Pre-Arrival information for the Advanced Developer Workshop
The workshop will start formally at 9:15am on Tuesday 20th August in the Thames Suite of Oxford IT services (13 Banbury Rd). If you are in Oxford on Monday evening, then you can join the less-formal start: we'll be meeting for registration and check-in at 6:30pm and dinner at 7:00pm (see below).
Accommodation
Accommodation for the four nights at St Edmund Hall (or "Teddy Hall" as it is known in Oxford) from Monday to Friday is included in the participation fee. Rooms are available from 2pm on Monday 19th August. However, the best time to arrive is 6:30-7pm (as there will be guides to show you to your rooms). On arrival, obtain your room key from the Porters' Lodge. The lodge is staffed around the clock, however, if you plan to arrive after 10pm please email castep.workshop@gmail.com so the porters know to expect you. If you are delayed on route the telephone number of the porters' lodge is +44 (0)1865 279000.
Registration
Registration will be open from 6:30pm to 7pm on Monday at the rear quad of the college (on your map head to the Wolfson Hall and you will see us). It will also be possible to register at the first session on Tuesday in the Thames Suite.
Internet Connection
There is wireless internet at St Edmund Hall and in the IT Services.
Laptops
Please remember to bring a laptop to the Workshop. The laptop should be suitable for software development, or you should be able to access a suitable machine remotely from your laptop. Whichever machine you use, it should have a reasonably modern Fortran compiler (e.g. gfortran 4.7 or later) and maths libraries (e.g. OpenBLAS) installed, and preferably a Linux or Linux-like environment (Windows laptops can install the cygwin environment).
Monday Evening
The Advanced Developer Workshop is not merely a training workshop, but a chance to get to know the CASTEP developers and work alongside them. With this in mind, the workshop will start informally with dinner on Monday 19th; we will meet at 7:00pm by the Wolfson Hall (see map) and head into Oxford from there to find a good local restaurant.
Tuesday morning
For those staying at St Edmund Hall we suggest meeting outside the Wolfson Hall (by the Porters' Lodge) at 8:45am to walk to 13 Banbury Rd (Oxford IT Services). There will be at least one person who knows the way! (It's a fairly picturesque 15-minute walk).
Travel
St Edmund Hall is located in the centre of Oxford, on Queen's Lane - just off the High Street:
Map of the key workshop locations.
Train - St Edmund Hall is approximately 20 min walk from the Oxford train station. There is also a taxi rank.
Coach St Edmund Hall is approximately 10min walk from the main bus station at Gloucester Green. There are two regular (approx every 15min, journey time 90min) coach services from London Victoria - The Oxford Tube and Oxford Express (X90) Note that you should ask the driver to let you off at the Queen's Lane / High Street stop.
Airport - The Oxford Bus company run regular services from Heathrow (every 30min, journey time 90min) and Gatwick (every hour, journey time 120min). Note that you should ask the driver to let you off at the Queen's Lane / High Street stop.
Car - Oxford is not a car friendly city. There is no long term parking in the centre - you really don't want to drive here! Should you drive, it is worth investigating the park and ride system.
enquiries to castep.workshop@gmail.com