INCF/OCNS Software WG

The INCF/OCNS Software Working Group

WG meeting 09 May 2022

Photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash

Photo by Daria Nepriakhina on Unsplash.


These are the meeting logs (and additional progress notes) from the Software WG meeting that was held on 09th May, 2022. The next progress meeting will be held in June. For any clarifications and suggestions, please open a new ticket.

Attendees⋆

0800 UTC:

  • Ankur Sinha
  • Shailesh Appukuttan
  • Stewart Heitmann

1700 UTC:

  • Ankur Sinha
  • Joe Graham
  • Marcel Stimberg
  • Charles Linssen

Preset Agenda⋆

From https://github.com/OCNS/SoftwareWG/issues/90

Updates on CNS * 2022 satellite tutorials⋆

General review of open tickets/discussions⋆

Minutes⋆

CNS * 2022 satellite tutorials⋆

  • OCNS have no objections with sessions being repeated at online satellite tutorials.
  • ACTION: Ankur ping Elephant again: https://github.com/NeuralEnsemble/elephant/issues/484: DONE
  • ACTION: Ankur ping Neurolib again: https://github.com/OCNS/SoftwareWG/issues/77: DONE
  • ACTION: Ankur ping Eden again: https://github.com/OCNS/SoftwareWG/issues/95: DONE
  • ACTION: Ankur/Shailesh: update text on the website to say “as part of CNS” instead of “at CNS”: https://ocns.github.io/SoftwareWG/pages/software-wg-satellite-tutorials-at-cns-2022.html: DONE
  • ACTION: move July meeting(s) to first week: Avoid July 4, Holiday in US: DONE (moved a week earlier to July 06)
  • ACTION: introduce WG in all satellite sessions: request presenters to do a quick blurb on WG to start with: NOTED
  • Based on the survey results, we decided to do another session on containers:
    • NEW session: Ankur: Containers 101 : 1.5 hours: Ticket opened: https://github.com/OCNS/SoftwareWG/issues/96
    • start by showing traditional Python virtual environment development method to show advantages of using a container based workflow:
      • pulling images
      • creating images (including files from local file system)
      • accessing local file system from container
      • list of comp-neuro containers (NeuralEnsemble/NEST/NeuroFedora/etc.): ask everyone presenting a tutorial if they have container images
      • set up web page for this on our website with initial information: people need to have docker/podman installed
      • mention Toolbx.
  • We went through the survey results to see what other sessions we could add to our satellite tutorials, (if we have slots):
    • Keras (3 hours)
    • Catch22 (3 hours max?)
    • Datalad (1.5 hours)
    • PyNN (3 hours max)
    • Fasttrack: less priority as does not fit comp-neuro theme
  • Other tools in the survey:
    • Missingno + Pingouin + general analysis visualisation tools: maybe a tutorial later in the year
    • MorphIO/MorphTool/NeuroM: session later in the year
    • NWB ecosystem: do lots of user days themselves, we can do a specific tutorial later in the year
    • NiPy suite: also better to do a specific tutorial later in the year
    • PETlink: skip for now, not comp-neuro
    • PyElectro: with NeuroML bits
    • PyBIDS: maybe neuroimaging tutorial later
    • PySpike: separate tutorial later in the year (correct typo elsewhere also: spike not spyke)
    • Spiking circus: later (spike train analysis tutorial?)
    • Allen tools, BMTK: full day tutorial later on
    • BrainScaleS + Spinnaker: reach out for tutorial later (needs access to hardware)
    • GENESIS?
    • SciUnit/NeuronUnit: tutorial later
    • STEPS: dedicated tutorial later
  • ACTION: Ankur re-ping Thomas Nowotny about sending out the survey in next communication (check if it has been sent out yet), if no newsletter: being sent out in newsletter, so not required: DONE
  • ACTION: Shailesh ping newsletter organisers (tentative newsletter in May): DONE
  • ACTION: Ankur/Shailesh check if it was included in the INCF newsletter: was in issue 1: DONE
  • ACTION: reach out to confirmed tutorials to ask for (WIP):
    • Duration (give slot options)
    • preferred time
    • web page link for session
    • whether they need us to set up zoom meetings for them (preferable that they handle this themselves)
    • strongly suggest recording (especially if there isn’t a recording of their tutorial already): we will get these uploaded to the training space
    • DEADLINE for confirmation: 20th (2 weeks)
  • ACTION: end of next week (20th) send out e-mail to public lists about satellite tutorials (“save the date” with initial information)
  • ACTION: Ankur drop comment on https://github.com/OCNS/SoftwareWG/issues/61 for ideas, if none, close next meeting: DONE
  • ACTION: Ankur: same for https://github.com/OCNS/SoftwareWG/issues/62: DONE