Acoustics Research Software 2025

On the first day of the school, we’ll dive into the world of open source research software. We’ll begin the school by exploring the different kinds of open‑source projects and the motivations, requirements, and key characteristics that distinguish different types of sharing code, for example, publishing code accompanying a paper and developing standalone software packages. Along the way, we’ll introduce the foundational concepts of open science, reproducibility, and licensing, and highlight real‑world examples.
As hands‑on activities you’ll set up coding environments and learn documentation practices. We’ll also show you how to integrate useful tools, such as templates or reproducible environment generation, and discuss what it takes to make software truly usable.

The second day focuses on how to share your own code such that it is well reproducible by other researchers. We’ll discuss the essentials of making code available alongside scientific publications, including how to choose the right license, how to enable proper citation, and how to communicate the purpose and usage of your code clearly. We’ll explore practical options for sharing code in accessible and sustainable ways, touching on repositories, formats, and best practices for presentation. We will follow real-world example checklists (FAIR principles, Journal of Open Research Software or similar) for the requirements for the shared open research software and documentation.
Using the environments set-up on the day one, you will get hands-on experience in sharing your code, discuss your progress and give each other feedback. Code examples will be provided by the school, but feel free to bring your own research software to share. By the end of the day, you will be equipped to share your own code confidently and responsibly in support of open and reproducible science.

On the third day, we’ll introduce version control as a foundation for collaborative and sustainable software development. You will learn the basics of using git for tracking changes and managing code, followed by an overview of issue reporting and how to contribute effectively to existing projects. We’ll cover how to navigate contribution guidelines, extend documentation, and submit pull requests for bug fixes or new features. The goal is to build the skills and confidence needed to participate in open-source communities and take the first steps from using code to helping shape it.
You will again work in small groups to collaborate on research software via git. Day three will end with an open discussion involving all participants on their choices and any issues encountered.

Day four moves deeper into software development practices with a focus on quality, structure, and long-term planning. We’ll explore why testing matters and introduce basic strategies for unit and automated testing. The day continues with steps towards and developing software packages and full projects, including organizing codebases, managing versions, and setting up workflows that support feature development and collaboration. We'll also reflect on real-world challenges in research environments and discuss strategies for sustainable software development.
You will contribute to research software by developing a feature or improving existing code and experience a review process. Initial planning includes organizing to integrating your code into an existing code-base in a modular fashion. The development phase code also includes writing tests and full documentation. This can be the software shared on previous days or software from public repositories.

The final day will feature a hackathon centered on the CHORAS platform (Community Hub for Open-source Room Acoustics Software). All experience done in the previous four days may be applied here.