex,...)
- Producing Figures
- More Bash/Linux (Installing from source, pipes and IO redirection, ssh)
- Data dependencies and WorkFlows, introduction to databases.

After Christmas, we will talk about more software-engineering topics;
refactoring code, going from scripts to libraries, testing, debugging,
using design patterns, profiling.

The aim is to discuss topics that are relevant to new students new to
the department; although other people may be interested in coming to
specific meetings, for example, Version Control Systems.
(We will send further e-mails when these topics come up ). We will be
giving overviews of tools and what they can do, rather than detailed
tutorials.

We will meet weekly on Wednesdays at 2:00 in 4.02. This week (tomorrow) will be an introductory meeting. It is compulsory for first-year DTC students, but all are welcome to attend, if you are interested could you please just drop us an email.