IceCube Summer School 2025

Before you come to Summer School:

Here are a few things to help you get started before you arrive in Madison for the Summer School.

1. Make a GitHub account
2. Log on to the jupyterhub instance (https://jupyterhub.icecube.wisc.edu/)
3. Go through the computing and python tutorials, if you need a python introduction or refresher.

1. Making a GitHub

Hi all! IceCube uses GitHub for code reproducibility and for collaboration-wide packages. To that end, there will be a GitHub setup session on Tuesday of the summer school (6/3). To streamline the setup, we need to get you added to the icecube org on GitHub. Please make sure you complete the steps below before the tutorial so that we can do that!

1. Make a GitHub account: https://github.com/
2. Add your name (First initial and last name is fine, e.g. mine would be "J. Thwaites") and current institution to your profile
3. set up 2-factor authentication this is required to join the icecube org on GitHub!
4. once done, please send your name + GitHub username on the #2025-summer-school channel on slack

Please feel free to ask me questions if you have any (jthwaites@icecube.wisc.edu) or on slack (@Jessie Thwaites) and for more info, you can take a look at the IceCube Github Guide!

2. Jupyterhub

We will be using jupyterhub to run IceCube software. Please point a web browser to https://jupyterhub.icecube.wisc.edu/ and login with your LDAP credentials to get started. If this does not work, feel free to send the organizers an email or post any questions on Slack.

NOTE: we recognize this software setup will not allow users to run Steamshovel to visualize events. Because of some changes with newer laptops, we could not find a solution that would allow everyone to run steamshovel this year. If you would like to try running steamshovel with one of the previous Summer Bootcamp virtual machines, follow the mac tutorial or windows tutorial. The motivation behind the virtual machine is similar to that of jupyterhub, as it allows us to ensure that all bootcamp attendees are using the same software, which makes our week smoother. It will create a virtual computer running Ubuntu (a Linux operating system). We recognize the barrier is much higher for running a VM than for using jupyterhub, which is why we are advocating the use of jupyterhub for the majority of the 2023 Summer School program. We do not expect the VM to work for everyone, and we especially know that users with the new Apple M1 Macs will not be able to use the VM.

The latest version of the bootcamp VM can be found here: https://convey.icecube.wisc.edu/data/user/icecube-bootcamp/bootcamp2019/virtualbox_vm/

3. Python tutorials

Previous years of Summer School (formerly called Bootcamp) have created a short introduction to computing and python. If this is your first time coding, we recommend you pass through the tutorial. To learn more about python you can look for online classes, codecademy has a free class on Python here: https://www.codecademy.com/learn/learn-python. Also, if you have any questions or problems, Google and Stack Exchange can be good resources for solving coding problems. The links for the tutorial are below:

• Introduction to Computing (How does basic hardware and software work? How do I open Jupyter notebook?)
• Python Tutorial Part 1 (Command Line Tips and Tricks, Intro to Jupyter Notebook)
• Python Tutorial Part 2 (Variables, Types, Arithmetic Operations, Comparison Operations, Control Flow, Loops, Functions)
• Python Tutorial Part 3 (Libraries, Writing and Running Python)
• Python Tutorial Part 4 (Matplotlib)

If you would like to download the notebooks used to create the tutorials, you can download them here: https://icecube.wisc.edu/~icecube-bootcamp/bootcamp2020/introduction/. To use the notebooks open them using Jupyter Notebook.