The ISEM Dev Club

TL;DR? Skip straight to FAQ.

The (Boring) Introduction

In ISEM lab, in Biological/Ecology/Evolution sciences in general, and pretty much anywhere else, computer science technologies have undoubtely become pervasive: very useful maybe, very powerful maybe, in any case very much used throughout our institutions. People use software, need software, look for software, shake software, install software, insult software, bless software, drop software, write software, edit software, share software.. And by "software" here we do mean "programs", "scripts", "code", "pipelines", "applications", "libraries" and all that whatever stuff that runs on our computers, crunches data, burns power, processes for ages sometimes, and eventually spits plots, numbers, tables or p-values..

The problem we are facing as a community (and pretty much like anywhere else) is that this rise of computer science technologies has been too fast for us to catch up. We have been learning Biology, Ecology, Evolution for a while, and this makes a lot of sense. But we have not been learning computer science for a while, because it does not make sense, or it did not make sense at the time.
For some of us it's okay: we don't need this knowledge, or we have invested some time to learn the little we need and now we are confident enough to keep working.
For some of us it's not okay: technologies evolve fast, and there is a gap between the level of knowledge that we feel is required to do the work and the one we actually feel confident about.

This is unfortunate. But the community is strong, diverse and kind. Some of us happen to know more and teach the others, and this eases their paths towards a level of knowledge that makes them confident in doing their work. This is fortunate. This is what the dev club is about.

What's the Dev Club?

The dev club^{[why the name?]} aims to be a safe and cosy place at ISEM where you'd be comfortable learning more about computer science, and become confident when your work requires so.

The dev club consists of:

• A regular series of frequent in-person sessions at the lab, where someone volunteers to share their knowledge with a small audience. (I for instance am happy to volunteer a lot as a part of my actual mission.) The possible topics for these sessions are listed in the dev club catalogue, and the sessions are either held in French or in English depending on the audience. There is no obligation to attend regularly: just ask for a session whenever you want or join an upcoming one.

• A chat room online^{[invitation link]}, which anyone in the lab can join to ask for computer science support, share knowledge, solve each other's problems while learning stuff. (I for instance am happy to participate a lot as a part of my actual mission.) In particular, the chat room is where we discuss the object of upcoming in-person sessions and who wants to join them. Discussions there are written in English.

• This very website, along with the catalogue enclosed (sources here).

Building upon previous experience in sharing knowledge this way, there are a few features that the dev club is willing to enforce so as to remain attractive and cosy:

Large Online Chat Room, Small In-Person Sessions

The more people active on the chat room, the more opportunity to share knowledge, help each other out, and discuss fruitful ideas for the next in-person sessions.

The less people during in-person sessions, the easier to make sure that no one is left behind. It should be easy to check that everyone is keeping up. The audience should feel confident asking dummy questions about anything. It should be easy to adjust the live session to the needs of the ones present.

If a lot of people want to join the in-person sessions, then it means that these sessions need to become more frequent to ensure that they stay small and cosy. It is okay to repeat the same session several times so that everyone can attend.

Come Without Your Science

The dev club is meant to help you become confident in your use of computer science technologies at work. As such, it makes sense that the topics covered at ISEM dev club intent to always be useful to the audience in the context of Biology/Ecology/Evolution. By the way, you are welcome to share any topic of interest, if you think that it would be useful to others.

But if you come to the dev club with your very specific problem in mind, like the special hypothesis that characterizes of your research, or this nasty script that you have been stuck on for a week, then it is less likely that the story of that particular problem becoming solved will be useful to anyone else. In this situation, we suggest that you rather request support from the CS-related platforms at ISEM: ISI, MBB or Data depending on your needs. There is also ISDM support at Montpellier level.

Own Your Sessions

The dev-club is not going to plan in-person sessions on a regular, preemptive, rigid basis. Instead, you get to decide what you want to learn and when. There are two ways to join a session:

1. Pick an item from the calalogue and drop us a line in the channel to discuss what exactly you want to learn and when/where we could find room for a session. You get to own this session, as you are the initiative. To help us host the session, there is an ongoing reservation every Tuesday afternoon (1PM-5PM) for the meeting room in building 21 (3rd floor), but any other option is good as long as you've found a teacher and your schedules fit. In-person sessions have no predefined structure. Depending on the topic and the person(s) covering it, it may ressemble:

• A formal presentation with a slideshow and like 15-20 people attending.
• A hands-on practical session with only 3-4 people trying commands together on their laptops.
• A simple informal Q&A-style chat on the whiteboard.
• ..

Anything is okay as long as everyone feels confident and that knowledge is shared.

2. Reading from the channel, you are interested in a precise upcoming session owned by someone else. You can join provided your schedule matches and there is still room left. If you cannot attend and/or there is no room left, then don't worry: just roll back to the first option and become the owner of your next upcoming session.