Many science advances have been possible thanks to use of software. This software, also known as "research software,",has become essential to progress in science and engineering. The scientists who develop the software are experts in their discipline, but not necessarily experts in software engineering and may lack sufficient understanding of the practices that make software development easier, and the software more robust, reliable, maintainable and sustainable. This project will work with these scientists and software engineering experts to understand how the research community can best work together to design and maintain better software with lower effort, so that they and others can continue to use it over long periods of time. This project will conduct several workshops and a survey in order to gather and understand the community's needs addressing the diversity in software expertise of its members. These needs will be widely disseminated via newsletters and via a website. The primary deliverable of this project will be a design and strategic plan for a US Research Software Sustainability Institute (URSSI) which will serve as a community hub and provide services to scientists that will help them create improved, more sustainable software. This software in turn will accelerate the progress of science.

1. The Conceptualization of URSSI –
How You Can Engage
Sandra Gesing
sandra.gesing@nd.edu
July 24, 2018

2. Conceptualizing a US Research Software
Sustainability Institute (URSSI)

3. Conceptualizing a US Research Software
Sustainability Institute (URSSI)

4. URSSI Team

5. URSSI Team

6. Research Software
http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.843607

7. Research Software
http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.843607
> 50% neither formal nor informal training
in software engineering

8. Research Software
http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.843607
Lack of career paths

9. Research Software
http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.843607
How to cite software?

10. Areas of Concern
• Functioning of the individual and team
• Functioning of the research software
• Functioning of the research field itself

11. Functioning of the Individual and Team
• Training & education
• Ensuring appropriate credit for software
development
• Enabling publication pathways for research
software
• Fostering satisfactory and rewarding career paths
for people who develop and maintain software
• Increasing the participation of underrepresented
groups in software engineering

12. Functioning of Research Software
• Supporting sustainability of the software
• Growing community, evolving governance, and
developing relationships between organizations,
both academic and industrial
• Fostering both testing and reproducibility
• Supporting new models and developments (e.g.,
agile web frameworks, Software-as-a-Service)
• Supporting contributions of transient
contributors (e.g., students)

13. Functioning of the Research Field Itself
• Growing communities around research software
and disparate user requirements
• Cataloging extant and necessary software
• Disseminating new developments
• Training researchers in the usage of software
• Understanding and improving pipelines of diverse
developers and maintainers

14. URSSI and Other S2I2 Projects

15. URSSI and Other S2I2 Projects
Goal: Close collaboration and
fill in gaps on each axis

16. Conceptualization
• Workshops
• First workshop took place in April in Berkeley

17. Conceptualization
• Workshops
• First workshop took place in April in Berkeley
• Next workshop will take place in October in
Chicago
• Software credit workshop
• Incubator workshop
• Survey
• Ethnographic studies
• Mission and vision working group

18. Initial Straw Man

19. How to Connect
• Website http://urssi.us/

20. How to Connect
• Website http://urssi.us/
• Materials https://github.com/si2-urssi

21. How to Connect
• Website http://urssi.us/
• Materials https://github.com/si2-urssi
• Blog posts http://urssi.us/blog/

22. How to Connect
• Website http://urssi.us/
• Materials https://github.com/si2-urssi
• Blog posts http://urssi.us/blog/
• Mailing list http://urssi.us/

23. How to Connect
• Website http://urssi.us/
• Materials https://github.com/si2-urssi
• Blog posts http://urssi.us/blog/
• Mailing list http://urssi.us/
• Discuss https://discuss.urssi.us/

24. How to Connect
• Website http://urssi.us/
• Materials https://github.com/si2-urssi
• Blog posts http://urssi.us/blog/
• Mailing list http://urssi.us/
• Discuss https://discuss.urssi.us/
• Twitter https://twitter.com/si2urssi

25. Thanks!
• Website http://urssi.us/
• Materials https://github.com/si2-urssi
• Blog posts http://urssi.us/blog/
• Mailing list http://urssi.us/
• Discuss https://discuss.urssi.us/
• Twitter https://twitter.com/si2urssi
• Workshops http://urssi.us/workshops/
Join us for our next workshop in October in
Chicago!