Software Carpentry

University of Göttingen

Online

Nov 02 - 03, 2026

8:00 am - 3:30 pm UTC

Instructors: Sanjay Fuloria, Shashank Shekhar Harivyasi

Helpers: TBD, TBD

The Carpentries

The Carpentries project comprises the Data Carpentry, High-Performance Computing Carpentry, Library Carpentry, and Software Carpentry communities of Instructors, Trainers, Maintainers, helpers, and supporters who share a mission to teach foundational computational and data science skills to researchers.

Software Carpentry aims to help researchers get their work done in less time and with less pain by teaching them basic research computing skills. This hands-on workshop will cover basic concepts and tools, including program design, version control, data management, and task automation. Participants will be encouraged to help one another and to apply what they have learned to their own research problems.

For more information on what we teach and why, please see our paper "Best Practices for Scientific Computing".

Carpentries Clippings

Want to learn more and stay engaged with The Carpentries?

Carpentries Clippings is The Carpentries' monthly newsletter, where we share community news, community job postings, and more.

Code of Conduct

Everyone who participates in Carpentries activities is required to conform to the Code of Conduct, which also outlines how to report an incident if needed.

Workshop Logistics

Who

The course is aimed at graduate students and other researchers. You don't need to have any previous knowledge of the tools that will be presented at the workshop.

Where

This training will take place online. The instructors will provide you with the information you will need to connect to this meeting.

When

Nov 02 - 03, 2026; 8:00 am - 3:30 pm UTC

Requirements

Participants must have access to a computer with a Mac, Linux, or Windows operating system (not a tablet, Chromebook, etc.) that they have administrative privileges on. They should have a few specific software packages installed (listed below).

Accessibility

We are committed to making this workshop accessible to everybody.

We are dedicated to providing a positive and accessible learning environment for all. We do not require participants to provide documentation of disabilities or disclose any unnecessary personal information. However, we do want to help create an inclusive, accessible experience for all participants. We encourage you to share any information that would be helpful to make your Carpentries experience accessible. To request accessibility support for this workshop, please fill out the accessibility support request form. If you have questions or need assistance with the accessibility support form please email us.

Glosario is a multilingual glossary for computing and data science terms. The glossary helps learners attend workshops and use our lessons to make sense of computational and programming jargon written in English by offering it in their native language. Translating data science terms also provides a teaching tool for Carpentries Instructors to reduce barriers for their learners.

Workshop Recordings

Carpentries workshops are designed to be interactive rather than lecture-based, with lessons that build upon one another. To foster a positive online learning environment, we strongly recommend that participants join in real time. As a result, workshop recordings are not recommended and may not be available to learners.

Contact

Please email sanjayfuloria@gmail.com or harivyasi@gmail.com for more information.

Workshop FAQ

For answers to frequently asked questions about workshops, refer to the Carpentries Workshop FAQ.

Collaborative Notes

We will use this collaborative document for chatting, taking notes, and sharing URLs and bits of code.

Surveys

Pre-Workshop Survey

Please fill out this survey before attending the workshop.

Fill Out the Pre-Workshop Survey

Post-Workshop Survey

Please fill out this survey before you leave the workshop.

Fill Out the Post-Workshop Survey

Schedule

Day 1

Before	Pre-workshop survey
09:00	Automating Tasks with the Unix Shell
10:30	Morning break
11:00	Automating Tasks with the Unix Shell (Continued)
12:00	Lunch break
13:00	Programming with Python
14:30	Afternoon break
15:00	Programming with Python (continued)
16:00	Wrap-up
16:30	END

Day 2

09:00	Version Control with Git
10:30	Morning break
11:00	Version Control with Git (Continued)
12:00	Lunch break
13:00	Databases and SQL
14:30	Afternoon break
15:00	Databases and SQL (continued)
16:00	Wrap-up
16:30	Post-workshop Survey
16:40	END

Setup

To participate in a Software Carpentry workshop, you will need access to software as described below. In addition, you will need an up-to-date web browser.

We maintain a list of common issues that occur during installation as a reference for instructors that may be useful on the Configuration Problems and Solutions wiki page.

Install the videoconferencing client

If you haven't used Zoom before, go to the official website to download and install the Zoom client for your computer.

Set up your workspace

Like other Carpentries workshops, you will be learning by "coding along" with the Instructors. To do this, you will need to have both the window for the tool you will be learning about (a terminal, RStudio, your web browser, etc.) and the window for the Zoom video conference client open. In order to see both at once, we recommend using one of the following set up options:

Two monitors: If you have two monitors, plan to have the tool you are learning up on one monitor and the video conferencing software on the other.
Two devices: If you don't have two monitors, do you have another device (tablet, smartphone) with a medium to large sized screen? If so, try using the smaller device as your video conference connection and your larger device (laptop or desktop) to follow along with the tool you will be learning about.
Divide your screen: If you only have one device and one screen, practice having two windows (the video conference program and one of the tools you will be using at the workshop) open together. How can you best fit both on your screen? Will it work better for you to toggle between them using a keyboard shortcut? Try it out in advance to decide what will work best for you.

The Bash Shell

Bash is a commonly-used shell that gives you the power to do tasks more quickly. Instructions for finding and opening a shell on your operating system can be found in the Software Carpentry lesson.

Note for Windows Users

If you have chosen Git for Windows ("Git Bash"), please follow the Windows instructions.
If you have chosen Windows Subsystem for Linux ("WSL2"), please open your Ubuntu bash terminal and follow the Linux instructions for each of the software packages.

Git

Git is a version control system that lets you track who made changes to what when and has options for easily updating a shared or public version of your code on github.com. You will need a supported web browser.

You will need an account at github.com for parts of the Git lesson. Basic GitHub accounts are free. We encourage you to create a GitHub account if you don't have one already. Please consider what personal information you'd like to reveal. For example, you may want to review these instructions for keeping your email address private provided at GitHub.

Python

Python is a popular language for research computing, and great for general-purpose programming as well. Installing all of its research packages individually can be a bit difficult, so we recommend Conda-forge, an all-in-one installer.

Regardless of how you choose to install it, please install the most recent Python version available by going to the latest download site and scrolling to the Files section to find the download for your operating system.

We will teach Python using the Jupyter Notebook, a programming environment that runs in a web browser. For this to work you will need a reasonably up-to-date browser. The current versions of the Chrome, Safari and Firefox browsers are all supported.