US-RSE April 2024 Newsletter

April 2024

newsletter April

Published: Apr 25, 2024

In this 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. To receive our newsletter, join US-RSE.

In this issue:

Steering Committee Update
Community and Travel Funds
US-RSE Conference 2024
Community News
Interesting Events and Opportunities
Interesting Reads, Videos, or Podcasts
US-RSE Outreach
US-RSE Financials
Get Involved
Recent Job Postings

Steering Committee Recap

In March 2024, the Steering Committee worked with our Executive Director and Community Manager to examine fundraising opportunities for US-RSE, look into membership database options, and implement a new process for sending organization-wide emails. We had further discussions on some of the topics from our strategic planning meeting, including organizational memberships and options for volunteer recognition. We discussed issues related to budgeting and logistics for our upcoming US-RSE’24 conference, and we started considering locations for the US-RSE’25 conference next year.

Community and Travel Funds program

Part of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant for US-RSE has been delegated for the Community and Travel Funds program. Members of US-RSE can apply for funds for community or individual purposes for event costs, get-togethers, travel funding, and more.

The next application deadline is June 30, 2024. See the Community and Travel Funds page for more details.

US-RSE Conference 2024 (USRSE’24)

Conference Updates

Dates and Venue Announcement

Our next conference will be Tuesday, October 15 through Thursday, October 17, at the Albuquerque Convention Center in Albuquerque, NM. View the US-RSE conference website for more details and to stay up to date on upcoming events!

Call for Submissions

We invite submissions for the second annual US-RSE Conference to be held in Albuquerque, New Mexico, October 15-17, 2024. The theme of this year’s conference is “Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow: A celebration of all that RSEs have done for computing in the past, in the present, and in the future.” Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

History of the RSE movement
RSE impact
Efforts to expand the RSE movement
Research data management
Software engineering approaches supporting research
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for RSEs and in RSEng
Training and workforce development
Maturing and expanding the RSE profession
Accepted abstracts will be placed on the website ahead of the conference.

Important Dates

Papers and Notebooks: Monday, May 20
Posters and Talks: Monday, June 3
Conference Date: October 15-17, 2024, Albuquerque, NM

Community News

Member Spotlight

Starting this month, the US-RSE Community Manager will begin reaching out to highlight select members who have been actively engaged in the Slack community.

Member Snapshot

Starting this month, the US-RSE Community Manager will begin reaching out to highlight select members who have been actively engaged in the Slack community.

US-RSE Member Snapshot Template.

DEI Working Group

Getting involved

To get involved with the DEI working group, visit the #dei-discussion channel on the US-RSE slack, or contact the DEI working group list at wg-dei@us-rse.org.

Suggestions for media, other resources (such as guides), speakers, and future activities can also be submitted through this form: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Suggestions

RSE Empowerment in National Labs

Regular monthly working group meeting survey

The co-chairs of the RSE Empowerment in National Labs working group are currently conducting a survey to assess if there are other meeting time options that may better accommodate a greater number of participants at the regular monthly meetings. If you are a member of the working group, or would like to become a member, please fill out the following simple survey: 2024 US-RSE National Labs WG Meeting Times.

Focus group summary presentation

Thank you to everyone who participated in the 2024 working group survey and focus group discussions! Working group member Daniel Howard (UCAR) and co-chair Gregory Lemieux (LBNL) recently presented a summarization of the results from these conversation at the 2024 UCAR Improving Scientific Software conference. The recording of the presentation will be make available on the NCAR CISL Youtube channel in the near future. The slides from the presentation are available now on the working group google drive: Building RSE Communities at National Labs slides

Education and Training Working Group - New Technical Talk!

Our next Education and Training Technical Talk is coming up Friday May 10, 1-3 PM ET/10 AM-12 PM PS/12-2 PM CT!

In “Building and running containers on HPC systems - a (not at all) comprehensive talk”, Subil Abraham from Oak Ridge National Laboratory will talk about containerization in an HPC environment.

More information: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_fEsaha4ged7TxWJGWmVYYy0d3DB_j7O

Testing Working Group - New!

The Testing Working Group aims to bring together RSEs, researchers, and practitioners to discuss current limitations in testing research software, share knowledge, and collectively address cutting-edge challenges, thereby advancing the reliability and quality of research software. This will include examining, adapting, and using valuable industry software testing practices and methodologies, as well as studying and harnessing AI technologies. Some key focus areas include testing legacy code, ensuring comprehensive code coverage, and enhancing overall verification and validation processes. https://us-rse.org/wg/testing/

User Experience Working Group

The UXWG strives for regular, productive meetings that accommodate multiple schedules. We meet on the 3rd Tues of odd months at 2 PM ET/1 PM CST/11 AM PT/12 PM MT, and, on even months, the 3rd Wed at 4:30 PM ET/3:30 PM CST/1:30 PM PT/12 PM MT.

