Jun 23-24, 2026
9:00 am - 4:00 pm EST
Instructors: Cooper Kimball-Rhines, Imran Khan
Helpers: Alex Bontempo, Julie Dragon, Heather Driscoll
The Carpentries project comprises the Software Carpentry, Data Carpentry, and Library Carpentry communities of Instructors, Trainers, Maintainers, helpers, and supporters who share a mission to teach foundational computational and data science skills to researchers.
Want to learn more and stay engaged with The Carpentries? Carpentries Clippings is The Carpentries' biweekly newsletter, where we share community news, community job postings, and more. Sign up to receive future editions and read our full archive: https://carpentries.org/newsletter/
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".
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: Kalkin Hall, 55 Colchester Avenue, Burlington, VT 05405. Get directions with OpenStreetMap or Google Maps.
When: Jun 23-24, 2026; 9:00 am - 4:00 pm EST Add to your Google Calendar.
Requirements: Participants must bring a laptop 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. The workshop organizers have checked that:
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 hdriscol@uvm.edu for more information.
Workshops FAQ: For answers to frequently asked questions about workshops, refer to the Carpentries Workshop FAQ.
Everyone who participates in Carpentries activities is required to conform to the Code of Conduct. This document also outlines how to report an incident if needed.
We will use this collaborative document for chatting, taking notes, and sharing URLs and bits of code.
Please be sure to complete these surveys before and after the workshop.
| Before | Pre-workshop survey |
| 08:00 | Install Help (See Instructions Below) |
| 09:00 | R for Reproducible Science: Intro to R and RStudio |
| 10:30 | Morning break |
| 11:00 | R for Reproducible Science: Data Structures |
| 12:00 | Lunch break |
| 13:00 | R for Reproducible Science: Exploring Data Frames |
| 14:30 | Afternoon break |
| 15:00 | R for Reproducible Science: Control Flow & If Time: Intro to Unix |
| 16:00 | Wrap-up |
| 08:00 | Install Help (See Instructions Below) |
| 09:00 | R for Reproducible Science: ggplot2 |
| 10:30 | Morning break |
| 11:00 | R for Reproducible Science: dplyr |
| 12:00 | Lunch break |
| 13:00 | R for Reproducible Science: tidyr |
| 14:30 | Afternoon break |
| 15:00 | R for Reproducible Science: Functions & If Time: git for Version Control |
| 16:00 | Wrap-up |
| Post-workshop Survey |
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.
R is a programming language that is especially powerful for data exploration, visualization, and statistical analysis. To interact with R in our lessons, we typically use RStudio.
Install R by:
Install R by:
Install R by:
# at the start of each line, as this indicates a comment and is not part of the command.
# update indices
sudo apt update -qq
# install two helper packages we need
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends software-properties-common dirmngr
# add the signing key for these repos
wget -qO- https://cloud.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu/marutter_pubkey.asc | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/cran_ubuntu_key.asc
# add the repo from CRAN
sudo add-apt-repository "deb https://cloud.r-project.org/bin/linux/ubuntu $(lsb_release -cs)-cran40/"
# install R itself
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends r-base
# install dependencies
sudo apt install -y r-base-core r-recommended r-base-dev gdebi-core build-essential libcurl4-gnutls-dev libxml2-dev libssl-dev
sudo apt install --no-install-recommends gdebi-core
# cd ~/Downloads
# download the latest RStudio Server .deb file
wget https://download2.rstudio.org/server/jammy/amd64/rstudio-server-2025.05.1-513-amd64.deb
# install the .deb file
sudo gdebi rstudio-server-2025.05.1-513-amd64.deb
# start the RStudio Server
sudo systemctl start rstudio-server
# enable RStudio Server to start on boot
sudo systemctl enable rstudio-server
http://localhost:8787.If you are using Windows and WSL2, the full in-depth instructions for installing R on WSL2 can be found in this POSIT article.
Bash is a commonly-used shell that gives you the power to do tasks more quickly.
Two options are available for setting up your device so that you’re ready to learn in our workshops with Microsoft Windows.
The first is Git for Windows (often referred to as “Git Bash”), and the second is Windows Subsystem for Linux v2 (“WSL 2”).
If you experience any issues, please install Git for Windows using the instructions below.
We recommend Git for Windows as the default bash experience for Windows users attending our workshops, as it is the most straightforward to install and use, and does not require admin privileges. However, it has limited functionality compared to a full Linux environment, and when you continue your data science learning after the workshop you will find that Git Bash does not support all the tools and workflows you might need. We recommend that after the workshop, you consider installing WSL 2 to get a more complete Linux experience within your Windows environment, and to have access to the full range of tools and software available on Linux.
