From July 15 to 19, 2024, CIERA Professor Jason Wang and Postdoctoral Fellow Sarah Blunt led the fifth Code/Astro workshop, the second of the series to be held at CIERA. This year, 58 in-person and over 40 remote participants from around the world participated in the week-long astronomy software development program, leaving with critical and fundamental engineering skills and a toolbox of best practices for building sustainable, open-source packages for astronomy applications. By the end of the hands-on workshop, each participant had designed their own small Python package from scratch.
“Code/Astro provided an exceptionally practical and hands-on learning experience,” shared S M Rafee Adnan, a participant from the University of Louisville. “The workshop definitely boosted my confidence in coding and taught me how to develop open-source packages from scratch. I loved seeing all the projects come to life in a collaborative and creative environment.”
The workshop involves synchronous instruction for all in the morning working group breakout sessions most afternoons. After lunch, organizers offered optional lessons for those seeking more in-depth guidance. Throughout the week, in-person and remove teaching assistants (TAs), many of which participated in earlier Code/Astro workshops themselves, provided further instruction and support for participants.
“The fifth iteration of Code/Astro (‘Code/Astro V’) was a ton of fun for everyone involved,” said Dr. Blunt. “This year, several TAs taught lessons for the first time, and we introduced a new lesson about the popular Python package Jax. We also revamped the way we cover Git, one of the most confusing tools needed for software engineering, and felt the new structure was a big success. With over 400 alumni from around the globe, Code/Astro is becoming an institution in astronomy for teaching good coding practices, and I’m incredibly proud to be a part of it.”
“Two years ago, at the end of my first year in grad school, Code/Astro was very vital to building my programming skills, and provided a very safe and friendly environment where I learnt a lot from the instructors and my TAs,” reflected Maria Vincent from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa. “This year I was elated to be a TA and help provide a similar milieu for the students to experience the different aspects of building a package, including the excitement of a new idea and the frustrations created by tiny bugs in code. Programming is a skill that needs to undergo continuous training and evaluation, and teaching and mentoring the students at this workshop was an excellent avenue for that.”
Code/Astro is free and open to participants at all career levels. While the synchronous program is designed to serve as a networking and career development opportunity, the course materials and lectures are available to anyone online.
“Code/Astro was a blast this year,” said Professor Wang. “Using the skills they learned, the participants created an impressive array of new open-source packages including spectral line analyzers, file managers, orbital visualizers, and exoplanet horoscope generation. The energy and engagement they displayed shows that astronomers really want to learn these software engineering skills, and I was really excited to hear from some participants that they even want to now go teach the same skills to other astronomers when they return to their host institutions.”
Code/Astro is made possible thanks to support by the Heising-Simons Foundation.