Life in Berlin has settled down to normality. Our flat is well sorted and we have figured out where everything is around us. In the summer I completed the dHPE (digitial health profession educator) course which I very much enjoyed. I learned a lot about higher education didactics and got to try out some new tools. I am now quite happy to record screen casts and I gained a very good idea of what AI tools can do. The best thing about the course, however, was meeting the other participants and our instructor. It was a great way for me to get my head around the Charité. I also got to teach digital literacy, ie an introduction to scientific computing, at the new SpaceMed Erasmus Mundus Master course. It was a little tricky coming up with the material for the 10 sessions. I did have an idea of what I wanted to cover. It was all very new to the students and some struggled a little. In the end, I got very positive feedback. One of the students said she was asked during an interview about using python and git. She also told me that her supervisor was well impressed with what she knew about programming. The students were less happy about how I graded them. I don't blame them, I just figured out a scheme of marking them right at the end. Next time I will have a better plan. I am very much looking forward to teaching again next year.
Otherwise, there is quite a bit of chaos at work. The reorganisation of the IT department is ongoing and quite a number of group and team leaders (including my own) have left. The scientific computing team is obscure and nobody really knows and/or understands exactly what we are doing. Our researchers are well happy though. We have installed quite a lot of AI systems that we need to look after. So I am not too worried about our position. Although, there seem to be a number of people who are interested in the position of my departed team leader. The position does come with a large budget. We shall see what the next year will bring.
I have joined the teaching RSE working group of the German RSE society. We have worked on and published a number of papers. In particular our monster paper on the foundational competencies and responsibilities of an RSE was quite an effort. It is really nice to have found a group of people I get to regularly meet professionally.
AI is a big topic. On the one hand we are supporting our researchers with the hardware to train AI systems. We are also looking into inference systems. On the other hand I am very critical of using AI systems for teaching and learning how to program. I joined a carpentries effort to design an AI course which attempts to give novice programmers an introduction of how LLMs work, what their problems are and how you can use them for programming. We will design another course with a similar range of topics for experienced programmers.
Apart from all the work stuff, the Blaue Ampel has kept me busy: regular meetings, projects, exhibitions and a weekend away. Rowan has nearly completed her first year of the early years training programme, Max is in his second year and Felix has started training to become a carpenter. We are still enjoying life in Berlin.
I am looking forward to a busy 2026. I wish you all the best for 2026.