Last September 24-26 and October 1-3, the latest Software Carpentry Bootcamps were held in University of Adelaide and Monash University.

These Software Carpentry Bootcamps were designed for Bioinformaticians to enhance their knowledge and skills in programming and software development practices.The bootcamps were delivered using the NeCTAR Research Cloud where each trainee has been given dedicated access to a specific virtual workstation.

With the use of an automatic provisioning system, each virtual workstations have been preconfigured with the required tools, training materials and computing resources to perform the hands-on exercises.

On the first day of the bootcamp, the Software Carpentry instructors including the R@CMon team introduced the trainees to Python. The second day was mostly about software testing and documentation. The last day was when the trainees applied their knowledge from the previous sessions into collaborative group exercises.

Photos taken by Nathan Watson-Haigh (ACPFG).

“Thanks a lot for this information and also your kind efforts in running such a  useful and informative workshop” – Fariborz Sobhanmanesh (Research Engineer, Bioinformatician with CSIRO Animal, Food and Health Sciences Centre)

“I recently attended the SWC bootcamp in Adelaide and found it incredibly useful. Sure there was a lot of information in a short amount of time but the topics covered were practical and very relevant to my daily work. Thanks must go to the presenters and organisers who kept things moving along brilliantly.” – Terry Bertozzi (Research Scientist with the South Australian Museum)