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UCL for Code in Research

Peter Schmidt

The companion podcast for courses on programming from the Advanced Research Computing Centre of the University College of London, UK.

15 episodes
4/9 Research Software Engineering with Python (COMP233) - Data Formats
4October 22, 2025 6:00pm

4/9 Research Software Engineering with Python (COMP233) - Data Formats

In this episode I'll be discussing data formats such as CSV, JSON and YAML. My guest is Nick Radcliffe from Stochastic Solutions and the Uni. Edinburgh. Nick's expertise is in data science and he has a lot to share ab...

3/9 Research Software Engineering with Python (Comp233) - Introduction to Python
3October 16, 2025 4:00am

3/9 Research Software Engineering with Python (Comp233) - Introduction to Python

Python is one of the most widely used programming languages in research and science. How did it come to that. And what makes Python special? It's something I discuss with my guest in this episode, Robin Wilson, who al...

2/9 Research Software Engineering with Python (COMP233) - Git Part 2
2October 08, 2025 6:00pm

2/9 Research Software Engineering with Python (COMP233) - Git Part 2

In this episode we look into more essential Git commands, such as branching and merging. Branching and merging are key concepts that help you develop code or even text documents in a team. They help you maintain diffe...

1/9 Research Software Engineering with Python (COMP233) - Git Part 1
1October 01, 2025 6:00pm

1/9 Research Software Engineering with Python (COMP233) - Git Part 1

Peter Schmidt - the host of this podcast - interviews Sam Harrison, an environmental modeller at the UK Centre for ecology and hydrology. Is it version control important for his research? what tool does he use? How he...

10/10 C++: Wrapping it up
10March 30, 2025 6:00pm

10/10 C++: Wrapping it up

In this last episode of the companion podcast for the C++ course at UCL, I invited both Klaus Iglberger and Marc Hartung (Dive, Berlin) to go through some aspects of parallel computing. But also to look a little bit a...

9/10 - Distributed Memory and Parallel Computing
9March 25, 2025 7:00pm

9/10 - Distributed Memory and Parallel Computing

Marc Hartung and I will discuss distributed memory in parallel computing in this episode, with tools like OpenMPI. We also discuss some of the hardware aspects around HPC systems and how shared and distributed memory...

8/10 When things happen all ... in parallel
8March 18, 2025 7:00pm

8/10 When things happen all ... in parallel

Parallel programming is a huge, exciting and evolving field. Together with my guest Marc Hartung from Dive in Berlin, Germany, we try to cover some aspects of it: including OpenMP, how to synchronise data etc....

7/10 Oh please, make it faster...performance in C++
7March 11, 2025 7:00pm

7/10 Oh please, make it faster...performance in C++

How can we measure the performance (run-time, memory usage etc) of our C++ code? And what does performance mean, anyway. These and other questions are the topic of this episode - with my guest Klaus Iglberger, C++ eng...

6/10 The code you're looking for is in ... the library
6March 04, 2025 6:00pm

6/10 The code you're looking for is in ... the library

Software libraries play a crucial role in software development, and C++ is no exception. Klaus and I walk through the different aspects of building, using and selecting libraries. Links: https://cmake.org CM...

5/10 Classes and Design
5February 18, 2025 6:00pm

5/10 Classes and Design

Here we touch on some ways to build classes in C++ and how class design such as class hierarchies can help to make code more readable, more maintainable and less error prone (amongst other things). Klaus Iglberger and...

4/10 On Polymorphism
4February 11, 2025 6:00pm

4/10 On Polymorphism

Inheritance, templates, function overloading - they all fall into the category of polymorphism in programming. My guest Klaus Iglberger and I discuss the different aspects of how this could be done with C++. Li...

3/10 Throw, try, catch...test
3February 04, 2025 6:00pm

3/10 Throw, try, catch...test

Exceptions are essentials, as are error codes. Writes Bjarnes Stroustrup. And so on our 3rd stop through C++ I talk about what you could do when things go wrong. And what you can do to prevent errors - with testing. M...

2/10 Data Types and the world of (smart) pointers
2January 28, 2025 6:00pm

2/10 Data Types and the world of (smart) pointers

In the beginnings were...data and data types. Which is where we begin our journey through C++. The language provides for a range of interesting, fundamental, complex and custom types - one of which is a set of pointer...

1/10 C++ - An Introduction
1January 21, 2025 6:00pm

1/10 C++ - An Introduction

This first episode is about introducing C++, where it started, how it evolved. You will hear from 2 practitioners: Klaus Iglberger (C++ coach/trainer) and Marc Hartung (tech lead at Dive in Berlin). Here are...

TEASER: Research Computing with C++
1December 14, 2024 3:00am

TEASER: Research Computing with C++

Welcome to the new podcast from the Advanced Research Computing Centre of the University College London, UK.  A companion podcast for courses on Research Computing at UCL. In this first season we'll be presen...