The eResearch Office promotes and supports the use of advanced information technologies to enable better, faster and higher-impact research
DataCamp is one of the largest organisations in the world for online data science training. Their mission is to “democratize data skills for everyone” by closing data skill gaps.
DataCamp currently has 6 courses that are completely free:
Introduction to Python
Introduction to SQL
Introduction to R
Machine Learning for Everyone
Data Science for Everyone
Data Engineering for Everyone
A training course offered by DIPLOMICS and Thermo Fisher Scientific that deals with the basics of the Linux operating system and command line operation is open for registration.
DIPLOMICS is a network of academic, commercial and industrial labs in South Africa and a resource for the national and international Omics community.
This hands-on course includes:
– An introduction to the Linux OS and how to work in the command line;
– Relational databases and MySQL;
– Basic database operations (creating tables, inserting data, constructing queries);
– Python (or Perl) programming languages;
– Creating a script that transforms variant data into a format that can be loaded into a relational database.
DETAILS
The course is open to all molecular biologists and bench scientists interested in going beyond the graphic interface. The course is open to cross-platform data analysis users (not limited to Ion Torrent users).
Course dates: 22-26 August
Venue: DIPLOMICS training room in Cape Town (108 Albert Rd, Woodstock)
The MATHack Western Cape 2022 is open for registrations and the theme for 2022 is Finding creative solutions to the difficulties that COVID-19 has brought upon the people of the Western Cape. The 24-hour coding challenge is exclusively for universities and colleges from the Western Cape, and promises to be action-packed and fun. Teams of up to 4 people can register.
Prizes include:
1st place: MATHack WC 2022 trophy and R5000
2nd place: R4000
3rd place: R3000
Event details:
Date: 17 September – 18 September
Time: 12:00 pm -12:00 pm
Place: UCT Upper Campus, PD Hahn 1
Register: MATHack WC 2022 Registration
Sign up for the MATStart & MATApp workshops to help you and your team upgrade your MATLAB skills in preparation for the hackathon.
#MATHack_WC_2022
Find more information on their website: https://www.optinum.co.za/mathack-wc-2022
Zindi, a Data Science platform and social enterprise with a focus on building a “data science ecosystem” in Africa, is looking for volunteer Ambassadors. The role will involve creating awareness in your own communities about data science and Zindi activities. Zindi’s mission is to build the data science ecosystem in Africa. They are a Cape Town-based company with a vision for a vibrant community of data scientists across Africa, mobilised towards solving the region’s most pressing problems.
Find out more and register to become an ambassador: https://bit.ly/3IViXPw
Research data management (RDM) is an integral component of the research process. A data management plan (DMP) provides detail of how your research data will be managed. A workshop held on 2 Augusts aimed to provide an overview of what DMPs are, why a postgraduate student would need one, and a practical guide on putting one together.
Workshop contents:
Workshop outcomes:
Date: 2 August 2022
Time: 12:00-14:00
Sign up here: https://forms.gle/Fhys6o2hLe64GGEj9
Watch the recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNfnrAKJDU4
Facilitators: Mark Snyders (Library), Sarah Schäfer (eResearch Office), and Janine Senekal (DPGS)
AfricaOSH is an organisation that aims to inspire African makers, and is focused on open source scientific tools and hardware. They seeks to promote and provide a platform for innovation and creation in Africa, and hold annual events.
The 2022 annual summit theme is Growing the Do-It-Yourself & Do-It-Together (DIY/DIT) Culture for Community Transformation : a focus on Open Health, and promises to be insightful, educative, innovative and fun. The event will be hosted by MboaLab and take place from 29 September-1 October in Yaounde, Cameroon. Read more about it here.
Applications to attend the 2022 AfricaOSH annual summit are now open: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdOwXEONbacMeYX5p1BEpWT20uyQZuByTiRBkLfgGPDXKjUhA/viewform
CarpentryCon 2022 will take place online from 1-12 August 2022, and registration is now open. CarpentryCon is an exciting way to connect with The Carpentries community and level up data science skills. Attendance is free, and takes place over two weeks, featuring sessions that will draw participation from around the world.
The programme will include: lesson development sprints, professional and community skill building, technical skill-ups, regional subcommunity updates, updates on new curriculum development and more.
The CarpentryCon 2022 Schedule can be viewed, and all sessions will be recorded.
Read more about the event and register to attend at https://2022.carpentrycon.org/
In collaboration with DPGS, a ‘Basics of R’ training module will begin on 5 July. The module will include an introductory session, after which training materials will be available through iKamva. The purpose of this training module is to equip postgraduate students with basic knowledge and skills to begin using R.
R is a programming language that is widely used by researchers in various disciplines for data manipulation, calculations and graphical display and visualisations. Anyone who would like to begin working with R as part of their research or skills development will benefit from this training module, and the lessons are aimed at people with no previous experience.
Interested participants can register at: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSe-DvVWWGV9OU4uoEQGDTI9vrDvvRpPPO_z_W8y5fBHrM_ZYg/viewform
The Working with Data: Training Module, created in collaboration with DPGS, is still available on iKamva, and the Q&A session on Wednesday 8 June is an opportunity to ask questions about spreadsheets and OpenRefine.
The session is also for those who would like to begin working on the module during the vacation period.
To access the training module and the recording of our introductory session on iKamva: https://ikamva.uwc.ac.za/x/qV5MAP
SANBI are currently teaching a course on SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) bioinformatics to visitors from public health labs across Africa. The course is taking place at the University of the Western Cape from the 23 to 27 May 2022, and is using ilifu, South Africa’s big data infrastructure for data-intensive research.
Africa CDC aims to strengthen capacities and capabilities at public health institutions in Africa in order to detect and respond quickly and effectively to disease threats and outbreaks. They have data-driven interventions and programmes, and SANBI has been working with Africa CDC since 2018.
In 2020, the Africa CDC launched its Institute of Pathogen Genomics (IPG), which has been at the forefront of supporting SARS-CoV-2 sequencing on the African continent. SANBI is one of the specialist centres assisting Africa CDC in its work developing pathogen genomics and bioinformatics. As part of this role, they are running a week-long course on SARS-CoV-2 sequence analysis for people from public health labs in 9 African countries – Morocco (Institut Pasteur du Maroc), Egypt (Central Public Health Laboratory), Ethiopia (Ethiopian Public Health Institute), Uganda (Center Public Health Institute), Kenya (National Public Health Laboratory), Senegal (Institut Pasteur de Dakar), Zambia (Zambian National Public Health Institute), Ghana (Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research) and South Africa (National Institute for Communicable Diseases). Nigeria (Nigeria CDC) and DRC (Institut National de Recherche Biomédicale) could not attend in-person, but are participating online.
SANBI have been ilifu partners since its inception, and Peter van Heusden, Senior Bioinformatician at SANBI, is one of the organisers of the workshop. He says that participants have found it to be “an excellent resource to support public health bioinformatics”. ilifu is a node in the South African national data infrastructure which enables South African researchers to be leaders in the strategic science domains of astronomy and bioinformatics.
The training relies on cloud infrastructure provided by Ilifu – each lab gets their own installation of SANBI’s SARS-CoV-2 Workbench to work on, and gets hands-on experience with uploading data, doing data analysis and visualising their results. While the current training has focused on SARS-CoV-2, the discussions have ranged across a number of other infectious diseases that these public health labs are responding to: HIV, TB, hepatitis, malaria, influenza and other pathogens. SANBI sees this training as feeding into Africa CDC’s efforts to build a Community of Practice in public health bioinformatics and genomic surveillance.