Join us on Slack in the #wg-ux channel.

Code Review Working Group

The goal of this working group is to build a community of RSEs who are interested in code review. The working group will provide a forum to gather resources related to code review, discuss the use of code review in research software project, and seek help in conducting code reviews.

To get involved, visit the #wg-code-review channel on the US-RSE slack.

Community Calls

May Community Call

The next community call will be on Friday, May 9th, 12pm ET/11am CT/10am MT/9am PT.

Call for Presenters

If you are interested in presenting, please get in touch with Julia Damerow and Abbey Roelofs in the #communitycalls channel or by messaging them directly.

April Community Call (Past)

The April Community Call was all about testing strategies beyond unit tests for research software!

Speakers presented on testing strategies which they use to confirm that their code is doing what it is supposed to do.

Community Manager Office Hours

One weekday and one weekend time slot will be set aside each month for US-RSE members to chat with Sophia about membership matters. Members may also provide updates on how they are applying technical tools and other resources they have learned about from the US-RSE community. Additional information and relevant resources can be found on the US-RSE Slack in the #community-manager channel.

RSE Group Leaders’ Network (RSE-GLN)

Do you lead an RSE group? Do you want to talk to others about the challenges of leading and managing projects, people, and resources? Join the RSE-GLN!

Interesting Events and Opportunities

Center for Open-Source Research Software Stewardship and Advancement (CORSA)

The DOE-funded CORSA project has been collecting guidance, documents, examples, templates for open-source software projects, such as on governance, roadmaps, contributing, code of conduct, DEI, licenses, etc. Please feel free to add additional items, as PRs or new issues.

Survey on Generative AI for Scientific Software Development

Dr. Elle O’Brien at the University of Michigan will be conducting studies about how scientists are using generative AI tools as part of their scientific software development.

Survey to understand mentorship needs

Dr. Reed Milewicz from Sandia National Laboratories is conducting a survey on mentorship. This survey seeks to answer questions such as:

What is mentorship like in software development contexts?
What matters most in mentoring relationships?
Do different groups (like women and LGBTIQ people) report similar or different priorities in mentorship across their careers?

The survey takes 10-15 minutes to complete. Participants will be entered into a raffle for a $100 gift card raffle. Three winners will be selected. Email addresses will be discarded after the raffle to protect anonymity.

Survey to understand how RSEs consider cybersecurity when writing software

Calling all research software engineers! We’re exploring how security is perceived in our community, and we want to hear from you. Whether you think about security every day or rarely think about security, your insights are invaluable to us. To participate, you will complete a survey that takes 20-30 minutes.

We will ensure your privacy during and after the survey process. The survey is anonymous.

Your participation in this research study is voluntary. If you are interested, after completion of the survey you can enter a drawing for up to three $100 Gift Cards. The entry for the drawing is separate from the survey to ensure your answers remain anonymous. If you decide to participate in this study, you may quit the survey at any time and your partial responses will not be included in the study. However, only those who complete the study are eligible for the drawing.

If you are willing to participate in this study, please click here.

If you have any questions regarding the research study, please contact Matthew Armstrong (maarmstrong3@crimson.ua.edu) or Dr. Jeffrey Carver (carver@cs.ua.edu).

This research has been reviewed according to University of Alabama procedures for research involving human subjects. If you have any questions about your rights as a participant in this study or any concerns or complaints, please contact the University of Alabama Office of Research Compliance at 1-877-820-3066.

Survey to better understand code review practices of RSEs

Dr. Jeffrey Carver, Dr. Nasir Eisty, and Md Ariful Malik of the University of Alabama are conducting a study to understand the practices, impacts and barriers of code review techniques for RSEs.

As an RSE, we are soliciting your participation in our study. Taking part in this study involves completing a web survey that will take about 15 minutes. This survey contains questions about your previous experience with the code review process.

Your participation is completely anonymous and voluntary. You are free not to participate or stop participating any time before you submit your answers. You must be 18 years of age or older to participate in the study and the survey.

If you are willing to participate in this study, please click here.

If you have any questions regarding the survey, please contact Dr. Jeffrey Carver (carver@cs.ua.edu) or Dr. Nasir Eisty (nasireisty@boisestate.edu).

This research study has been approved by the University of Alabama Institutional Review Board.

On behalf of The Science of High-Performance Computing group at The University of Texas at Austin, a brief (5-10 minute) survey is being conducted to learn about your experience with dense linear algebra software. Your responses to the survey will in part help them plan for the future. The survey will close at 23:00 UTC on March 31, 2024.

Upcoming Events

Save the Dates for the 2024 FORCE11 Scholarly Communication Institute (FSCI) and the FORCE2024 conference

A heads-up for a unique opportunity in 2024 - the co-location of the 2024 FORCE11 Scholarly Communication Institute (FSCI) and the FORCE2024 conference in sunny Los Angeles.

In-person FSCI courses will be conducted on the modern UCLA campus from Monday July 29 to Wednesday July 31, followed immediately by the FORCE11 Conference from Thursday August 1 to Saturday August 3. For those not wishing to travel, there will be virtual FSCI courses running the previous week, from Monday July 22 to Friday July 26.

FSCI2024 courses are being run on the theme: “Increasing Transparency, Integrity and Trust in Research” - with the increasing prominence of AI, it is essential that the research and scholarly communication communities emphasize transparency, enhance integrity, and renew trust in our community’s work. FSCI courses are interdisciplinary, collaborative and interactive. All courses have been chosen and we will be releasing details shortly.

The FORCE2024 conference is rare event that reaches a number of different communities and, most importantly, people who “do”. The conference attracts attendees from startups to policy makers. This year’s theme is: “Driving transformation in scholarly communications locally and globally”. Look out for our Call for Papers.

Getting it Right: System Testing of Scientific Software

Testing software to ensure its correctness is a challenging yet critical task that can consume more than 50% of the software lifecycle. Over the past decade, software testing practices have been built into development frameworks and many are embracing the use of unit tests and continuous integration–testing as they code. However, these types of tests focus heavily on covering individual code elements and may miss important system-level requirements.

Getting it Right: System Testing of Scientific Software will discuss system testing for scientific software, present some challenges, such as configurability, and present some techniques that can be used to help improve the testing process.

Details: https://ideas-productivity.org/events/hpcbp-083-gettingitright

ModelShare series

This series is aimed at developing good practices and recommendations for improving metadata in computational model-sharing and publishing platforms.

Registration for the Sustainability session can be found here: https://ucsd.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUpdeirqz8oHd3yLHoPYrtwanqB1ijVtlb0#/registration.

More information about the Sloan funded ModelShare series can be found here: https://share.openmodelingfoundation.org/.

Science Gateways Center of Excellence (SGX3) events

Gateways 2024 Call for Participation – annual science gateways and cyberinfrastructure conference in Bozeman, MT, from October 8-10, 2024

Gateways 2024 is an opportunity for users, developers, and providers to showcase their science gateways, accommodating teaching, empowering and engaging research, and providing technologies to various communities. It will also offer diverse options for sharing and publishing work and networking in the community. The format includes tutorial sessions, presentations, panels, posters, demos, and a BYOP: Bring Your Own Portal. Being that Bozeman is in the big sky country, we want to focus on expanding the horizons of science gateways to include new communities and fields.

Tutorial submissions are due May 3, 2024.
Paper, demo, and panel submissions are due May 27, 2024.
Poster and BYOP - Bring Your Own Portal submissions are due July 29, 2024.
Learn more at https://sciencegateways.org/gateways2024-cfp.

Focus Week – a sustainability workshop in Austin, TX from August 5-7, 2024

Gateway Focus Week is a workshop designed for innovative research teams to collaborate on producing a robust sustainability plan. Leaders and teams at all project stages can benefit from the supportive, immersive setting that Focus Week provides. Working closely with peers and experienced coaches, you will learn new skills and immediately apply them to your gateway. Thanks to the generous support of NSF, we are able to offer this workshop without registration fees. Attendees will only need to cover travel, lodging, and meal costs.

Apply for this free workshop at https://sciencegateways.org/focus-week.

Running List of Conferences and Events

Previously shared conferences and events.

