URSSI Conceptualization Survey Results
Jeffrey Carver • May 20, 2019
To better understand research software user and developer communities, we conducted a survey of research software users and developers. The focus of the survey was to gather information to help identify how to increase the sustainability of research software. To gather a broad range of perspectives, we distributed the survey to 25,000 NSF and 25,000 NIH PIs whose projects involve research software, as well as mailing lists of interested people such as the WSSSPE email list. In addition, we used snowballing by asking people to forward the survey to others who might be interested. This effort is part of the URSSI conceptualization project, which seeks to understand the diverse challenges and barriers that the research software community faces.
Why Research Software Engineers?
Ian Cosden • April 16, 2019
At Princeton University, our Research Software Engineering group is nearing its third birthday but many people still ask basic questions about us: What is a Research Software Engineer? What do you do? How do you work with researchers?
In an attempt to answer some of these questions I like to begin with an analogy.
Most adults know how to cook something. Maybe it’s ramen, tacos, or lasagna. Some are pretty terrible (me) and some are actually quite good cooks. If you want to learn how to cook there are lots of resources available: cookbooks, YouTube videos, there are even multiple television channels devoted to cooking. This is great, but all the reading and watching will not make you a professional chef. Instead, through a combination of training and experience chefs have developed a skill set and repertoire that allow them to cook at a level far above that of even very good home cooks. Perhaps more importantly, chefs view cooking as their profession.
Sandra Gesing • April 4, 2019
One goal of the conceptualization phase of URSSI is to gather as much input from the community as possible about the different facets and pain points of sustainability of research software: from career paths of software developers in academia to citations of software to gaps in existing training and education programs for software engineering. The awareness of the importance of this topic is evident in diverse initiatives and projects around research software sustainability such as WSSSPE (Working towards Sustainable Software for Science: Practice and Experiences) and BSSw (Better Scientific Software), and funding programs like the past NSF SI2, which also funds the conceptualization of URSSI, and its successor, CSSI. Our first community-driven URSSI workshop in April 2018 was the model for our second community-driven URSSI workshop in Chicago on October 23-24, 2018. This report describes the discussions and outcomes of the Chicago workshop, which featured lightning talks and interactive sessions with topics suggested and selected at the workshop. The workshop attracted 52 participants from 47 diverse affiliations including universities, national laboratories, industry, and funding agencies.
Report from URSSI workshop on research software incubators
Nic Weber • March 28, 2019
At the first URSSI community workshop, a small group of participants started to discuss a model for incubating research software projects. Incubation in this context might include a structured program that helps developers plan a new community-based software project, or improve existing projects that need mentorship, strategy, or other resources in order to sustainably grow.
To further explore this topic we brought together 16 experienced funders, community managers, developers, researchers, and software users. We discussed differences between research software incubators and technology start-up accelerators - identifying important questions about the period of time for incubation, the goals for participants and funders, and potential benefits to a research community. We then heard presentations from 6 different existing programs that have an interest in software development, project management, and incubation. Using these examples we engaged in a design activity to make some initial decisions about an incubator program that URSSI could organize in the future.
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