More than 550 under- and postgraduate students at 28 South African universities were trained in the fundamentals of scientific computing and data science during the annual Coding Summer School which took place from 27 January to 7 February 2025.
Since 2019, the annual Coding Summer School is jointly organised by the Centre for High Performance Computing (CHPC) and the National Institute for Theoretical and Computational Sciences (NITheCS). This summer school has been presented annually by the CHPC since 2010. Since then, the summer school has trained over 2000 students.
This is the first year that undergraduate students were allowed to attend. All in all, a total of 159 undergraduate, 134 BScHonours, 212 MSc, and 159 Phd students attended, including 45 postdoctoral fellows and 35 professionals.
Another change is that students had to complete an entrance test before they were accepted. In preparation, they were encouraged to attend the NITheCS Software Carpentry Workshop from 11-15 November 2024.
After the two-week long course, 372 (58%) students succeeded in qualifying for a Certificate of Completion. Amongst the top five 'Pythonistas', were postgraduate students Zusiphe Mzazela from the University of Cape Town, Boithuso Phale from the University of the Witwatersrand, Kgaugelo Ledwaba from Northwest University, Lindiwe Maphalla from the University of Johannesburg, and Anuoluwa Makinde from iThemba Labs – an all-female cast.
Mr Binjamin Barsch, Lead Software Engineer at the CHPC and lead coordinator for the Summer School, says this year the summer school moved from introductory Python training to intermediate training: “Learning the basics of Python is readily available and accessible online already, so the content focused more on practical skills for researchers. This year we also focused more on in-person attendance and the students' feedback showed how they valued that greatly due to meeting their trainers and peers face to face."
Dr Werner Janse van Rensburg, Research Manager at CHPC, says this year they also went out of their way to improve the in-person experience of participants: “We developed novel and engaging training exercises—including games—to enhance learning in Python and Bash scripting. These activities were highly appreciated by the trainees."
This included an in-person team building exercise where students formed groups and competed against each other in a Python knowledge challenge. They also introduced fun and interactive ways to teach Basch scripting tools such as Bashcrawl. This involves classic text-based adventure games where student must explore directories, find hidden files, and solve challenges.
One of the top five Pythonistas concurs: “The school was nothing short of extraordinary. I particularly appreciated the code-alongs and the opportunity to interact with a variety of instructors. I wished we had more time to share, as everyone had so much to offer," says Kgaugelo Ledwaba, a BScHons student enrolled in the Centre for Space Research at North West University.
Ledwaba, who matriculated from Kwandebele Science Combined School in the village of Siyabuswa-Kwandebele, Mpumalanga, says she hopes to become an expert in the exploration of fields such as signal interpretation, advancing research in astronomy at the South African Radio Astronomy Observatory (SARAO) or NASA. Prior to enrolling for the summer school, she had no prior experience with computational thinking or machine learning.
Zusiphe Mzazela, who came out first amongst all the Pythonistas, says she has been introduced to coding before, but mostly at an introductory level: “Ever since I started my honours in bioinformatics in 2023, I have been introduced to coding. However, in bioinformatics coding is not always taught in depth, so you need to learn more on you own," she explains.
Mzazela, who matriculated from Mvenyane Senior Secondary School in Matatiele in the Eastern Cape, says she wants to use machine learning models to analyse DNA methylation-based epigenetic signatures for breast cancer classification, drug sensitivity prediction, and the identification of somatic genomic alterations.
She explains: “DNA methylation is a biological process that regulates gene activity, and abnormal patterns can indicate breast cancer subtypes, gene mutations and drug response. By utilizing The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) datasets, I use a Python-based machine learning framework to identify patterns that traditional methods might miss. I have applied unsupervised learning techniques to detect hidden structures in the data and supervised models such as Random Forest and XGBoost for prediction. I am also experimenting with other models to refine performance and improve accuracy."
The aim of her research is to enhance our understanding of how breast cancer behaves at the molecular level and contribute to personalized medicine by identifying biomarkers that could improve diagnosis and treatment: “By combining machine learning with epigenetics, my research seeks to uncover novel biomarkers that improve cancer classification, refine treatment strategies, and provide deeper insights into the genetic mechanisms driving tumour progression."
Another Pythonista, Lindiwe Maphalla, says she is currently pursuing a PhD in Biotechnology at the University Johannesburg: “I hope to make significant contributions in the fields of biotechnology and bioinformatics, using coding tools to analyse biological data more effectively."
Maphalla, who completed matric at Setjhaba Sohle Secondary School in the Vaal region of Gauteng, says she wants to thank the organiser of the Summer Coding School for such a valuable platform for learning and personal growth: “I look forward to continue my journey in research and coding," she concludes.
In an article on the website of North-West University, Dr Daniel Mojalefa Moeketsi, senior lecturer at the School of Physics and Centre for Space Research, underscored the significance of this initiative: “This summer school not only empowers students to effectively utilise high-performance computing resources but also enables them to tackle complex data challenges in their respective fields. In addition to enhancing individual expertise, this training drives the overall growth and innovation of computational sciences in South Africa. Its relevance extends to both the Fourth Industrial Revolution(4IR) and the emerging Fifth Industrial Revolution (5IR) due to its focus on computational skills, data science and artificial intelligence," he concluded.
For more information on the annual Coding Summer School, visit https://events.chpc.ac.za/event/145/
On the image above, students from Stellenbosch University attending the Coding Summer School.
