NITheCS Software Carpentry (Shell, Git, R for Reproducible Scientific Analysis)

29 Sept 2025, 09:00 → 2 Oct 2025, 16:00 Africa/Johannesburg

Online

Learn basic computing skills to conduct research

Software 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 programme 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 will take 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 rights. You will also need an up-to-date browser and a few specific software packages installed – these will be advised to succesful applicants.        

 

Questions?

If you have a query, please email thuthukile.khumalo@nithecs.ac.za

 

 

 

Monday 29 September

The Unix Shell: Introducing the Shell

The Unix Shell: Navigating Files and Directories

The Unix Shell: Navigating Files and Directories: The Unix Shell: Wokring with Files and Directories; Pipes and Filters

10:30 Tea break

The Unix Shell: Loops

The Unix Shell: Shell Scripts; Finding things

Version Control with Git: Automated Version Control; Setting up Git

13:00 Lunch Break

Version Control with Git: Creating a repository, Tracking Changes, Exploring History, Ignoring Things, Remotes in Github

Version Control with Git

End of day

Tuesday 30 September

Introduction to R and RStudio

Project Management With RStudio

10:30 Tea Break

Seeking Help

Data Structures

12:30 Lunch

Exploring Data Frames

End of day

Wednesday 1 October

Subsetting Data

Control Flow

10:30 Tea Break

Creating Publication-Quality Graphics with ggplot2

12:00 Lunch

Functions explained

Writing Data

Q & A

End of day

Thursday 2 October

Data Frame Manipultion with dplyr and tidyr

Q&A

10:30 Tea break

Producing Reports with knitr

12:00 Lunch

Producing Reports with knitr

Writing Good Software

End of day