Hacky Hour

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Hacky Hour

Queensland currently has Hacky Hours at six universities.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, five of Queensland’s Hacky Hours are being held entirely online (UQ, QUT, Griffith, CQU and USQ), and JCU is offering an alternative solution. See each institution’s Hacky Hour section below for more information.

Hacky Hour occurs regularly and its aim is to help researchers (staff and students) with research-related IT problems.

Hacky Hour is free, informal and all researchers are welcome to drop in for advice, or offer their IT expertise to help others.

Researchers attend Hacky Hour to ask or answer research-related IT questions. Popular topics for discussion include high performance computing (HPC), cloud computing, general programming, R, Python, data processing, data storage, and data management.

Check the relevant Hacky Hour’s Twitter feed, if there is one, for updates as occasionally a Hacky Hour is cancelled for a particular week when the regular IT experts are unavailable.

Please note: Most Hacky Hours end for the year in early to mid-December, and usually resume in late January or early February the following year. Check the relevant Hacky Hour’s Twitter feed (if there is one) or this webpage for updates.

Want to set up a Hacky Hour at your institution?

Amanda Miotto, QCIF’s eResearch Analyst at Griffith University, has created a Hacky Hour Handbook. Amanda co-founded Griffith’s Hacky Hour in August 2015.

Day: Tuesdays
Time: 3pm–4pm
Location: Café Nano, St Lucia campus
Twitter: @HackyHourStLuc
Website: hackyhourstluc.wordpress.com
Contact: Dr Nick Hamilton (n.hamilton@imb.uq.edu.au)
Special sessions (in addition to the usual research IT questions):

  • Bioinformatics Hacky Hour: First Tuesday of the month — come and ask bioinformatics analysis, software and pipeline questions.
  • BioLab Hacky Hour: Last Tuesday of the month — experts will answer your experimental design and technical sample processing questions to get you started in the lab.

Please note during the COVID-19 crisis: UQ’s Hacky Hour will be held online via Zoom on Tuesdays, 3pm–4pm. Please email the UQ Hacky Hour team for the Zoom ID: hackyhouruq@gmail.com. The ID is the same for each session, so once you have it, you can use it again to join in.

Day: Tuesdays
Time: 12pm–1pm
Location: B153, the USQ Library Community Space, Springfield campus (or join online).
Twitter: @hackyhourUSQ
Contact: hackyhour@usq.edu.au

Please note during the COVID-19 crisis: USQ’s Hacky Hour will be held entirely online on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, 12pm–1pm.

Day: Wednesdays
Time: 12pm–1pm
Location: USQ Toowoomba Refectory, next to the blackboard (or join online).
Twitter: @hackyhourUSQ
Contact: hackyhour@usq.edu.au

Please note during the COVID-19 crisis: USQ’s Hacky Hour will be held entirely online on Tuesdays and Wednesdays 12pm–1pm.

Day: Thursdays
Time: 2pm–3pm
Location: Cafe Rossa’s, Nathan, or Cafe Rossa’s, Gold Coast. Griffith’s Hacky Hour alternates weekly between the Nathan and Gold Coast campuses. Check @hackyhourGU on Twitter for updates.
Twitter: @hackyhourGU
Website: griffith.edu.au/hackyhour
Contact: hackyhour@griffith.edu.au

Please note during the COVID-19 crisis: Griffith’s Hacky Hour is being held entirely online in conjunction with Griffith Library. Fill out this form or go to “Sign me up for Hacky Hour” and you’ll be emailed the videoconferencing link.

Day: Thursdays
Time: 2pm–3pm
Location: Alternating weekly between The Pantry cafe, Gardens Point campus, and Beadles cafe, Kelvin Grove campus.
Twitter: @QUTHackyHour
Contact: hackyhour@qut.edu.au

Please note during the COVID-19 crisis: QUT’s Hacky Hour will be held online via Zoom on Thursdays, 2pm–3pm. Please email hackyhour@qut.edu.au for the Zoom link.

Day: 2nd and 4th Wednesday of each month
Time: 2pm–3pm
Location: Online via Zoom.
Contact: Contact Jason Bell, QCIF’s CQU-based eResearch Analyst, for the Zoom links for each session: j.bell@cqu.edu.au.

Day: 1st and 3rd Tuesday of each month
Time: 1pm–2pm
Location: The Science Place food court, Townsville campus
Twitter: @JCUHackyHour
Website: jcu.edu.au/eresearch/services
Contact: eresearch@jcu.edu.au 

Please note during the COVID-19 crisis: Instead of a video-conferencing session, JCU’s Hacky Hour is using a Slack workspace during the pandemic. All JCU researchers and helpers are welcome to drop into the Slack workspace for advice or offer their IT expertise to help others. Questions may be submitted, and the channel checked for answers at any time.

“If we need to provide a further one-on-one service, we can go from there,” said QCIF’s JCU-based eResearch Analyst, Chantelle Pinnington.

The JCU Slack workspace will also feature information about upcoming training, workshops and events.

JCU also has a R programming group called the CodeR-TSV group, which meets online each Monday, 11am–12pm.