Programming as a researcher can be a very intimidating experience. It can feel as though your code isn’t “good enough” (as judged by some mysterious and opaque criteria), or that you’re not coding in the “right way”. The aim of this course is to help to address some of these concerns through an introduction to software engineering for researchers. Beyond just programming, software engineering is the practice and principle of writing software that is correct, sustainable and ready to share with colleagues and the wider research community.
This course covers:
- Techniques and tools to improve the readability and quality of your code
- Structuring your code in a modular fashion to promote reuse and future extension
- Testing frameworks and how to write tests
Prerequisites
Any introductory (graduate school) level programming course
This course was developed by the Research Computing Service (RCS) of Imperial College, in particular by the Research Software Engineering (RSE) team. The RSE team are a part of Imperial ICT combining specialist knowledge in software engineering with extensive experience in research. The team works with academic groups on a wide range of projects whilst also organising community events and training (such as this) for the benefit of the research community. You can find out more at the RSE team website and the Imperial RSE Community website. You can also consult the expertise of the RSE team at the fortnightly Code Surgeries.