Syracuse Sun

An upcoming series of workshops offered by the Open Source Program Office (OSPO) will introduce the basics of computer programming tools and languages used to share data and prepare information for open-source research publishing.

The workshops, open to all faculty, students, and staff, will be held mornings (10 a.m. to noon) and afternoons (1:30 to 3:30 p.m.) from Aug. 12 through Aug. 15 in 114 Bird Library. Participants must bring their own laptop. There is no cost to attend, but space is limited and advance registration is required.

Collin Capano, OSPO director, says the workshops are part of the office’s ongoing effort to educate the campus community on open-source tools and promote open-source culture on campus.

“The idea for the workshops came out of discussions with faculty. There was a desire for cross-disciplinary educational opportunities on campus that cover basic computing know-how so that anyone can acquire the skills they need to develop open-source software. This will help individuals in the research environment on campus, and for students in particular, be an asset in the job market after they graduate,” Capano says. “We hope to offer more of these workshops in the future.”

The sessions, which are a combination of lectures and labs, will be conducted in two parts. Part 1, “Computing Basics,” is scheduled for Aug. 12 and Aug. 13. Part 2, “Introduction to Python,” is planned for Aug. 14 and Aug. 15.

Topics being covered are:

Monday, Aug. 12:

Morning: Operating systems; basic terminal usage

Afternoon: Simple bash; text editors; GitHub

Tuesday, Aug. 13:

Morning: More advanced bash; environment variables; conda

Afternoon: ssh and computer clusters

Wednesday, Aug. 14:

Morning: Python: variables, assignments, types, operations, containers

Afternoon: Python: control-flow (if/else); intro to functions

Thursday, Aug. 15:

Morning: Python: for/while loops; functions (continued)

Afternoon: Python: libraries; numpy/scipy/matplotlib

The OSPO team will be available from 9 to 10 a.m. on Monday and Wednesday to help participants set up their computers. That step is especially recommended for Windows users, Capano says.