Depending on your version, please go to the relevant instructions below.
cmd and press Enter)setx HOME "%USERPROFILE%"
SUCCESS: Specified value was saved.exit then pressing EnterThis will provide you with both Git and Bash in the Git Bash program.
If you are confident to try installing WSL 2 rather than Git Bash, please use the following instructions.
We will install Ubuntu via the Microsoft Store.
It is possible to install WSL within the Windows Powershell command prompt, and full instructions are on the Microsoft website.
Note: You will need to restart your computer after installing WSL 2, so make sure you have saved any work.
Linux comes in many flavours, called “distributions”, and each has its own benefits, features and quirks!
WSL 2 is a fully fledged Linux environment that runs completely within your Windows 10 or 11 operating system. While there are many Linux distributions available to install (e.g. Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, Mint, Arch, Gentoo, and hundreds more!), WSL 2 only supports a handful of distributions listed above due to the way it needs to be integrated with Windows itself.
So, we will use the default that WSL 2 recommends, Ubuntu.
Ubuntu 22.04.06 LTS, or Ubuntu 24.04.01 LTS):
Ubuntu: selecting Ubuntu 22.04.06 LTS or Ubuntu 24.04.01 LTS from the Start Menu will open the bash prompt directly, orTerminal: this will open a new Windows Terminal window, which will look like a blank black window with a blinking cursor waiting for input. Note: This terminal might default to Powershell, and not Ubuntu. If this is the case, click the down arrow in the Terminal window menu bar at the top, and then click Ubuntu 22.04 or 24.04, depending on the version you installed. It will also show keyboard shortcuts (e.g. Ctrl+Shift+1) to open the various prompts available within the Terminal application.
Once you have installed WSL 2, you will need to install some software within the Ubuntu operating system in order to use it effectively. Make sure you are using Ubuntu by checking you see the bash prompt:
The first thing to do is to update the list of available Ubuntu software packages, using a tool called apt.
Type the following command into the bash prompt:
sudo apt update
Note: You will be prompted to enter your password. This is the password you set when installing Ubuntu, and will not show up on the screen as you type it in. This is a security feature of the terminal, and is normal behaviour.
Install updated versions of the base packages required across all our lessons, by typing:
sudo apt install git build-essential autoconf automake libtool python3 r-baseYou're all set!
If you get stuck, please contact your workshop organisers to get assistance before the workshop starts.
The default shell in Mac OS X Ventura and newer versions is Zsh, but
Bash is available in all versions, so no need to install anything.
You access Bash from the Terminal (found in
/Applications/Utilities).
You may want to keep Terminal in your dock for this workshop.
To see if your default shell is Bash type echo $SHELL
in Terminal and press the Return key. If the message
printed does not end with '/bash' then your default is something
else, you can change your current shell to Bash by typing
bash and then pressing Return. To check
your current shell type echo $0 and press Return.
To change your default shell to Bash type chsh -s /bin/bash and
press the Return key, then reboot for the change to take effect. To
change your default back to Zsh, type chsh -s /bin/zsh, press the
Return key and reboot. To check available shells, type
cat /etc/shells.
The default shell is usually Bash and there is usually no need to install anything.
To see if your default shell is Bash type echo $SHELL
in Terminal and press the Return key. If the message
printed does not end with '/bash' then your default is something
else, you can change your current shell to Bash by typing
bash and then pressing Return. To check
your current shell type echo $0 and press Return.
To change your default shell to Bash type chsh -s /bin/bash and
press the Return key, then reboot for the change to take effect. To
change your default back to Zsh, type chsh -s /bin/zsh, press the
Return key and reboot. To check available shells, type
cat /etc/shells.
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.
Git should be installed on your computer as part of your Bash install (see the Shell installation instructions).
Please open the Terminal app, type git --version and press
Enter/Return. If it's not installed already,
follow the instructions to Install the "command line
developer tools". Do not click "Get Xcode", because that will
take too long and is not necessary for our Git lesson.
After installing these tools, there won't be anything in your /Applications
folder, as they and Git are command line programs.
For older versions of OS X (10.5-10.8) use the
most recent available installer labelled "snow-leopard"
available here.
(Note: this project is no longer maintained.)
Because this installer is not signed by the developer, you may have to
right click (control click) on the .pkg file, click Open, and click
Open in the pop-up dialog.
If Git is not already available on your machine you can try to
install it via your distro's package manager. For Debian/Ubuntu run
sudo apt-get install git and for Fedora run
sudo dnf install git.