Speaker
Lennaert Bel
(Nikhef National institute for subatomic physics (NL))
Description
The vast majority of high-energy physicists use and produce software every day. Software skills are usually acquired “on the go”, dedicated training courses are rare.
The LHCb Starterkit is a new training format for getting LHCb collaborators started in effectively using software to perform their research. The course focusses on teaching basic lab skills for research computing. Unlike traditional tutorials we focus on starting with basics, performing all the material live, with a high degree of interactivity, and focussing on teaching understanding of the tools as opposed to handing out recipes that work “as if by magic”. The course is strongly inspired by the principles of Software Carpentry (http://software-carpentry.org). The LHCb Starterkit was started by two young members of the collaboration, the material is created in a collaborative fashion using the tools we teach, and is taught almost exclusively by PhD students to other PhD students.
