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Learning how to learn,
with Software Carpentry
Luis Figueira, Chris Cannam, Mark D Plumbley
Centre for Digital Music
Queen Mary, University of London
Overview
•  Introduction & Motivation
•  What is Software Carpentry
•  The bootcamps
•  Some lessons learned
•  Discussion
Reproducible Research
Idea: researchers should be able to reproduce the work of others.
So, we need
•  The paper (ideally Open Access)
•  The data (ideally Open Data)
•  The software (ideally Open Source)
Well-known example: WaveLab (Buckheit & Donoho, 1995)
But in audio & music research, few people do this. Why?
(Buckheit & Donoho, 1995; Vandewalle et al, 2009)
Research software in practice
We carried out a Survey of UK audio and music researchers*.
82% developed software, but only 39% of those took steps to reproducibility,
and only 35% of those published any code
only 11% tried to be reproducible and published the code.
(Also: 51% said their code never left their own computer)
* - Oct 2010-Apr 2011, 54 complete + 23 partial responses. For these figures we considered 72 responses.
Why don't we publish code & data?
Our survey suggested:
–  Lack of time
–  Copyright restrictions
–  Potential for future commercial use
Other factors (UK Research Information Network, 2010):
–  Lack of evidence of benefits
–  Culture of independence or competition
–  Quality concerns (self-taught programmers)
Also: it takes effort early in the research cycle;
hard to find time/motivation after the paper is published
Barriers to publication and reuse
Barriers to publication and reuse:
–  Lack of facilities and tools
–  Lack of incentive for publication
–  Platform incompatibilities
–  Lack of education and confidence with code
These are barriers to publication of code.
(Related issues for data)
Software Carpentry
Volunteer organisation
Started by Greg Wilson in 1998
Mission: “Software Carpentry helps researchers be more productive
by teaching them basic computing skills.”
Funded by the Sloan Foundation and Mozilla
How?
•  Online resources (video lectures, presentations)
•  Workshops/Bootcamps
Our first workshop
Autumn School for Audio and Music Researchers
•  London, one week (Nov 2010)
•  Software Carpentry - Greg Wilson
•  10 - 5pm each day
•  22 researchers from 12 UK institutions
•  Live coding, many group exercises
•  Syllabus:
•  Python, Bash, Databases, Testing, Version Control
•  Last day: audio processing in Python
Our first workshop (cont.)
Post workshop survey (6 months after workshop):
•  All liked the format (33% considered it excellent)
•  Majority considered that it would be important for their future
Not sustainable:
•  Extremely tiring for both instructor and participants
•  “More wearing than enlightening”
•  Not always easy to take a week from your PhD
•  Expensive (instructor, students, venue, …)
A new approach
January 2012
- 2 days workshop
- more people can attend
- easier to retain what is learnt
Typical syllabus
Day 1
•  Introduction to Unix shell (pipes, loops, scripting, …)
•  Introduction to Python (components/reusable functions)
Day 2
•  Version control (co-operative work and reproducibility)
•  Testing (not only unit tests!)
•  Databases / NumPy
Aim is to teach computational competence.
Bootcamps/attendees
Some figures*
•  92 two-day workshops
•  100+ volunteer instructors
•  3000+ attendees
* January 2012 - July 2013
Software Carpentry in the UK
Software Sustainability Institute (SSI)
•  Started collaborating in 2012
•  12+ bootcamps (10+ institutions)
•  400+ attendees
SoundSoftware collaboration:
•  University College London: 30 April - 1 May 2012
•  4 students from C4DM
•  Newcastle University: 14 - 15 May 2012
Created/delivered content for version control (Mercurial)
Institute
Software
Sustainability
Audio/Music targeted bootcamps
York Bootcamp for Audio and Music Researchers
•  Co-located with DAFx (Digital Audio Effects) conference
•  University of York, 13-15 Sep 2012
•  3 day bootcamp
•  2 days typical SWC (Greg Wilson)
•  1 day audio content (Codasign)
•  26 attendees,
•  8 different institutions (York, Surrey, East Anglia,
Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Queen Mary, ...)
Audio/Music targeted bootcamps
Internal Queen Mary 2 day bootcamps:
•  Media Arts and Technology (Feb 2013)
•  Centre for Digital Music (March 2013
ISMIR 2012 (Porto)
•  Tutorial focused on testing (hands-on, live coding session)
January 2014, London UK
•  Tutorial on the ÆS 53rd Conference on Semantic Audio
Some (good) feedback
•  Good atmosphere: “felt comfortable asking stupid questions”
•  Live coding
•  Open lessons/downloadable content
•  Autumn school (2010) available on YouTube
•  Code available in repositories
•  Pair programming/Examples
•  Social side (pub, other researchers from similar field)
•  Bash, Python and Version Control are usually favorite topics
Some (not so good) feedback
Environmental/external issues
•  too warm/cold, lack of coffee, overcrowded
Issues installing tools
•  people bring their own computers
Too fast/too slow
•  Heterogeneous groups
•  Splitting people by level?
Dœs it work?
Participants express extremely high levels of satisfaction*:
•  85% learned what they hoped to learn
•  95% would recommend the workshop to others
Attendees are learning and applying some of what is taught*:
•  Increases computational understanding
•  Enhances habits and routines (leads them to adopt
standard tools)
* Aranda2012 (http://bit.ly/11WQz1Q)
Some open questions
Many find hard to apply what we teach to their own work
•  Audio specific days helped.
What happens if the bootcamps become mandatory?
•  How to keep students motivated?
Can we actually say it is working?
•  Do scientists become more productive?
•  Do scientists share code more often?
•  Long term assessment needed (but how to assess?)
Thank you for your attention
Questions welcome!

