This is a work in progress.
The SIMCODES cohort will be arriving in Ames on 5/31. The 2026 SIMCODES Bootcamp will take place from 6/1-6/9 in Hach Hall room 1227. Attendance by cohort members is mandatory. Attendance by mentors is strongly encouraged.
Slides will be made available at https://github.com/SIMCODES-ISU/training_materials.
The 2026 bootcamp will be half days in the morning, so that afternoons can be spent diving into research. As a result, the bootcamp will stretch into the second week of SIMCODES.
Sunday (5/31)
Move-In 9:00 AM - 5:00 PM
If you are driving please make sure you let Theresa and/or Ryan known when you intend to arrive. If you are driving, please try to arrive during Freddy Court’s Business hours (9:00 AM to 5:00 PM). If you are flying we have your flight and shuttle information and thus know when you arrive.
Location: Freddy Court
Monday (6/1)
Settle-In/Find Room 8:50 AM - 9:00 AM
- Mentor: Ryan
- Students should go to the main (West) entrance of Hach Hall
- Mentors can meet at entrance or go directly to 1227 Hach Hall.
Introductions 9:00 AM - 9:10 AM
- Mentors: All
- Topics:
- Mentor introductions.
- Cohort introductions.
- Light breakfast (donuts, fruit, granola, and yogurt).
- Technologies:
- N/A
Orientation 9:10 AM - 10:00 AM
- Mentor: Ryan
- Topics:
- Program overview.
- Safety.
- Code of conduct.
- How to get help.
- Technologies:
- N/A
Intro to Research 10:00 AM - 10:45 AM
- Mentor: Theresa
- Topics:
- What is research?
- How does one do research?
- Research strategies for SIMCODES.
- Technologies:
- N/A
Travel to Beardshire Hall 10:45 AM - 11:00 AM
- Mentor: Theresa
- We will walk from Chemistry to Beardshire Hall
- We will be outdoors so plan accordingly.
ISU IDs 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
- Mentor: Theresa
- Badging Office: 0530 Beardshire Hall
- Bring a photo ID in order to receive your ISU ID
- Should hopefully not take anywhere near the full hour…
Lunch
- Immediately following obtaining ISU IDs, everyone will walk over to UDC for lunch.
Tuesday (6/2)
Introduction to Chemistry 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
- Mentor: Theresa
- Topics:
- Technologies:
VSCode Setup 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
- Mentor: Zach Crandall
- Goals:
- Get you setup with a software development environment.
- Ensure mentees have a working Python environment in VSCode
- Ensure mentees can clone from GitHub
Wednesday (6/3)
Introduction to Proteins 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
- Mentor: Gregory
- Topics:
- Amino acids,
- Peptides,
- Proteins
- Technologies: N/A
Introductory Python I 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
- Mentor: Dulitha
- Topics:
- “Hello World”
- Printing
- Integers, floats, and strings
- Containers
- Technologies:
- VSCode
- Python
Thursday (6/4)
Intro to Nova 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
- Mentor: Gregory
- Topics:
- Accessing Nova
- Basic Linux Commands
- SLURM job submission
- Technologies:
- Terminal
Intro to GitHub 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
- Mentor: Ryan
- Topics:
- What is Version Control?
- Git terminology.
- Practice version control.
- Technologies:
- VSCode
- GitHub
Friday (6/5)
Introductory Python II 9:00 AM - 10:30 AM
- Mentor: Dulitha
- Topics:
- Control flow statements (e.g., if/else)
- Iteration (e.g., for and while loops)
- Code modularization (e.g., functions and classes)
- Software modularization (i.e., modules, packages, etc.)
- Technologies:
- VSCode
- Python
Introduction to Quantum Chemistry 10:30 AM - 12:00 PM
- Mentor: Gregory
- Topics:
- Computational Chemistry
- Molecular Modeling Scales
- Quantum Methods
- Geometry optimization
- Basis sets
- Solvation models
- Technologies:
- NWChem
- GAMESS
- Terminal (to access Nova)
Boardgame and Pizza Dinner 6:00 PM
- Mentor: All
- Location is 1761 Gilman Hall.
- Ryan will bring an assortment of board games.
Monday (6/8)
ML Theory 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
- Mentor: Qi
- Topics:
- Technologies:
Software Testing 11:00 AM - 12:00 PM
- Mentor:
- Topics:
- Technologies:
- VSCode
- Python
- pytest
Tuesday (6/9)
ML Coding 9:00 AM - 11:00 AM
- Mentor: Qi
- Topics:
- Technologies: