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Festival of Code 2021

UCL Festival of Code logo

The Festival of Code (14 - 19 June 2021) celebrated the contribution software and coding communities make to research and innovation. Participants learnt new skills, tools and insights, as well as developed their network across UCL. Attendees were from all faculties, MSc and PhD research students, researchers and members of professional services. 

The festival's themes were: Celebrating Communities | Exploring Open Science | Creating Impact | R Project Showcase | Collaborative Hackday

We would like to thank our colleagues from who have organised these events. Follow @eResearch_UCL  #UCLCodeFest. Download the flyer or programme.

Monday 14th June:

Celebrating Communities

TimeEvents
10:00 - 11:15

Funder panel: Challenges & opportunties of funding research software

Software is used across research cycle. Join this panel discussion to learn about funding opportunities which support research software and funders' perspectives regarding the challenges of funding research software. Slides:

11:30 - 12:30

Coding culture: the cultural values of five coding communities

This reflective panel discussion will explore the histories, the cultural differences, and the shared values of five coding communities - Python, R, Julia, Ruby, & Fortran. Join us to hear from experienced programmers on how they see the programming community they belong to.

Organised by Gui Heurich (UCL Anthropology) and he is working at the intersection coding and anthropology. 

14:00 - 16:00

Past, Present & Future of Research Software Engineering @UCL

UCL was the first university, in 2012, to create a professional dedicated research software development group. Since then, the UCL Research Software Development Group has grown and expanded its services it provides to UCL's researchers. Join us to hear the story behind some of the researchers that have been supported by this group,  find out about the specialised services we offer to improve your research, and learn more about UCL's new Centre for Advanced Research Computing from our new director James Hetherington.

Organised by the Research Software Development Group (Research IT Services)

Watch the YouTube playlist

 

Tuesday 15th June:

Exploring Open Science

TimeEvents
10:00 - 11:00

An Introduction to Open Science Practices: From Code to Data and Beyond

Find out about the benefits of open science and explore practices of code and data sharing, replications, as well as open access publishing. Learn about tools/platforms which can help you to embed open science in your work flow.

Organised by Dr Sandy Schumann (UCL Department of Security and Crime Science) | UCL JDI Open | @JDI_Open

Slides from the talk

11:15 - 12:15

Code sharing as an Early Career Researcher: the good, the bad and the ugly

Join us to discuss the benefits and barriers to code sharing for Early Career Researchers, get practical advice about how to do it (e.g. via GitHub), and explore ways it can be encouraged at UCL.

Organised by Louise McGrath-Lone (Institute of Health Informatics), Ania Zylbersztejn, Rachel Pearson ( bothGOS Institute of Child Health) | UCL Code Club | @UCL_CodeClub

Read the blog post

14:00 - 16:00

Use of Docker for Efficient Software Development & Reproducible Research

A valid piece of code can produce different results based on its computational environment, libraries and other dependences. Join this interactive workshop to learn how to use Docker to overcome these issues and improve the reproducibility of your research.   

Organised by Mian Ahmad | UCL Computer Science Technical Support Group | Wellcome / EPSRC Centre for Interventional and Surgical Sciences

 

Wednesday 16th June:

Creating Impact

TimeEvents
10:00 - 11:00

Driving impact from research software

Marina shares her 14 years of experience in supporting UCL academics achieve measurable impact from their software, whether for commercial or non-commercial distributions, open source or closed source, and from departments as diverse as chemistry, architecture, medical computing (and more).  

Organised by Marina Santilli (UCL Business)

 

Thursday 17th June:

R Project showcase

TimeEvents
10:00 - 16:00

R Project Showcase

We celebrated UCL masters student and early-career researcher projects that use R. We launched the showcase with a keynote speech by Dr Kirsten McMillan, a Senior Researcher at Dogs Trust, focusing on canine ecology and population management.

Congratulations to the UCL R Showcase winners: Indigo Brownhall, Naomi Launders, & Inga Usher

Organised by Ellen Webborn (UCL Energy Institute); Scott Orr (Institute for Sustainable Heritage | UCL R User Group | @EllenWebborn 

Read the abstracts

Friday 18th June:

Collaborative Hackday 

TimeEvents
10:00 - 16:30

UCL Bioimage Analysis Collaborative Hackday

This hackday brings together the community and we will work in self-organising small groups on a bioimage-analysis-related software project for a day. Join to meet new people and develop ideas together.in self-organising small groups.  All levels of expereince, researchers, academics, PhD students, and professional service staff are all welcome. 

Submit your idea for a project when you sign up and you will be given the opportunity to pitch it to other participants on the day. If you get enough people interested, work with them on your idea for the day!

Organised by Giulia Paci (LMCB) | Alessandro Felder (RITS) | Pablo Vicente Munuera (LMCB) | Jonas Hartmann (UCL Biosciences) |  Adam Tyson (Sainsbury Wellcome Centre) | Haroon Chughtai (RITS) | UCL BioImage Analysis Interest Group