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Learning how to learn, with Software Carpentry

  • 1. Learning how to learn, with Software Carpentry Luis Figueira, Chris Cannam, Mark D Plumbley Centre for Digital Music Queen Mary, University of London
  • 2. Overview •  Introduction & Motivation •  What is Software Carpentry •  The bootcamps •  Some lessons learned •  Discussion
  • 3. Reproducible Research Idea: researchers should be able to reproduce the work of others. So, we need •  The paper (ideally Open Access) •  The data (ideally Open Data) •  The software (ideally Open Source) Well-known example: WaveLab (Buckheit & Donoho, 1995) But in audio & music research, few people do this. Why? (Buckheit & Donoho, 1995; Vandewalle et al, 2009)
  • 4. Research software in practice We carried out a Survey of UK audio and music researchers*. 82% developed software, but only 39% of those took steps to reproducibility, and only 35% of those published any code only 11% tried to be reproducible and published the code. (Also: 51% said their code never left their own computer) * - Oct 2010-Apr 2011, 54 complete + 23 partial responses. For these figures we considered 72 responses.
  • 5. Why don't we publish code & data? Our survey suggested: –  Lack of time –  Copyright restrictions –  Potential for future commercial use Other factors (UK Research Information Network, 2010): –  Lack of evidence of benefits –  Culture of independence or competition –  Quality concerns (self-taught programmers) Also: it takes effort early in the research cycle; hard to find time/motivation after the paper is published
  • 6. Barriers to publication and reuse Barriers to publication and reuse: –  Lack of facilities and tools –  Lack of incentive for publication –  Platform incompatibilities –  Lack of education and confidence with code These are barriers to publication of code. (Related issues for data)
  • 7. Software Carpentry Volunteer organisation Started by Greg Wilson in 1998 Mission: “Software Carpentry helps researchers be more productive by teaching them basic computing skills.” Funded by the Sloan Foundation and Mozilla How? •  Online resources (video lectures, presentations) •  Workshops/Bootcamps
  • 8. Our first workshop Autumn School for Audio and Music Researchers •  London, one week (Nov 2010) •  Software Carpentry - Greg Wilson •  10 - 5pm each day •  22 researchers from 12 UK institutions •  Live coding, many group exercises •  Syllabus: •  Python, Bash, Databases, Testing, Version Control •  Last day: audio processing in Python
  • 9. Our first workshop (cont.) Post workshop survey (6 months after workshop): •  All liked the format (33% considered it excellent) •  Majority considered that it would be important for their future Not sustainable: •  Extremely tiring for both instructor and participants •  “More wearing than enlightening” •  Not always easy to take a week from your PhD •  Expensive (instructor, students, venue, …)
  • 10. A new approach January 2012 - 2 days workshop - more people can attend - easier to retain what is learnt
  • 11. Typical syllabus Day 1 •  Introduction to Unix shell (pipes, loops, scripting, …) •  Introduction to Python (components/reusable functions) Day 2 •  Version control (co-operative work and reproducibility) •  Testing (not only unit tests!) •  Databases / NumPy Aim is to teach computational competence.
  • 12. Bootcamps/attendees Some figures* •  92 two-day workshops •  100+ volunteer instructors •  3000+ attendees * January 2012 - July 2013
  • 13. Software Carpentry in the UK Software Sustainability Institute (SSI) •  Started collaborating in 2012 •  12+ bootcamps (10+ institutions) •  400+ attendees SoundSoftware collaboration: •  University College London: 30 April - 1 May 2012 •  4 students from C4DM •  Newcastle University: 14 - 15 May 2012 Created/delivered content for version control (Mercurial) Institute Software Sustainability
  • 14. Audio/Music targeted bootcamps York Bootcamp for Audio and Music Researchers •  Co-located with DAFx (Digital Audio Effects) conference •  University of York, 13-15 Sep 2012 •  3 day bootcamp •  2 days typical SWC (Greg Wilson) •  1 day audio content (Codasign) •  26 attendees, •  8 different institutions (York, Surrey, East Anglia, Amsterdam, Edinburgh, Queen Mary, ...)
  • 15. Audio/Music targeted bootcamps Internal Queen Mary 2 day bootcamps: •  Media Arts and Technology (Feb 2013) •  Centre for Digital Music (March 2013 ISMIR 2012 (Porto) •  Tutorial focused on testing (hands-on, live coding session) January 2014, London UK •  Tutorial on the ÆS 53rd Conference on Semantic Audio
  • 16. Some (good) feedback •  Good atmosphere: “felt comfortable asking stupid questions” •  Live coding •  Open lessons/downloadable content •  Autumn school (2010) available on YouTube •  Code available in repositories •  Pair programming/Examples •  Social side (pub, other researchers from similar field) •  Bash, Python and Version Control are usually favorite topics
  • 17. Some (not so good) feedback Environmental/external issues •  too warm/cold, lack of coffee, overcrowded Issues installing tools •  people bring their own computers Too fast/too slow •  Heterogeneous groups •  Splitting people by level?
  • 18. Dœs it work? Participants express extremely high levels of satisfaction*: •  85% learned what they hoped to learn •  95% would recommend the workshop to others Attendees are learning and applying some of what is taught*: •  Increases computational understanding •  Enhances habits and routines (leads them to adopt standard tools) * Aranda2012 (http://bit.ly/11WQz1Q)
  • 19. Some open questions Many find hard to apply what we teach to their own work •  Audio specific days helped. What happens if the bootcamps become mandatory? •  How to keep students motivated? Can we actually say it is working? •  Do scientists become more productive? •  Do scientists share code more often? •  Long term assessment needed (but how to assess?)
  • 20. Thank you for your attention Questions welcome!