NRT Bootcamps
Boot Camp 1. Methods and Data Acquisition (Yr. 1 Summer)
This boot camp is an immersive, experiential learning exercise focused on training candidates in the core tools and techniques of the neurophotonics field. All students entering the NRT program will take this Methods and Data Acquisition Boot Camp during the summer of their first year to expose them to the breadth of neurophotonics. Just as importantly, it serves to build community amongst the diverse group of NRT fellows from eight different graduate programs as they join labs and begin their second year of graduate training. Our trainees always rave about this opportunity to meet the other trainees with a diversity of academic backgrounds and that this helps them form interdisciplinary networks that benefits them throughout their graduate training. The boot camp is a mix of lectures, hands-on activities, communication exercises and socials.
Boot Camp 2. Data Analysis (Year 2, summer)
This boot camp is an immersive, experiential learning exercise focused on developing the interdisciplinary technological tools and skills in data science that will benefit all trainees. NRT trainees finishing their second year of graduate training attend this boot camp during the summer. This boot camp occurs at the same time as the first boot camp and enhances the community building across student cohorts through joint lunches and socials. The boot camp training exercises will cover essential tools and techniques required for utilizing modern data science tools in research:
- Best practices in research coding
- Version control, team coding, and contributing to public packages with Github
- Intermediate Python: idiomatic and efficient coding and data visualization
- Data management
- Supercomputing at BU with Python
In parallel with these tutorials, trainees work together to build and refactor their own research codebases. As a result, trainees leave the bootcamp with both enhanced skills and concrete improvements to their graduate research software.