This is a hands-on introductory workshop, ideal for people who are starting to learn Julia or want to know more about this programming language. We’ll start with an overview of what Julia is and who uses it, then walk through the basics, including variables, different data types, and simple examples using common packages and functions. The workshop will also introduce concepts like multiple dispatch and share tips for writing clear, readable code. If there’s time at the end, we’ll take a quick look at exploratory data analysis, where you’ll learn how to load a spreadsheet, work with it using DataFrames, and create a few basic plots.  

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:   

• Recognize what Julia is, and some of its relevant features (JIT compiler, multiple dispatch)  

• Explore some of its libraries and their use cases 

• Follow basic code formatting and best practices  

• Start writing and evaluating basic code in VSCode 

• Load and explore data (spreadsheet) 

Familiarity with programming in any language and VSCode are useful but not required.

Instructor:

Alfredo González-Espinoza, PhD, Research Data Services Librarian, Carnegie Mellon University

Lencia McKee, Research Data Librarian, Research Data & Open Scholarship

Helpers:

Gabby Evergreen, Research Data Librarian, Research Data & Open Scholarship