CompTaG Website

Computational Topology and Geometry group website at Montana State University. Built with Jekyll and deployed via GitHub Pages at comptag.github.io.

Editing Content

Most site content is managed through data files and Markdown. You do not need to touch HTML or CSS for routine updates.

People

Edit _data/people.yml. People are organized by category (Faculty, Postdoctoral Researchers, Graduate Students, Undergraduates, Former Members). Each person entry looks like:

- name: Jane Doe
  role: PhD Student
  department: Computer Science
  photo: assets/people/jane-doe.jpg
  website: https://example.com    # optional
  bio: >                          # optional (currently used for faculty)
    A short biography.

Adding a photo: Place the image in assets/people/ and set the photo field to assets/people/filename.jpg. If no photo is available, use assets/people/placeholder.svg.

Moving someone to Former Members: Cut their entry from the current category and paste it under - category: Former Members.

Projects

Edit _data/projects.yml. Each project entry looks like:

- title: Project Name
  image: assets/projects/image.jpg
  description: >
    A paragraph describing the project.
  links:                          # optional
    - label: Paper
      url: https://example.com

Adding a project image: Place the image in assets/projects/ and reference it in the image field.

Recruitment Page

Edit recruiting.md directly. It uses standard Markdown. The front matter at the top of the file (between the --- lines) controls the layout and should generally be left alone.

Homepage

Edit index.html. The page uses HTML with Bootstrap grid classes. The group description, research areas list, and group photo are all inline.

Local Development

Requirements: Ruby and Bundler.

bundle install
bundle exec jekyll serve

The site will be available at http://localhost:4000. Changes to most files will auto-reload; changes to _config.yml require restarting the server.

File Structure

_config.yml          # Site configuration (title, theme, plugins)
_data/
  people.yml         # People directory
  projects.yml       # Project listings
_includes/           # Shared HTML fragments (nav, footer, head)
_layouts/            # Page templates
_sass/               # Stylesheets (Bootstrap + Cosmo theme + overrides)
assets/
  css/               # Compiled styles
  js/                # JavaScript
  fonts/             # Font Awesome fonts
  img/               # Site-wide images (group photo, logo)
  people/            # People headshots
  projects/          # Project images
index.html           # Home page
projects.html        # Projects page (renders from _data/projects.yml)
people.html          # People page (renders from _data/people.yml)
recruiting.md        # Recruitment page (Markdown)