US-RSE Newsletter

September 2020 Newsletter

newsletter elections SC20

Published: Sep 25, 2020

In this bi-monthly newsletter, we share recent, current, and planned activities of the US-RSE Association, and related news that we think is of interest to US-RSE members. Newsletters are also available on our website alongside the growing resources and information on the US-RSE Association. A sign-up option for our newsletter is available here.

In this issue:

US-RSE Community Call

The community call beginning of September covered the topic “Hiring and interviewing for RSE positions”. The primary goal of the call was to open a discussion, using the US-RSE community to help us understand both sides of hiring. We had lively discussions around topics such as what qualities hiring managers look for in candidates and how RSEs would like to be evaluated during the hiring process. More details can be found in a blog post. We are looking forward to building on the momentum via a working group and/or a slack channel for further discussions. The next community call will be October 8th at 1:00 pm EDT. Zoom registration is available now and connection details will be shared via the mailing list and Slack. Stay tuned for more information!

Upcoming elections of the Steering Committee

As the Steering Committee shared this summer, elections for four seats on the Steering Committee will happen in December. Watch Slack and your email for details on the election process and timeline next week! We encourage interested members to sign up to be a candidate for election.

RSE Events at SC20

As at previous SC conferences, there will be several events at SC20 of interest to RSEs. We are particularly excited about the RSE-HPC-2020 workshop, which US-RSE is helping to organize, to be held on Thursday, November 12! We are putting together the schedule of talks and panel discussions now, so watch for this to be posted in mid-October.

The SC20 schedule is under construction, but other relevant events include:

Note also that this year’s SC is entirely online with lower registration rates, which will make participation easier than ever. We hope you’ll be able to join us!

Interesting Events

Some other events coming up may be of interest to RSEs:

  • SORSE: A Series of Online Research Software Events - an international answer to the COVID-19-induced cancellation of many national RSE conferences, to provide an opportunity for RSEs to develop and grow their skills, build new collaborations and engage with RSEs worldwide. It has a rolling deadline for events to be proposed as part of the series, and the next deadline is on July 31st. The events will take place at different times to accommodate different time zones. Submitters can indicate preferred dates and times.
  • Best Practices for HPC Software Developers - a webinar series that addresses issues faced by developers of computational science and engineering (CSE) software on high-performance computers (HPC). The sessions are independent, so you can join any or all.
  • EDUCAUSE offers webinars that support higher education to elevate the impact of IT. The webinars have a registration fee.
  • SGCI (the Science Gateways Community Institute) has a monthly webinar series around science gateways, web security, sustainability of software and projects. If you would like to contribute a talk, please contact help@sciencegateways.org. SGCI additionally offers the online Focus Week that helps software and website projects get to the next level of sustainability. “Jumpstart Your Sustainability Plan” builds on experiences from the Focus Week and is a virtual mini-course addressing sustainability issues. The Gateways 2020 Conference will take place online from October 12-23 with workshops and tutorials in the first week and the main track in the second week. Poster submissions are accepted by September 28 and registration is open until October 5.

RSEs in Latin America

An effort has started to consider how possible RSEs in Latin American can become aware of the RSE movement, perhaps including forming regional, national, or local groups and communities. If you are interested in joining this discussion, it’s happening in the #rse-latam channel in the UK-RSE Slack team, to which you can request access.

Better Scientific Software Fellowships

If you have an idea for how to make scientific software better, and you are affiliated with a US institution that can receive $25,000 from the DOE, you can apply for a Better Scientific Software (BSSw) Fellowship, with applications due September 30th.

Recent Job Postings

These opportunities were recently posted to the RSE Careers page:

Interesting Reads

Items you may have missed on the blog and Slack:

Get Involved

There are lots of ways to get involved with the US-RSE community. Of course, you can join us on Slack or volunteer for an interview with the RSE Stories podcast. But we’re also looking for ideas and help in many other places. See our list of projects and let us know how you’d like to help. Help with things like the Website Committee, Social Media, and Community Engagement are all needed.

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