"The Research Software Engineering Group has been of great help to me in starting to use Git and organizing my code. I joined the Code Refinery workshops, which provided a good introduction to Git. In the time that followed, the RSE group was available to answer Git-related questions, making it easier for me to apply Git to my own research work. The RSE group also introduced me to tools like Black, Flake8, and docstring guides for cleaning up code, as well as creating top-level functions in scripts and importing functions via symlink. The sessions have been a combination of in-person help and group discussions, both of which have worked out well. The group is always welcoming and eager to help with any problems you may have."
"I had approached the RSE group seeking help to improve the efficiency and performance of my python code which was taking approximately 4 weeks to run even when using 8 cores of a server.
The objective was to go through 8 years of data stored in approximately 18000 txt files and extract certain parameters based on a set of given conditions. Even though I had used python before, I got the opportunity to learn about new functionalities and features of pandas dataframes. Using Black and other extensions, I was taught to organize my code more efficiently thereby improving its readability. Additionally, Radovan also showed me that is possible to import my own functions as separate modules without the need to populate my script with a lot of functions. These were so powerful that the execution time for the script slid down from 4 weeks to below an hour which was really cool!
Radovan also motivated me to use GitHub, which I had never used before, by introducing features that could be utilized by a research student like me who uses a lot of data and scripts. I am starting to explore more features of GitHub and python on my own now. I am really happy with the guidance I had received from the RSE group especially that from Radovan who helped me re-think the way I program. I felt that the RSE group members are so welcoming and excited to help learn and relearn new things together."