Cyrus Wyett, a PhD student in the Department of Chemistry, has set up a Julia Users Group under the newly launched Computation and Data in Research (CADiR) Teams space.  Open to all PGRs and researchers, the user group will be a way for University of Manchester researchers using Julia to connect.

Julia is a dynamic, compiled programming language particularly well suited to scientific computing - "walks like Python, runs like C" . Built to solve the ‘two language problem’, Julia enables its users to write more readable high-performance code.

Cyrus explained his motivation for founding the group; “Users of more established programming languages enjoy an abundance of informal support from fellow academics. Julia users are few and far between, so finding peers to turn to can be difficult. Its user base is growing rapidly so it may be useful to have a forum where those who wish to network, learn more or collaborate can find each other”.

Supported by several researchers, including Prof. Dave Topping (Dept. of Earth and Environmental Sciences), the group will aim to host a series of regular talks and discussions on Julia packages in development at the University. The group will also run fortnightly Julia workshops for those who want to learn Julia and discuss specific problems. Those wanting to find out more or get involved can do so through joining CaDiR by completing a short form.

The first workshop of the Julia Users Group will be on the 8th April 1pm - 2pm and will cover installation (on Unix based machines) and Julia's REPL based package (and environment) manager, Pkg.