Lorena A. Barba group

How repro-packs can save your future-self

Natalia Clementi

The story of a bug-fix after the research paper was published. Back in December 2019 we published a paper along with its reproducibility packages. These repro-packs, as we call them, consist of all the files necessary to reproduce the results in our paper (data and plots) and we deposit them in Zenodo and Figshare archives... Continue »

twitter If I gave a talk about being a woman in engineering, it would start: “I once heard a talk on women in engineering; nothing applied to me.” View // Reply // Retweet // Like

Barbagroup reproducibility syllabus

Lorena Barba

Also published on the Medium publication "Hacker Noon."  After my short piece, “A hard road to reproducibility,” appeared in Science, I received several emails and Twitter mentions asking for more specific tips—both about tools and documents we use in the group to train the team about reproducibility. In answer to popular demand, then, I have... Continue »

twitter You can get real-time mission experience of Apollo 17, with incredible footage and audio records. Wow! #space https://t.co/XeqzPMhYaU View // Reply // Retweet // Like

Numba: Tell those C++ bullies to get lost

Gilbert Forsyth

Numba: Tell those C++ bullies to get lost by Gil Forsyth   This is the title of our SciPy 2016 tutorial, where we take aim at those who claim Python is not for science because its performance stinks.  Wake up, world!  You've been able to make Python codes fast for a long time, with Cython,... Continue »

twitter For RNA paper based on a computer game, authorship creates an identity crisis—Bohannon tells the back story @UCBIDS https://t.co/JW1w39krlt View // Reply // Retweet // Like

Computational Thinking: I do not think it means what you think it means

Lorena Barba

“It’s a basic skill. Right along with the three Rs.” President Obama, on his weekly address just over a month ago, announced the $4-billion Computer Science for All initiative. Reactions quickly spread to make clear that the important skill is not coding, it’s computational thinking. But what does this mean? As it’s become a buzzword... Continue »

twitter RT @AcademicsSay: Flipped teaching. Blended learning. Youshouldbe writing. View // Reply // Retweet // Like

A collaboration to issue badges in #numericalmooc

Lorena Barba

Announcing a collaboration with Prof. Daniel T. Hickey (Indiana University Center for Research on Learning and Technology) to award badges in our independent MOOC, "Practical Numerical Methods with Python." When I was writing the short, internal proposal for creating what is now GW's first massive open online course (MOOC), I had a handful of clear... Continue »

twitter Via @ctitusbrown: #SIGCSE paper reported no significant grade difference for Python-trained students on C++ courses http://t.co/IoYwHFwKT0 View // Reply // Retweet // Like

Why I push for Python

Lorena Barba

My colleagues are puzzled by my relentless push of Python as the language to teach programming to our undergraduates. They look at me funny, each time that the subject comes up and I can't help vehemently insisting "Python!" It's natural to be skeptical of someone championing a programming language; we've all seen the language wars... Continue »