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Author: samumantha

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+# CodeRefinery workshop in Espoo, Finland
+
+A key aspect of the CodeRefinery project (http://coderefinery.org/), which was launched last autumn, is to train Nordic research groups to take full advantage of state-of-the-art tools and practices for modern collaborative scientific software development. The CodeRefinery training takes place in the form of interactive three-day workshops involving demonstrations, live coding exercises and type-along types of presentations. The very first CodeRefinery workshop was held in Espoo, Finland, on the 14th-16th of December 2016 in the headquarters of the CSC IT Center for Science. The 24 participants, most of whom were PhD students or postdoctoral researchers, came from various scientific disciplines ranging from mathematics and computer science to the physical and biological sciences, engineering and psychology. Their programming background was similarly diverse: some had extensive experience of software development in C, C++ or Fortran, others were Python or R aficionados, and yet others had less prior coding experience. However they all shared a keen interest in improving their coding practices and learning to use modern software development tools.
+
+And this is exactly the aim of the CodeRefinery project: helping resarchers to write modular, reusable, maintainable, sustainable, reproducible and robust software, regardless of their academic discipline or preferred programming language. The workshop in Espoo covered collaborative distributed version control, automated testing, code documentation, DevOps, Jupyter Notebooks, CMake, integrated development environments and how to manage code complexity. In most sessions, demonstrations by the teacher were interspersed with tasks to be solved by the students and, after each session, students were encouraged to give feedback using sticky notes on what went well and what could be improved. Overall, the feedback was highly positive - clearly, the core topics covered by CodeRefinery workshops are in high demand by researchers who develop scientific software in their daily work, but may not have received formal training in using modern tools. 	
+
+The CodeRefinery project will continue to deliver 3-day interactive workshops over the coming years. The next up is in Stockholm on the 20th-22nd of February, followed by Copenhagen on the 9th-11th of May and Tromsø some time in June. In tandem with delivering these workshops, the project will organize half-day or one-day events focusing on either training in one particular topic (as in the 2017 NeIC conference, http://neic2017.nordforsk.org/) or on general seminars and discussions (as in the April research computing training week in Oslo, http://www.uio.no/english/services/it/research/events/coderefinery-2017-april.html). 
+
+
+Anyone interested in attending any of the CodeRefinery events can get the latest news on the project’s website, http://coderefinery.org/, or follow @coderefine on Twitter. Furthermore, CodeRefinery recently launched a web forum where researchers from Nordic universities and research centers can ask questions and take part in discussions on software development topics. To join this forum, visit https://groups.google.com/group/coderefinery. 
+

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+## Email to all former participants to announce newsletter
+Dear all,
+
+We are pleased to announce that we will be starting a CodeRefinery newsletter in the coming weeks! The idea behind this is to keep everyone who signs up updated on what’s happening in the CodeRefinery project. Apart from announcing upcoming workshops, hackathons, and other events, the newsletter will also cover other exciting developments, for example on new training material development, community building activities, general project updates and occasionally some useful tips and tricks. This newsletter is “opt-in” - so visit https://coderefinery.org/outreach/ if you want to sign up, and please share it with colleagues you think might be interested!
+
+Thanks for reading, and we hope you’ll find the newsletter interesting!
+The CodeRefinery team
+
+
+# CodeRefinery Newsletter May 2019
+
+Dear reader,
+
+Welcome to the first CodeRefinery newsletter! The idea behind this is to keep you updated on what’s happening in the CodeRefinery project. Apart from announcing upcoming workshops, hackathons, and other events, the newsletter will also cover other exciting developments, for example on training material development, community building activities, and general project updates. You are receiving this newsletter because (hopefully) you signed up on   https://coderefinery.org/outreach. 
+
+You may know since earlier what the CodeRefinery project is all about, and you may have participated in (or even helped out with!) one of our workshops. We nonetheless want to provide here a very short summary of the history and future directions of the project.
+
+## History and Background
+
+The CodeRefinery project grew out of two 1-week long courses called “Scientific software development toolbox” given at KTH in Stockholm as part of the Swedish e-Science Education (SeSE) program. Based on the very good experience from these workshops we submitted a project proposal to NeIC (the Nordic e-Infrastructure Collaboration) to bring these workshops to a Nordic-wide audience, and the proposal was granted.