Interesting Reads, Videos, or Podcasts

A special issue of PeerJ Computer Science on Software Citation, Indexing, and Discoverability edited by Daniel S. Katz and Neil Chue Hong
The Value of Open Source Software by Manuel Hoffman, Frank Nagle, and Yanuo Zhou
Approaches to scaling up reproducibility in research organisations by Michelle Barker and Neil Chue Hong
How to Sustain a Scientific Open-Source Software Ecosystem: Learning from the Astropy Project by Jiayi Sun, Aarya Patil, Youhai Li, Jin L.C. Guo, and Shurui Zhou
The White House Office of Science & Technology Policy Open Science Recognition Challenge by The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP)
Sustainable Software in Academia - Joint SSE and OSPO Workshop 2024 by Sustainable Software in Academia
Code for Thought: The making of a diveRSE community - Jeremy Cohen, Michael McLeod by Peter Schmidt
Pair Programming With Generative AI by IEEE Software
Experience Report: It Will Never Work in Theory by IEEE Software
Code for Thought: Make computing GREENER - Loïc Lannelongue by Peter Schmidt
US-RSE’23 Conference Proceedings Now Available!
Code for Thought: Lecturers Without Borders - Eugenia Covernton by Peter Schmidt
Code for Thought: scikit-learn: Software is People by Peter Schmidt
A Black Mathematical History by Noelle Sawyer
Ten simple rules for pushing boundaries of inclusion at academic events by Siobhan Mackenzie Hall, Daniel Kochin, Carmel Carne, Patricia Herterich, Kristen Lenay Lewers, Mohamed Abdelhack, Arun Ramasubramanian, Juno Felecia, Michael Alphonse, Visotheary Ung, Sara El-Gebali, Christopher Brian Currin, Esther Plomp, Rachel Thompson, Malvika Sharan
Inclusive Language in Technology by Academy Software Foundation
Racial Equity Tools Glossary by Racial Equity Tools

US-RSE Financials

From a financial perspective, 2023 was an exciting year for US-RSE. We were awarded a two-year grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and switched fiscal sponsors. We are very grateful to the Open Collective Foundation (OCF) that was our fiscal sponsor until last spring. However, with the awarded grant our needs changed and we are now a fiscally sponsored project of Community Initiatives (CI). CI gives us the structure and resources to hire staff such as the Executive Director and the Community Manager, accept donations and reimburse members for expenses they incurred on behalf of US-RSE. The community funds possible via the Alfred P. Sloan grant are also awarded via CI.

The majority of the grant from the Sloan Foundation is budgeted to pay for our new Executive Director and Community Manager. Besides that we’ve budgeted money to support staff travel, the US-RSE conference, fund community activities through our new Community and Travel Fund program, and fund smaller items such as code of conduct trainings for our code of conduct committee members. CI charges 10% of our income for providing resources, infrastructure, and support (trust us when we say we make good use of those resources). Switching from OCF to CI turned out to been an unexpectedly complex change and it has been a very steep learning curve. We appreciate our members’ patience as we navigate the world of non-profit regulations and guidelines.

Get Involved

There are lots of ways to get involved with the US-RSE community. Of course, you can join us on Slack. 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, Community Engagement, Fundraising, and Newsletter are all needed and welcome.

New guidance was recently released on how to create new Affinity Groups and Working Groups. If you see an unmet need in the US-RSE community, we encourage you to create your own group!

As always we thank everyone who is already contributing for their help in shaping and growing the organization.

US-RSE Working Groups:

Recent Job Postings

These opportunities were recently posted to the RSE Opportunities page:

Research Software Engineer II: Princeton University, Princeton, NJ Posted: Apr 17, 2024
Technical Staff: Million Concepts, remote Posted: Apr 17, 2024
Associate/Research Software Engineer/Senior: The National Center for Supercomputing Applications, Urbana, IL Posted: Apr 12, 2024
Senior Atmospheric or Climate Scientist: Eagle Rock Analytics, Sacramento, CA (or remote) Posted: Apr 12, 2024
Postdoctoral Research Associate - Grid Modeling: Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Knoxville, TN Posted: Apr 09, 2024
Software Engineer: Statewide California Earthquake Center, Los Angeles, CA Posted: Apr 05, 2024
Senior Software Engineer: Pittsburgh Supercomputing Center, Pittsburgh, PA (remote eligible) Posted: Apr 05, 2024
Full Stack Software Developer: Sandia National Laboratories, Location Flexible Posted: Apr 05, 2024
Research Software Engineer with UI/UX Concentration: Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD Posted: Feb 27, 2024
Software Engineer: Climate Modeling Alliance (CliMA), Caltech, Pasadena, CA Posted: Feb 27, 2024
Associate Director, Research Software Engineering: Princeton University, Princeton, NJ Posted: Feb 19, 2024
Software Engineer: Stanford University, Stanford, CA or remote Posted: Feb 16, 2024
Software Scientist: Open Free Energy/Open Molecular Software Foundation, fully remote Posted: Jan 24, 2024
OSTP Software Developer: Kitware, Clifton Park, NY Posted: Nov 30, 2023
Researcher and Engineer Positions in Advanced Wireless, Open RAN, and Rural Broadband: Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa Posted: May 18, 2023

Assistant Professor, Teaching Track, in Software Development and Design: University of Washington, Seattle, WA Posted: Feb 12, 2024

Other Job Boards

The following boards might also be of interest.

Please read our job posting policy first, then fill out this Google form to request additions to the job board.

This newsletter is a joint effort of members of the US-RSE Association.