Main goals
The Sage Days 100 workshop gathered a variety of public (from master student with no prior knowledge of Sage, to senior lecturer with 10 years of contribution to Sage source code). The goals were to introduce OpenDreamKit softwares to beginners, introduce good practice software development for most advanced users and have programmers present their specialized packages.
OpenDreamKit implication
The event was organized by Vincent Delecroix. The OpenDreamKit member Samuel Leli`evre participated in the event and provided individual help to participants. The on-site facilities and logistics were funded by the University of Bonn. OpenDreamKit funded the travel and lodging of 11 of the participants that came from across Europe (France, Germany and United Kingdom).
Event summary
The week was organized so that half of the time was left for people to work on their own project while advanced users can answer questions. During the tutorial sessions we had a mix of specialized package presentation, learning development tool (control version system, testing, debugging, etc). We also had a brief experience with pair programming where an advanced programmer was paired with a beginner to solve a challenge.
Demographics
Out of approximately 25 participants approximtely half of them where from Germany and the other half from neighbouring countries (Switzerland, France, United Kingdom). We had an almost parity of male and female participants which is rare in software development workshops in general. The level of studies spread from one sixth master students, one sixth PhD students, one sixth postdocs and one half of senior participants (professor or associate professor, retired engineer).
Results and impact
One of the primary goal of the workshop was to introduce Sage to students. I believe that we were successful given the feedback we obtained from participants. All of the participants answered to have learn something.