Software Carpentry (Shell, Git, Programming with R)

16 Mar 2026, 09:00 → 20 Mar 2026, 13:01 Africa/Johannesburg

Online (Online)

Learn basic computing skills for your research

Software & Data Carpentry aims to help researchers get their work done in less time and with less pain. This hands-on online workshop covers basic concepts and tools, including program design, version control, data management and task automation. Participants will be encouraged to help one another and apply their learnings to their own research problems. 

 

Who should attend? Graduate students and other researchers. You don't need any previous knowledge of the tools that will be presented at the workshop. Venue Training takes place online. The instructors will send you the information you need to connect to this workshop. Requirements  You will need access to a computer with a Mac, Linux, or Windows operating system (not a tablet, Chromebook, etc.) on which you have administrative privileges. You will also need an up-to-date browser and a few specific software packages installed.       Questions? If you have a query, please email thuthukile.khumalo@nithecs.ac.za

This training is hosted by NITheCS and presented by The Carpentries

Poster

Monday 16 March

09:00 → 09:10 Intro: Download files and Install software

09:10 → 09:30 Introducing the Shell and Navigating Files & Directories

09:30 → 09:50 Working With Files and Directories

09:50 → 10:00 Short break

10:00 → 10:30 Pipes & Filters

10:30 → 11:30 Break

11:30 → 13:00 Loops, Shell Scripts and Finding Things

13:00 → 13:01 End of day

Tuesday 17 March

09:00 → 09:20 Intro: Installing Github, Creating Git account and preparing working directory

09:20 → 09:50 Automated Version Control & Setting Up Git

09:50 → 10:00 Short Break

10:00 → 10:30 Creating a Repository & Tracking changes

10:30 → 11:30 Break

11:30 → 11:50 Exploring History &Remotes in GitHub

11:50 → 12:10 Collaborating, Conflicts & Open Science

12:10 → 12:50 Licensing, Citation & Hosting

12:50 → 13:00 Supplemental: Using Git from RStudio

13:00 → 13:01 End of day

Wednesday 18 March

09:00 → 09:20 Analyzing Patient Data

09:20 → 09:50 Creating functions

09:50 → 10:00 Short Break

10:00 → 10:30 Analyzing Multiple Data Sets

10:30 → 11:30 Break

11:30 → 11:50 Making choices

11:50 → 12:50 Command Line Programs

12:50 → 13:00 Q&A

13:00 → 13:01 End of Day

Thursday 19 March

09:00 → 09:20 Best Practices for Writing R Code

09:20 → 09:50 Dynamic Reports with knitr

09:50 → 10:00 Short Break

10:00 → 10:30 Making Packages in R

10:30 → 11:30 Break

11:30 → 12:30 Introduction to RStudio

12:30 → 13:00 Addressing Data

13:00 → 13:01 End of day

Friday 20 March

09:00 → 09:20 Reading and Writing CSV files

09:20 → 09:50 Understanding Factors

09:50 → 10:00 Short Break

10:00 → 10:30 Data Types and Structures

10:30 → 11:30 Break

11:30 → 11:50 Data Types and Structures II

11:50 → 12:10 The Call Stack

12:10 → 12:50 Loops in R

12:50 → 13:00 Summary and Q&A

13:00 → 13:01 End of Workshop