+Since 2016, the CodeRefinery project has delivered over 20 workshops and taught over 500 students and researchers how to write better code, along with providing a code repository hosting service to support this. The workshops focus on best practices and modern tools for reproducible and sustainable code development, regardless of participants’ background and experience, academic discipline, or favored programming language. Most workshop participants have been PhD students and postdocs, and as results from our post-workshop survey (https://coderefinery.org/) reveal, workshop participants learn new skills that really help them in their daily research. CodeRefinery is funded by NeIC with co-funding from the national research e-infrastructure providers. 
+
+## The Future
+
+In October 2018, CodeRefinery entered its second phase with funding until October 2021. After this second phase, the goal is to have established a self-sustainable project organization requiring only little funding for coordination. Our vision is for the lesson material to be maintained by a community of enthusiasts, all workshops to be taught by instructors contributing on in-kind or volunteer basis, and all costs for workshops to be paid by hosting universities. While this may sound like wishful thinking, we are inspired by the successes of related educational initiatives (particularly The Carpentries), and we are actively working on many fronts to make this happen. The future of CodeRefinery will critically depend on establishing a thriving community - and this is where you enter the picture! To read more about what you can do to help us reach sustainability, please read the Getting Involved section below.
+
+## Upcoming workshops and events
+
+We have a packed programme ahead of us! Four more workshops will be taught before summer: Gothenburg on May 21-23, Helsinki on May 27-29, Oslo on June 3-5, and Aalborg on June 11-13. However, we have seats remaining only on the Aalborg workshop. See the Aalborg workshop webpage for further information and registration information: https://coderefinery.org/workshops/2019-06-11-aalborg/ 
+
+A tentative workshop schedule for the autumn will be drafted before summer, so make sure to follow our updates if you would like to participate in a workshop as a learner or a helper. Remember also that we have a notify-me list, where you can register your email address and give a list of workshop locations you want to receive updates on.
+
+## Instructor training workshop and hackathon	
+
+We are pleased to announce that we are planning two back-to-back events in Stockholm this autumn: a 2-day instructor training workshop followed by a 2 day hackathon! Tentative dates are November 5-8, so mark your calendars!
+
+The instructor training workshop will be for everyone who is interested in learning how to teach technical topics in general and the CodeRefinery material in particular. We will cover best practices when developing new lesson material and some practical pedagogical insights that make a world of difference when teaching technical technical skills.
+
+The follow-up event will be a hackathon with two main themes - one focusing on brainstorming and development of new CodeRefinery lessons, and the other will be a “bring-your-code” theme were researchers can discuss their technical challenges and receive concrete advice on how to overcome them. 
+
+Of course, a key element of both events will be the networking aspect - meeting like-minded people, making new friends and collaborators and learning cool new skills in a friendly environment.
+
+## Getting involved
+
+We use Zulip to discuss within our team and with the community. We discuss in the open and you can join us on https://coderefinery.zulipchat.com - you can listen in, follow certain threads, participate, and influence. If you instead have practical questions about workshops or services or to report issues, write to us at support@coderefinery.org.
+
+Have you already participated in a CodeRefinery workshop, but would like to attend another one to refresh your memory and share your own knowledge? Or do you already have a solid background in research software engineering and would like to meet like-minded people in a friendly environment? Join us as a helper! Get in touch and let us know which workshop you would like to join. If you would later on like to teach in CodeRefinery workshops, it’s very valuable to have participated once as a helper.
+
+All our lessons are on GitHub (https://github.com/coderefinery), and contributions to the lesson material are highly welcome. The best way to contribute is via the forking-pull request workflow, which you can learn about in our collaborative version control lesson. You can also contact us via other channels about the material.
+
+Would you like to host a CodeRefinery workshop at your home institution? We are currently planning the workshop schedule for the autumn. Get in touch if this sounds interesting!
+
+If you like what we do, please reach out on Twitter (@coderefine) or bring up the project in conversations with your colleagues.
+