Take a look at what’s on over the coming month in the world of Research IT and how the services available can support your research
Semantic Search in Action: Building a Multi-Modal Cognitive Engine
Two of our Research Software Engineers, in conjunction with the Department of Computer Science at the University, partnered with mindcubes to prototype a multi-modal semantic search system that links images to structured knowledge, delivering a scalable AI pipeline for smarter, concept-aware retrieval.
Advent of Code Launched for 2025!
Join in with Advent of Code together with some of our Research Software Engineers and researchers from the across the University!
It’s a series of daily puzzles during December for 12 days that you can tackle with your problem-solving skills in whatever language you are comfortable with. You can still join now – full details on how to join and a link to the UoM leaderboard is available on the CaDiR Teams post.
Building the Python User Community at Manchester
It’s been almost a year since the Python User Group launched in the CaDiR Teams space. We caught up with Andrew Gait, one of the group leads, to find out more his role in the group and how the last year has gone.
Virtual Drop-in Help Sessions
Got a question about one of our services? Want to use one of our services but not sure where to start? Whatever your question, join our virtual drop-in sessions to discuss your needs 1-2-1 with an expert from our team! They can help with everything from using or installing research software, running or creating your own code, research data storage advice and much more. No appointment required!
There are two sessions left for this year –
- Wednesday, 3 December 2-3pm
- Wednesday, 17 December 2-3pm
Research IT Training Opportunities
We still have a few spaces left on a couple of our upcoming training courses –
- Data analysis using R: Thursday, 4 December and Friday, 5 December
- Introduction to version control using Git: Tuesday 10 February 2026
Computation and Data in Research (CaDiR) Round Up
If you’re not one of the 1350 UoM researchers who are members of CaDiR then why not join today? It’s an umbrella space for a wide range of special interest and user groups bringing together researchers from across the University.
Most of the groups hold regular meetings, can give support on a wide range of topics and circulate events of interest to the community. Have a browse through the groups!
They have posted a reminder for the ERN trial system testing and are signposting people their latest news article – ERN Trials are Coming to an End: what’s next? Essential reading if you are interested in the use of ERNs at the University!
As well as introducing Andrew Gait, one of the group leaders, there has also been signposting to free Software Carpentry training in December where you will learn a wide range of skills in 3 days!
All groups can be accessed from the main CaDiR Teams space. The other groups in CaDiR are –
- C++ User Group
- GIS, Mapping and Earth Observation
- GPU Users Group
- Manchester Research Software Community
- R User Group
- Research Data Stewardship
- UoM UK Biobank Users
All researchers and PGRs are strongly encouraged to post items of interest in the relevant groups, ask questions, seek advice and to network with researchers from across the University!
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