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UCL for Code in Research

UCL for Code in Research

By: Peter Schmidt
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The companion podcast for courses on programming from the Advanced Research Computing Centre of the University College of London, UK.

© 2025 UCL for Code in Research
Episodes
  • 3/9 Research Software Engineering with Python (Comp233) - Introduction to Python
    Oct 16 2025

    Python is one of the most widely used programming languages in research and science. How did it come to that. And what makes Python special? It's something I discuss with my guest in this episode, Robin Wilson, who also takes us through some of the less favourable or more complex aspects of the language.

    Links

    • http://www.rtwilson.com Robert Wilson
      • https://blog.rtwilson.com Robert's blog posts
    • https://www.python.org
    • https://anaconda.org Anaconda Python distribution
    • https://jupyter.org all things Jupyter
    • https://ipython.org iPython
    • https://inference-review.com/article/the-origins-of-python
    • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Literate_programming

    Python libraries for science

    • https://numpy.org
    • https://scipy.org
    • https://pandas.pydata.org
    • https://scikit-learn.org/stable/

    Don't be shy - say Hi

    This podcast is brought to you by the Advanced Research Computing Centre of the University College London, UK.
    Producer and Host: Peter Schmidt

    Show More Show Less
    25 mins
  • 2/9 Research Software Engineering with Python (COMP233) - Git Part 2
    Oct 8 2025

    In this episode we look into more essential Git commands, such as branching and merging. Branching and merging are key concepts that help you develop code or even text documents in a team. They help you maintain different versions of files and work on them independently.

    Another element of collaborative working is provided by GitHub: the pull request. Pull request are a great way to do code reviews, which avoids introducing bugs and also learn from each other.

    In my conversations Sam and Eirini talk about these key features and their experiences with it.

    Links:

    • https://git-scm.com/ Git again
    • https://martinfowler.com/articles/branching-patterns.html Martin Fowler's blog post on branching patterns
    • https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-pull-requests/proposing-changes-to-your-work-with-pull-requests/about-pull-requests explains the mechanics of pull requests in more detail
    • https://github-pages.ucl.ac.uk/rsd-engineeringcourse/ Lecture notes

    Don't be shy - say Hi

    This podcast is brought to you by the Advanced Research Computing Centre of the University College London, UK.
    Producer and Host: Peter Schmidt

    Show More Show Less
    26 mins
  • 1/9 Research Software Engineering with Python (COMP233) - Git Part 1
    Oct 1 2025

    Peter Schmidt - the host of this podcast - interviews Sam Harrison, an environmental modeller at the UK Centre for ecology and hydrology. Is it version control important for his research? what tool does he use? How he learn it? Links and transcript available in the show notes.

    About Sam

    • https://www.ceh.ac.uk/staff/samuel-harrison
    • https://www.ceh.ac.uk/

    About Git

    • https://git-scm.com/
    • https://github.com/git/git/
      • https://github.com/git/git/tree/v0.99 (almost) first version of Git from 2005
    • https://github-pages.ucl.ac.uk/rsd-engineeringcourse/ Lecture notes

    Don't be shy - say Hi

    This podcast is brought to you by the Advanced Research Computing Centre of the University College London, UK.
    Producer and Host: Peter Schmidt

    Show More Show Less
    21 mins
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