Title
Making research outputs FAIRer with reproducible software installation (and pixi)
Tuesday, December 16, 2025 | 14.30-15:30 CET | Online
Speaker: Prof. Hans Fangohr, Max Planck Institute for the Structure and Dynamics of Matter, Germany
Topic
Software is used in many stages of research activity: data capture, data processing and analysis, simulation, creation of tables and figures for publications. To make research outputs reproducible and re-usable we must archive the data but also the relevant software: for example, a Python program to create a figure from a data file. In this presentation, we discuss the importance of recording additional software dependencies (such as which version of Python, which other dependences such as matplotlib and numpy are needed). We also discuss the importance of being able to actually install the required dependencies. Following an overview of software packaging and installation tools (such as pip, conda, spack, Docker), we introduce pixi [1] in more detail. We have found pixi to be a useful in our day-to-day work (and think it will be for many others), and by using it, we have made the software installations we create more reproducible and re-usable in the future.
Target group
This demonstration is for researchers and research software engineers who need to install software dependencies for their work. While pixi has support for pip (and thus might be particularly appealing to Python users), and also supports installation of conda-packages. We are welcoming participants from academia, research and technology organisations and industry.
Goal
At the end of this demonstration, you will:
- … appreciate the importance of well documented software requirements
- … appreciate the value of automated software installation
- … have learned about the package manager pixi [1]
- … be able to use (some of the features of) pixi for software installation
Relevant Links
[1] Pixi is a fast, modern, and reproducible package management tool for developers of all backgrounds (2025), http://pixi.sh
Registration
Registration requires at least associate membership which is free of charge.
