We’re excited to announce a brand new space at the University for staff and researchers who work with C++, whether a seasoned systems programmer or curious beginner. If you’re wrangling simulation codes, building high-performance libraries, or just dipping a toe into object-oriented design, come and help us build an inclusive community of practice around one of the world’s fastest and most versatile languages.
The C++ User Group is supported by a group of researchers including Prof Caterina Doglioni (Physics & Astronomy), Dr Raymond Wan (Biotechnology) and Dr Russell Garwood (Earth & Environmental Sciences), each of whom relies on C++ for performance critical research. It will also be facilitated by two Research IT Research Software Engineers - Erdem Atbas and Andrew Gait.
Over the past few years, we’ve met researchers, academics, and students across every faculty who rely on C++ for speed-critical tasks, from finite-element solvers to large-scale data processing. Yet until now, there’s been no place to share tips, gripe about template errors, share experiences of getting started with the language, or celebrate getting that build to run three seconds faster. This group aims to fill that gap by bringing people together from all backgrounds and levels of experience.
We're joining many other special interest and user groups under the Computation & Data in Research (CaDiR) umbrella on Teams. It's a growing community of over 1100 researchers and staff from right across the University who all have an interest in computation and data. If your interests also include GPU programming, check out the GPU Users Group, many of their members work in C++ for high-performance and parallel workloads, and there’s plenty of overlap between our communities.
Jump in to ask questions, share code snippets or connect with others who use C++. As the group grows, we’ll curate helpful resources and evolve our activities based on what you want to see. Please do share your ideas and help shape the direction of the group. If you’re interested in seeing what’s happening in other research programming communities, look at the Python User Group and R User Group.
We cannot wait to see what the University of Manchester C++ community will achieve together. You're welcome here if your code controls a particle accelerator or automates your lab notebook. Take a break from debugging, bring your questions, and let the C++ community help with your frustration.
Group Leads:
Dr Erdem Atbas — Research Software Engineer
Dr Andrew Gait — Research Software Engineer
Research Associates:
Dr Raymond Wan — Manchester Institute of Biotechnology
Academics:
Prof Caterina Doglioni — Department of Physics and Astronomy
Dr Russell Garwood — Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences