Shows
OrionX.net@HPCpodcast-72: Vanessa Sochat and Alan Sill – HPC.social CommunityVanessa Sochat and Alan Sill ,the creators of the HPC.social project join us as we discuss the broad HPC/AI community and their efforts to enable it digitally through a broad multi-channel platform that includs Slack, Discord, Mastodon, GitHub, a jobs board, a community map, and the effort’s main site HPC.social.
The HPC community has grown but continues to have a very special tight-knit feel to it, as if everyone knows everyone else. While ISC, SC, and other conferences physically bring HPC (and increasingly AI) practitioners together, the digital community has been sc...2023-10-2700 min@HPCpodcast with Shahin Khan and Doug Black@HPCpodcast-72: Vanessa Sochat and Alan Sill – HPC.social CommunityVanessa Sochat and Alan Sill ,the creators of the HPC.social project join us as we discuss the broad HPC/AI community and their efforts to enable it digitally through a broad multi-channel platform that includs Slack, Discord, Mastodon, GitHub, a jobs board, a community map, and the effort’s main site HPC.social.
The HPC community has grown but continues to have a very special tight-knit feel to it, as if everyone knows everyone else. While ISC, SC, and other conferences physically bring HPC (and increasingly AI) practitioners together, the digital community has been sc...2023-10-2700 min@HPC Podcast Archives - OrionX.net@HPCpodcast-72: Vanessa Sochat and Alan Sill – HPC.social CommunityVanessa Sochat and Alan Sill ,the creators of the HPC.social project join us as we discuss the broad HPC/AI community and their efforts to enable it digitally through a broad multi-channel platform that includs Slack, Discord, Mastodon, GitHub, a jobs board, a community map, and the effort’s main site HPC.social.
The HPC community has grown but continues to have a very special tight-knit feel to it, as if everyone knows everyone else. While ISC, SC, and other conferences physically bring HPC (and increasingly AI) practitioners together, the digital community has been sc...2023-10-2700 min
Developer StoriesTech Horror Stories
In tech, we all can tell a horror story. It’s when you accidentally ran a command,
didn’t back something up (and lost it), or scream had your Zoom audio on when
you were singing to Avril Lavigne (anyone else?) So this week, and for the first
inagual episode of the newly rebranded “Developer Stories” we are sharing some of
these horror stories in this Halloween special episode!
Happy Halloween listeners! 🐈⬛💀🎃👻🥘🪦👿☠️
2022-09-2823 min
RSE Stories300 Nodes in a ClosetFor this episode of RSE Stories we are joined by Fernanda Foertter, Director at Voltron Data and experienced HPC practitioner. You may know her on Twitter as @hpcprogrammer, or for her significant contributions at earlier roles at Nvidia or Oak Ridge National Lab, but have you heard her origin story, and how she got involved in this work? In this episode, we travel with Fernanda through her early work, discovering her love and saavy for computers, and following her interests. We talk about her journey through national labs, tech companies, and now at Voltron Data where her adventure continues.2022-08-0443 min
Developer Stories300 Nodes in a ClosetFor this episode of RSE Stories we are joined by Fernanda Foertter, Director at Voltron Data and experienced HPC practitioner. You may know her on Twitter as @hpcprogrammer, or for her significant contributions at earlier roles at Nvidia or Oak Ridge National Lab, but have you heard her origin story, and how she got involved in this work? In this episode, we travel with Fernanda through her early work, discovering her love and saavy for computers, and following her interests. We talk about her journey through national labs, tech companies, and now at Voltron Data where her adventure continues.2022-08-0443 minRSE StoriesSC22 Mini-series: ECP Past ParticipantsLast time in the SC22 Mini-series, we learned about the Early Career Program (ECP)
from its chair, Marina Kraeva. Today we get a first-hand glimpse into what the program can
offer its attendees as we talk to six previous ECP participants.
Our six guests in this episode are Sameh Abdulah, Jean Luca Bez, Silvina Caino-Lores,
Hang Liu, Valeria Barra, and Bashir Mohammed. In a mix of one-on-one and panel interviews,
these past attendees tell us how ECP taught them valuable professional
lessons from funding to time management to mentor-mentee relationship building,
as well as created lasting connections...2022-07-1447 minDeveloper StoriesSC22 Mini-series: ECP Past ParticipantsLast time in the SC22 Mini-series, we learned about the Early Career Program (ECP)
from its chair, Marina Kraeva. Today we get a first-hand glimpse into what the program can
offer its attendees as we talk to six previous ECP participants.
Our six guests in this episode are Sameh Abdulah, Jean Luca Bez, Silvina Caino-Lores,
Hang Liu, Valeria Barra, and Bashir Mohammed. In a mix of one-on-one and panel interviews,
these past attendees tell us how ECP taught them valuable professional
lessons from funding to time management to mentor-mentee relationship building,
as well as created lasting connections...2022-07-1447 minRSE StoriesJoys and Challenges with Big Research DataAna Trisovic is a Research Associate at Harvard School of Public Health and a Sloan Fellow at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science. Effectively, she does data engineering for her research group and works on reproducible data and software dissemination. First, Ana speaks of her background, from her first job at Microsoft Development Center Serbia, to CERN, UChicago, and Harvard. She shares what inspired her to pursue projects relating to open-source software, open data, and open science. Her work focuses on big data workflows and research reproducibility, and she shares her experiences working with particle physics experimental data, geospatial...2022-07-0734 minDeveloper StoriesJoys and Challenges with Big Research DataAna Trisovic is a Research Associate at Harvard School of Public Health and a Sloan Fellow at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science. Effectively, she does data engineering for her research group and works on reproducible data and software dissemination. First, Ana speaks of her background, from her first job at Microsoft Development Center Serbia, to CERN, UChicago, and Harvard. She shares what inspired her to pursue projects relating to open-source software, open data, and open science. Her work focuses on big data workflows and research reproducibility, and she shares her experiences working with particle physics experimental data, geospatial...2022-07-0734 minRSE StoriesSC22 Mini-series: Early Career ProgramMarina Kraeva is a Senior Research Computing Systems Analyst at Iowa State
University and this year’s Early Career Program Subcommittee Chair. In this
episode, Marina tells us about the history of the Early Career Program (ECP) at
Supercomputing, the overarching goals of ECP, and what potential participants
can expect to learn this year!
She encourages all professionals in their early career to apply for the program
this year, taking place in Dallas, TX, as part of Supercomputing 2022. To apply,
go to the Early Career Program page
and click “Application Details.”2022-06-2312 minDeveloper StoriesSC22 Mini-series: Early Career ProgramMarina Kraeva is a Senior Research Computing Systems Analyst at Iowa State
University and this year’s Early Career Program Subcommittee Chair. In this
episode, Marina tells us about the history of the Early Career Program (ECP) at
Supercomputing, the overarching goals of ECP, and what potential participants
can expect to learn this year!
She encourages all professionals in their early career to apply for the program
this year, taking place in Dallas, TX, as part of Supercomputing 2022. To apply,
go to the Early Career Program page
and click “Application Details.”2022-06-2312 minDeveloper StoriesStatistical EngineeringWhat is the line between a biostatistician and a data scientist? And how does the work or impact differ between
academia and industry? Today on RSE Stories we talk to Daniel Sabanés Bové, a Senior Principal Data Scientist and Associate Director at Roche who graduated from the University of Zurich with a PhD in statistics. Not only does Daniel build tools, he has published a statistics book, leads a team, and can see his work trickling down to the production of medicine. So what does a bioengineer do at a company like Roche? He’s engineering
tools for stat...2022-06-0231 minRSE StoriesStatistical EngineeringWhat is the line between a biostatistician and a data scientist? And how does the work or impact differ between
academia and industry? Today on RSE Stories we talk to Daniel Sabanés Bové, a Senior Principal Data Scientist and Associate Director at Roche who graduated from the University of Zurich with a PhD in statistics. Not only does Daniel build tools, he has published a statistics book, leads a team, and can see his work trickling down to the production of medicine. So what does a bioengineer do at a company like Roche? He’s engineering
tools for stat...2022-06-0231 minDeveloper StoriesSC22 Mini-series: Inclusivity CommitteeJay Lofstead is a member of technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories
and this year’s Supercomputing 2022 (SC22) Inclusivity Committee Chair. In this
episode, Jay tells us about his experiences volunteering with SC over the past
few years, the history of the Inclusivity committee, and his plans for
implementing change to make Supercomputing 2022 a truly accessible and
inclusive environment for all participants!
He also ends with a call to action. If you have feedback about your experiences
at Supercomputing that could help Jay improve inclusivity, please email the
committee at sc-inclusivity@info.supercomputing.org.2022-05-2618 minRSE StoriesSC22 Mini-series: Inclusivity CommitteeJay Lofstead is a member of technical staff at Sandia National Laboratories
and this year’s Supercomputing 2022 (SC22) Inclusivity Committee Chair. In this
episode, Jay tells us about his experiences volunteering with SC over the past
few years, the history of the Inclusivity committee, and his plans for
implementing change to make Supercomputing 2022 a truly accessible and
inclusive environment for all participants!
He also ends with a call to action. If you have feedback about your experiences
at Supercomputing that could help Jay improve inclusivity, please email the
committee at sc-inclusivity@info.supercomputing.org.2022-05-2618 minDeveloper StoriesThe Really Cool PenMegan Phinney is a recent graduate of Iowa State University, and will starting a full time position at Los Alamos National
Lab after her graduation this month! In this episode, Megan tells us her story of stumbling on a national lab (hint, a funky pen is involved!)
and her early experiences working as an intern at LANL, and how important a particular teacher was to her path. We discuss
how research software engineering might relate to HPC, the student cluster competition at the Supercomputing (SC) conference,
the importance of people, and projects Charliecloud and squashfs.
By the...2022-05-0521 minRSE StoriesThe Really Cool PenMegan Phinney is a recent graduate of Iowa State University, and will starting a full time position at Los Alamos National
Lab after her graduation this month! In this episode, Megan tells us her story of stumbling on a national lab (hint, a funky pen is involved!)
and her early experiences working as an intern at LANL, and how important a particular teacher was to her path. We discuss
how research software engineering might relate to HPC, the student cluster competition at the Supercomputing (SC) conference,
the importance of people, and projects Charliecloud and squashfs.
By the...2022-05-0521 minDeveloper StoriesThe Master ConnectorFor the most part when I’ve been introduced to DEI groups and initiatives, they mean well but I’m left feeling a bit lost.
I either don’t fully understand what I can do, or I don’t think the initiative itself fully grasps the depth of the issue.
My view on DEI, “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” changed when I watched a talk by Rowland Mosbergen, a strategic leader at
the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Australia, and founder of Practical Diversity and Inclusion, a resource for improving Diversity and Inclusion for individuals and organization...2022-04-0743 minRSE StoriesThe Master ConnectorFor the most part when I’ve been introduced to DEI groups and initiatives, they mean well but I’m left feeling a bit lost.
I either don’t fully understand what I can do, or I don’t think the initiative itself fully grasps the depth of the issue.
My view on DEI, “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” changed when I watched a talk by Rowland Mosbergen, a strategic leader at
the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Australia, and founder of Practical Diversity and Inclusion, a resource for improving Diversity and Inclusion for individuals and organization...2022-04-0743 minDeveloper StoriesThe Podcast ExperimentPeter is a Senior Research Software Engineer at the University of College London, a role he joined
in late 2019 after a rich career in the private sector. In this 71st episode, Peter
talks about his journey from Germany, to London, and what it’s been like to work in
everything from medical imaging to working at Sony and reference manager Mendeley.
How did he stumble on his first role as an RSE, and what did it push him to try?
What kind of experiments is he running at his new podcast Code for Thought?
Listen to this week’s epis...2022-03-0335 minRSE StoriesThe Podcast ExperimentPeter is a Senior Research Software Engineer at the University of College London, a role he joined
in late 2019 after a rich career in the private sector. In this 71st episode, Peter
talks about his journey from Germany, to London, and what it’s been like to work in
everything from medical imaging to working at Sony and reference manager Mendeley.
How did he stumble on his first role as an RSE, and what did it push him to try?
What kind of experiments is he running at his new podcast Code for Thought?
Listen to this week’s epis...2022-03-0335 minRSE StoriesI'm invisible, but I can see the differencesFor our 70th episode we chat with Peter Vaillancourt, a Computational Scientist at the Cornell Center of Advanced Computing.
Peter took a non-traditional path to his current role, starting in the Air Force and eventually studying math and physics, and eventually
finding his love for programming. In this episode, Peter talks about his journey to understand himself, and some of the challenges that our community
faces when dealing with diversity, trauma, and understanding one another. We talk about retention and opportunity, and
the idea of micro-compassions - small acts of kindness that make our community a place that we...2022-02-0334 minDeveloper StoriesI'm invisible, but I can see the differencesFor our 70th episode we chat with Peter Vaillancourt, a Computational Scientist at the Cornell Center of Advanced Computing.
Peter took a non-traditional path to his current role, starting in the Air Force and eventually studying math and physics, and eventually
finding his love for programming. In this episode, Peter talks about his journey to understand himself, and some of the challenges that our community
faces when dealing with diversity, trauma, and understanding one another. We talk about retention and opportunity, and
the idea of micro-compassions - small acts of kindness that make our community a place that we...2022-02-0334 minDeveloper StoriesNo Shortage of IdeasWelcome to the New Year, my dearest reader! We open 2022 with our 69th episode,
an interview with Chase Million, the CEO of Million Concepts, a research
and consulting company with expertise in planetary science, remote sensing, and
astronomy. Chase presents us with a less commonly seen model for providing
research software engineering services, and tells us the story of how he went off
any established path to pursue work that he simply didn’t see possible to do in
traditional academia. Are you business minded, or have you ever thought about
leaving the constraints of academia? This is one st...2022-01-0637 minRSE StoriesNo Shortage of IdeasWelcome to the New Year, my dearest reader! We open 2022 with our 69th episode,
an interview with Chase Million, the CEO of Million Concepts, a research
and consulting company with expertise in planetary science, remote sensing, and
astronomy. Chase presents us with a less commonly seen model for providing
research software engineering services, and tells us the story of how he went off
any established path to pursue work that he simply didn’t see possible to do in
traditional academia. Are you business minded, or have you ever thought about
leaving the constraints of academia? This is one st...2022-01-0637 minDeveloper StoriesFor the Love of LearningTim Haines is one of those people you would be lucky to have as a colleague.
If you spend just a few minutes with Tim, you’ll quickly find yourself having fun. Why? Tim is
easy to laugh, and unbelievably smart and so wanting to share this with you.
In this episode of Research Software Engineer stories, Tim tells his extensive journey
through academia (17 years!) touching astophysics, computer science, and software engineering.
But was it about the pieces of paper? Not for Tim - he has a passion for learning,
and shares this with us today through our conversation ab...2021-12-0241 minRSE StoriesFor the Love of LearningTim Haines is one of those people you would be lucky to have as a colleague.
If you spend just a few minutes with Tim, you’ll quickly find yourself having fun. Why? Tim is
easy to laugh, and unbelievably smart and so wanting to share this with you.
In this episode of Research Software Engineer stories, Tim tells his extensive journey
through academia (17 years!) touching astophysics, computer science, and software engineering.
But was it about the pieces of paper? Not for Tim - he has a passion for learning,
and shares this with us today through our conversation ab...2021-12-0241 minDeveloper StoriesOpen Source Halloween
Happy Halloween listeners! This is the third Halloween special episide of the Research Software Engineer Stories Podcast,
and this year we have a story that you might relate to, and give you a spurt of magic. You see, this year we
get a glipse of what it means to have an Open Source Halloween. What would it mean if candy were akin to software?
To go along with the episode, I’ve created for you the Open Source Candy Genereator
where, if you create a piece of candy, it will show up on the Open Source Halloween po...2021-10-2848 minRSE StoriesOpen Source Halloween
Happy Halloween listeners! This is the third Halloween special episide of the Research Software Engineer Stories Podcast,
and this year we have a story that you might relate to, and give you a spurt of magic. You see, this year we
get a glipse of what it means to have an Open Source Halloween. What would it mean if candy were akin to software?
To go along with the episode, I’ve created for you the Open Source Candy Genereator
where, if you create a piece of candy, it will show up on the Open Source Halloween po...2021-10-2848 minDeveloper StoriesFollowed by ServersWhat happens when you mix hard work, curiosity, creativity, and a little luck?
You hear an inspiring story like that of Alec Scott, a current Senior at the University
of Arizona. In this episode of RSE Stories, Alec shares his story from discovering
a passion for working in the space of software and research, and finding
research software engineering. Have you heard of Autamus, or Arken? These are
some of Alec’s projects for container automation and distributed file storage,
and they are likely of interest to you!2021-10-0743 minRSE StoriesFollowed by ServersWhat happens when you mix hard work, curiosity, creativity, and a little luck?
You hear an inspiring story like that of Alec Scott, a current Senior at the University
of Arizona. In this episode of RSE Stories, Alec shares his story from discovering
a passion for working in the space of software and research, and finding
research software engineering. Have you heard of Autamus, or Arken? These are
some of Alec’s projects for container automation and distributed file storage,
and they are likely of interest to you!2021-10-0743 minDeveloper StoriesMaking You EffectiveHave you ever been lead for hundreds of people? Michael Heroux has!
Mike is a Senior Scientist at Sandia National Laboratories, and a Scientist in Residence at St. John’s University.
In this episode of RSE Stories we talk about the Exascale Computing project, working together in-person and remotely,
and some good practices for you and your teams to take on during these challenging times.2021-09-0229 minRSE StoriesMaking You EffectiveHave you ever been lead for hundreds of people? Michael Heroux has!
Mike is a Senior Scientist at Sandia National Laboratories, and a Scientist in Residence at St. John’s University.
In this episode of RSE Stories we talk about the Exascale Computing project, working together in-person and remotely,
and some good practices for you and your teams to take on during these challenging times.2021-09-0229 minRSE StoriesWhen I Couldn't Go to WorkRobin Wilson has an impressive body of work, from creating a new method to monitor air pollution from satellites
at high spatial resolution, to writing scientific software and creating means for open data. He now is thriving
doing freelance work, and has an important story to share with our RSE community. You see, Robin
is in a wheelchair. It wasn’t something he expected, but it’s changed his life and given him
perspective about how important it is for our community to embrace diversity and support disability.
We hope that you listen to this episode, hear what Robin has...2021-08-0534 minRSE StoriesA Life of Its OwnResearch Software Engineering is so much more than supercomputers and scientific programming.
In this episode of RSE Stories we meet Kalina Borkiewicz, a Research Software Engineer in
the Advanced Visualization lab that works on scientific visualization. We aren’t talking about
plots and websites – Kalina works on award winning cinematic visualizations that are narrated
by celebrities and showcased at major film festivals. Have you heard of “A Beautiful Planet”
or “Seeing the Beginning of Time?” If so, you might have even seen some of her
documentaries. This is an exciting episode because Kalina embodies how truly diverse the roles
of research...2021-07-0827 minRSE StoriesGoing in with enthusiasmChanging jobs and roles isn’t easy at the best of times. But with her infectious enthusiasm Kate Court made her way from research in arts and humanities to her role as research developer at Newcastle University. Being open minded about people from different backgrounds was essential as is realising that many of our skills are transferrable.
I am particularly impressed with Kate’s community spirit, which shines through in some of her projects, e.g.
Story Telling for young dads in Newcastle. But also her other work with connecting mums with tech to help women either get back into...2021-06-1723 minDeveloper StoriesDinosaurHave you ever wondered about the story of the host behind this podcast?
Flipping the interview of the very first episode
almost two years ago, for this week’s episode special guest host Ian Cosden interviews Vanessa Sochat,
a Computer Scientist at Lawrence Livermore National lab and founder of the RSE Stories podcast.
Vanessa started as a researcher in neuroinformatics, fell in love with programming,
and embarked on her own journey through self-taught programming, graduate school, her first role as a Research Software
Engineer in the Stanford Research Computing Center, up until where she is today.
In this episode, Va...2021-06-0333 minRSE StoriesDinosaurHave you ever wondered about the story of the host behind this podcast?
Flipping the interview of the very first episode
almost two years ago, for this week’s episode special guest host Ian Cosden interviews Vanessa Sochat,
a Computer Scientist at Lawrence Livermore National lab and founder of the RSE Stories podcast.
Vanessa started as a researcher in neuroinformatics, fell in love with programming,
and embarked on her own journey through self-taught programming, graduate school, her first role as a Research Software
Engineer in the Stanford Research Computing Center, up until where she is today.
In this episode, Va...2021-06-0333 minRSE StoriesCareer Structures for RSEsFor this episode I meet with Mark Abraham, who is an RSE at the EuroCC National Competence Centre Sweden. Some of our listeners may also know him in the context of Gromacs, short for GROningen MAchine for Chemical Simulations, the leading package for molecular dynamics (see their repo at gitlab).
Mark started his RSE journey in Australia. He then moved to Sweden for a role at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm. After a brief period at a startup at Voxo he returned to his current position at the National Competence Centre. This career progression is not unusual...2021-05-2027 minRSE StoriesDreaming SpiresEdd Salkield is a research software engineer in the UK, where he founded Dreaming Spires.
In this episode, we talk about a different kind of future for RSE work to serve the diverse
demands of digital research based on international collaboration of RSE consultants and
freelancers.
After finishing his studies with a MSc in computer science from Oxford University in 2020,
Edd wanted to bring researchers and software engineering talent together to
fulfil scientists’ needs for reproducible and trustworthy software. Only then
he learned about the broader RSE community in the UK.
Despite the difficulties of the pandemic, he...2021-05-0631 minDeveloper StoriesDreaming SpiresEdd Salkield is a research software engineer in the UK, where he founded Dreaming Spires.
In this episode, we talk about a different kind of future for RSE work to serve the diverse
demands of digital research based on international collaboration of RSE consultants and
freelancers.
After finishing his studies with a MSc in computer science from Oxford University in 2020,
Edd wanted to bring researchers and software engineering talent together to
fulfil scientists’ needs for reproducible and trustworthy software. Only then
he learned about the broader RSE community in the UK.
Despite the difficulties of the pandemic, he...2021-05-0631 minRSE StoriesIt's a processIn this recording Frank takes us through the various stages - and challenges - that he and his RSE friends took to build the German RSE association.
Like so many other RSEs, Frank Loeffler’s career began in science; physics to be precise. As such he worked in different research areas in and out of Germany. During a research assignment in the US (Louisiana State University), Frank attended the first RSE conference in Manchester, UK in 2016. This was a crucial moment. Frank met other like-minded colleagues from Germany all motivated to build a community there as well. In a pe...2021-04-2229 minRSE StoriesAre You Interested in Riddles?Daniel Nüst is a research software engineer working on the project “Opening
Reproducible Research” at the Institute for Geoinformatics, University of
Münster. In this episode, we talk about RSE career paths, reproducible
research, and computational workflows under peer review.
After finding his dream discipline of geoinformatics as a student,
Daniel Nüst continued learning more about the
Earth by supporting researchers with latest computer science methods as
a developer and consultant at 52°North, a
non-profit company for applied research with Open Source software. An
RSE by tasks but not title already then, he joined the German R...2021-04-0136 minRSE StoriesFrom Engineer to ManagerAfter starting his career as an engineer, Mark went to build and head a growing team of research software engineers at Newcastle University in the UK. The transition from engineer to manager can be quite daunting. In the industry, it has been the traditional career path for many engineers, with all the problems this career change can bring. But with growing RSE teams around the globe it is a challenge that the RSE community faces as well. How do we prepare RSEs for a more hands-off-code approach and how can you grow an effective team? Mark and I touch...2021-03-2529 minRSE StoriesThe Software Engineering ChallengeRon is a software engineer at Argonne National Lab, and shares with us his story
about realizing the potential for a good career by pursuing software engineering,
and eventually finding his way from early career training to having a job at Argonne.
Does Argonne have a representation of a research software engineer? How important are
students and training for our future? What kind of work
does Ron care about? You should listen to this episode to find out!
And a special thank you to Ron, who not only was a guest on RSE Stories, but
fully edited...2021-03-0426 minRSE StoriesWorking with you rather than for youNow that research software engineering is an established role in some universities and countries it is easy to forget how difficult it was for engineers to work on research they love but really focus on the software development side rather than the academic research. In this interview Paul Richmond describes how he “masqueraded” as academic before he got the fellowship at the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council - EPSRC in the UK. Since then he established himself firmly as an RSE and built a team of engineers at the university of Sheffield in the UK.
His main focus has...2021-02-2529 minRSE StoriesSustaining PeopleDan Katz is a Chief Scientist at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications.
But you might recoginize him from Better Scientific Software, The Software Sustainability
Institute, or the Journal of Open Source Software. In this episode, we talk about software,
citation and best practices, but we also talk about the community around it, and the importance of policy and people.
Make sure to check out a special post, Valuing People vs. Hardware that Dan has written to supplement this episode.
2021-02-1843 minRSE StoriesThe ShopDoes your institution have an electronics shop? What goes on there, and is it
research software engineering? In this episode, we talk with Blaise Thompson, an instrumental technologist at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Blaise shares with us the value
of building instruments for research, and that now is the time to rethink and revamp these
institutional shops to better serve the research community. Do you do work in instrumentation
or are you interested in this work? Let’s start discussion and channels in our slacks!2021-02-0420 minRSE StoriesWe are here for a purposeIn late 2020 Alys Brett stepped down as president of the Society of Research Software Engineering in the UK. Coming from a physics background she moved into the world of research software engineering. That transition wasn’t always easy. But Alys helped to build and shape the RSE movement right from the start. In our conversation we look back over her part in the RSE movement and also talk about what lies ahead. Alys is now leading a team of research software engineers at the
UK Atomic Energy Authority working on nuclear fusion experiments.2021-01-2829 minRSE StoriesFor the Long HaulGreg Becker is a Computer Scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Lab, where
he supports both open source developers and researchers in the lab. Have you heard
of spack? You might have interacted with him at a conference or on GitHub. Is he a Research
Software Engineer? Does the definition of a Research Software Engineer rely on
having a strong need for RSEs? How does programming relate to rock climbing?
Listen to this week’s episode to find out!2021-01-2130 minRSE StoriesTeach People How to CodeOlivia Guest is a cognitive scientist and computational cognitive modeler at the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging at Radboud University, Netherlands.
Many may also know Olivia from her popular blog post Neuroplausible. In this episode Olivia takes us through her journey to become a computational scientist. We also discuss two of her blog posts with the catchy titles of I hate Matlab and Why Women in Psychology Can’t Program. Creating a level playing field in computing for people from different backgrounds requires us to rethink the way we teach computing and build up problem solving skills. As Olivia sa...2021-01-1423 minRSE StoriesThe Purple PythonistaHappy New Year listeners! For this week’s episode, we talk to the passionate Tania Allard, previously a Developer Advocate at Microsoft, and recently announced in a new role
as co-director for Quansight Labs. Congratulations Tania! But for Tania, we suspect
a change in role does not change her passions for developing and leading communities,
Python, and developing beautiful resources and software. In this episode of RSE Stories, we talk about
the magic of open source, the importance of training, and adding a little extra spark to
make our development experiences that much better.2021-01-0724 minRSE StoriesAll things RIf you work with R there is a great chance you will have met or heard of Maëlle Salmon. Maëlle is an associate editor at rOpenSci and deeply involved in community serving projects such as rWeekly and rLadies. The latter to help boost diversity. rLadies has chapters in many countries around the globe and is an active and vibrant community.
In this episode Maëlle and I discuss the role R plays in the RSE community and its future. But also, her impressive catalogue of projects, including CHAI the project on Cardiovascular Health effects of Air pollution in...2020-12-1725 minRSE StoriesFounding FathersIn our 45th episode, we talk to Rob Haines, the head of Research IT at the University
of Manchester. Have you ever heard the story of how research software engineering originally came to
be? Rob has a side to that story to tell, as he might be considered one of the founding fathers of
the RSE movement and his group at the University of Manchester. How has his career progressed,
and what are remaining challenges? Listen to this week’s episode to learn more!2020-12-1021 minRSE StoriesEqual FootingIn some countries research software engineers have established roles and there are (some) career paths available to them. In New Zealand, however, there is still a way to go. Meet Nooriyah Lohani, research community advisor at NESI. Nooriyah’s background is in bioinformatics and she recently submitted a paper on forecasting the effect of influenza like viruses on the health system in New Zealand.
Buddying up with Australia, Nooriyah and colleagues of hers in New Zealand are building a community of RSEs in their countries. Their first big milestone was an Australia/new Zealand RSE conference - entirely virtual in...2020-12-0326 minRSE StoriesGive me Security, Give me HopeIn this episode of RSE Stories, we talk with Alex Koufos, a fellow Stanford Research
Engineer that is passionate about simulations, robotics, and computational physics.
Alex knew what he was looking for in terms of a research role, and then struggled to
find it when he first graduated. When he finally found his perfect niche, the recent events of 2020
have made it a fight to again find security. Is there hope?
On RSE Stories we interview a lot of successful groups and individuals, but we need
to remember that this is not the reality for so many of us...2020-11-1927 minRSE StoriesKey is your value setIn this episode we talk to Brian Hills deputy CEO and Head of Service Design for the DataLab in Scotland. Brian joined the team after many years in the private sector. And his experiences there help him work with universities and companies to bridge the gap in skills we have today. Working in AI/ML is often misunderstood. Many downplay the importance of good, solid data engineering. As Brian points out, he had companies remarking that new graduates often want to work on algorithms rather than “cleaning up the data” for processing.
Ethics in data science also play a key...2020-11-1228 minRSE StoriesOpen Science is CriticalFor this episode we go again to Australia to meet with Michelle Barker, director of the Research Software Alliance. Michelle has extensive expertise in open science, research software, digital workforce capability and digital research infrastructure. She is on the advisory committee for the US Software Sustainability Institute and recently chaired the OECD Global Science Forum expert group on digital skills for the research sector. Building and increasing skills, approaches to digital solutions and implementations is often hard. These are the kind of challenges Michelle thrives on. E.g. by using systematic approaches such as Kotter’s 8 steps for leading ch...2020-11-0529 minRSE StoriesThe Interview
Working from home, that had become the new normal in the year 2020. Leo stared out of his small
San Francisco apartment building window. He had moved there right after graduation the previous year
in a flutter of excitement and promises of avocado toast and small batch coffee. He never imagined
that the world would change so quickly in just 8 months. Despite living in an 800
square foot apartment with a shared bathroom and microkitchen (cough, cough, microwave and portable fridge)
his monthly rent was almost 2.5K. It was fine at first, but there was one problem…
Le...2020-10-2925 minRSE StoriesBrown Dog, Arcgis or Pizza?Jong is the Deputy Associate Directory of Software at NCSA, working closely with
one of our previous guests, Kenton McHenry.
Jong’s story is important because it shows diversity of expertise - Jong started
working as a research scientist in urban planning, and has followed the needs of
his community to now be a leader in helping with both career paths of engineers,
running his own projects as a PI, and supporting the user community. Have you heard
of Brown Dog, or maybe Brown Dog pizza? You won’t know what I’m talking about unless
you listen to the ep...2020-10-2225 minRSE StoriesI learnt how I should have done thingsFor this episode we go (virtually) to Australia to meet with Nick May. Nick spent a long time in the private sector working for a wide range of different companies - large and small.
At some stage he decided to go back to university to get a degree in computer science. “I learnt how I should have done things” he says. Not content with that, he joined the growing community of RSEs in Australia and New Zealand. Today, Nick is the secretary of the RSE Association of Australia and New Zealand and helping to expand this community further.
Oh, and...2020-10-1519 minRSE StoriesThe Fortran MaestroToday we have the pleasure of speaking with Damian Rouson, the founder and president
of the Sorcery Institute that provides training and services for software development.
And guess what, he’s frequented national labs, written books, and has carved out
a unique spot in the research software ecosystem. Does he consider himself a research
software engineer? How do you even start to think about starting your own company?
In this episode, we discuss object oriented design, Fortran, parallelism, and
how following the needs of a community can lead to an interesting and fulfilling
career path.2020-10-0825 minRSE StoriesPushing the bubbleWell before he realised he is an RSE Mike was already involved in software development and data science for some time. And you can’t help but be impressed with the range of projects Mike has been working on. In this episode we focus on two of them: snow fall in Britain and livestock movement for Scotland’s Rural College. His and his colleagues’ work provide data for policy influencers and makers. It is therefore important that the quality of data and underlying assumptions are properly assessed. Getting this balance right is often difficult and requires, as Mike says, “pushing...2020-10-0125 minRSE StoriesEstablish or PerishIn this episode of Research Software Engineer Stories, we talk with Kenton McHenry,
Associate Director for Software at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications (NSCA).
What do we really want as research software engineers for our careers? It might
be related to having a mindset for growth, a diverse skillset, and an established career
path. Or maybe it’s just knowing that we are not alone. Kenton’s journey has led him to think
about all these questions, and more.2020-09-2423 minRSE StoriesR for ReproducibilityAnna Krystalli’s career took a number of interesting turns. It all started in macro biology, where Anna helped analyse data from one of the longest running ecological surveys: the Continuous Plankton Recorder Survey. Munching all the data took her into the exciting world of R programming. There she started to play an increasingly important role in the R community. This included taking on the role of associate editor of rOpenSci. Anna is passionate about making software more open, accessible and reproducible. As one of the RSE Fellows she has been instrumental in initiatives like the ReproHack. And if yo...2020-09-1725 minRSE StoriesThe Wisdom of the Systems EngineerOnly a few minutes into our convsersation, I knew that Bruce Wilson, a research
systems engineer at Oak Ridge National Lab, had rich life experiences and both
wisdom and depth from them. In our 33rd episode of Research Software Engineer Stories,
we talk with Bruce not only about trends in systems engineering, but also empathy for self
and others, team dynamics, diversity, and mental health. Bruce shares his story of
shifting roles, and how solving challenges with domain scientists has brought him joy.2020-09-1024 minRSE StoriesPublish Without PerishThe principle format of science communication - the research article - hasn’t changed for a very long time. But research as well as the processing and communication of data have all changed dramatically. Therefore, is the traditional way of publishing still the best way to share scientific results and discoveries?
This is a question Emmy Tsang is focusing on at eLife Sciences, a non-profit organisation created by funders and researchers.
Following her Ph.D. years in neuroscience, Emmy decided it is time to bring some badly needed change to science and research communication. With so much re...2020-09-0327 minRSE StoriesThe Code Curious BiologistBlake Joyce asserts that he’s stumbled into his current role as assistant
director of research computing at the University of Arizona by way of dumb luck -
and while there might be some luck in the mix, if you listen to his story, an
overarching theme is that Blake was not afraid to try new things, and take some
risks. In this episode of RSE Stories, we cover a broad range of ideas from
growing crops in the future, to what Blake sees as the next frontier,
to how to run an effective research computing team.
Hint - yo...2020-08-2720 minRSE StoriesHow to make beer betterFor this episode our journey through RSE land takes us to Belgium. James Collier and Alexander Botzki work at the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology (Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie - VIB). Belgium being famous (amongst many other things) for its beers, lovers of the beverage will appreciate the work James and Alexander do to improve its taste using software technologies such as machine learning.
Equally important to their work is community building. They are deeply involved with the Elixir project, a pan-European network for life sciences. Realizing the importance of software engineering in research, they recently set up an RSE...2020-08-2020 minRSE StoriesScience GatewaysSandra Gesing is a powerful force in the world of research software engineering.
In fact, she spans the worlds of high performance computing, professorship,
computer science, and having a leadership role in the United States Research Software
Engineering Association. In this episode, Sandra shares her background from the start
of being captured by answering scientific questions, to discussion of the importance
of scientific gateways. Are you planning your post COVID trip to Chicago or
places in Europe? Sandra has some suggestions for you!2020-08-1325 minRSE StoriesOpening Eyes and Turning Lights OnToday we meet with Radovan Bast (@__radovan, Homepage) from Tromsø in Northern Norway. Radovan moved into software engineering via theoretical chemistry. The journey wasn’t easy, or as Radovan put it “I had imposter syndrome.” However, one of the highlights in this transition has been teaching others software and watch “eyes opening and lights turning on.” In our session we talk about some of Radovan’s exciting projects like Cicero - shared presentations or filtering and finding misinformation. He is also co-author of the CMake Cookbook.
Radovan is closely working with colleagues in Norway, Sweden, Finland and other countri...2020-08-0637 minRSE StoriesA Lifelong LearnerThis week on RSE Stories, we take a blast into the Python Universe! Our guest
Carol Willing is not only a core developer for CPython, Jupyter Hub, and mybinder.org,
she is an overall leader in the Python community with much wisdom about how to
be a lifelong learner, and find passion in your work. What’s the difference
between IPython and Jupyter? Take a listen to find out!2020-07-3032 minRSE StoriesAugmenting reality for blind peopleToday we meet with Camilla Longden (@camillalongden). Camilla is a research software engineer at Microsoft. I met Camilla at an RSE workshop in London early 2020, where she presented her work in AI and machine learning. Camilla’s ambition is to create tools that improve and enhance our lives. Judging by the exciting work she does at project Tokyo she has a good chance of achieving her goal. The aim of the project is to help visually impaired people, particularly children and young adults, using augmented reality. As part of our discussion we touch on the important subject of ethics in...2020-07-2326 minRSE StoriesWe've been around a while!How long have Research Software Engineering groups been around? How do you
organically grow a group at your institution? This week we talk with Charles
Ferenbaugh, a computational scientist at Los Alamos National Lab. Charles
has rich experience from industry to national labs, and offers some
interesting insights on the matter. Oh, and we also talk about his favorite ice
cream too. We hope you enjoy the conversation!2020-07-1621 minRSE StoriesLanguage shapes realityToday we go to Berlin in Germany to meet with Stephan Druskat (@sdruskat). Stephan is a research software engineer at
the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
He has been involved with a lot of exciting research on
linguistics, such as the study of Oceanic languages (https://www.projekte.hu-berlin.de/en/melatamp).
Another focus of his work has been “software citation” and ensuring that software becomes a valid and recognised output of research [ref].
And if that isn’t enough, Stephan plays an important part in building the RSE community in Germany.2020-07-0939 minRSE StoriesThe Research Software Engineer CEOWhen you love technology regardless of the domain of science that is using it,
it’s often challenging to find a niche in a traditional academic role. In this episode
of RSE Stories, We talk to Joe Schoonover, the CEO of Fluid Numerics. Joe found
himself in this exact position after graduate school and trying out a postdoc,
and embarked on an adventure to start his own company. In this episode
we discuss cloud vs. HPC, what it’s like to start your own company, and challenges
in both of those spaces.2020-07-0225 minRSE StoriesSoftware is the backboneIn today’s episode Peter meets Neil Chue Hong and Simon Hettrick. Neil and Simon are the director/deputy director of the Software Sustainability Institute. For nearly 10 years the institute has been the “backbone” for research software engineering and the RSE movement.
It helped build the RSE movement and network, not only in the UK but in other countries. Neil and Simon discuss what changes the coronavirus pandemic brought to research software engineering as well as the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead of us. And did you know the institute has a blog with cooking recipes?2020-06-2539 minRSE StoriesAwesome AirplanesThis week on RSE Stories we chat with Stuart Bowman, a simulations engineer
at the MITRE, who is working to “solve problems for a safer world” that range
from airplanes to emerging technologies. Stuart offers a valuable perspective
about an option for a research software engineer that cares deeply about
solving problems and helping people, but doesn’t necessarily want to stay in
academia. Have you wondered what it takes to be a pilot, or how air travel
is worked on from a research perspective? Take a listen!2020-06-1823 minRSE StoriesGet the bugs!RSE Stories is going places! This episode is brought to you from London in collaboration with the Society of Research Software Engineering in the UK (RSE UK).
Today’s host is Peter Schmidt talking with Richard Fitzjohn. Richard leads a team of research software engineers (RSE) at the MRC (Medical Research Council) Centre for Global Infectious Disease Epidemiology at Imperial College in London. Before Richard became a research software engineer he worked in theoretical evolutionary biology. But today, he and his team help epidemiologists develop models for infectious diseases. Lately, this meant developing models for the coronavirus outbreak. What do...2020-06-1125 minRSE StoriesSoftware as a GardenIn this episode of RSE Stories we talk with Julian Pistorius, a software
engineer and self-proclaimed organic software farmer at the College of Agriculture
and Life Sciences, or more specifically, at the Digital Innovations for
Agriculture Group (DIAG) at the University of Arizona. Julian is co-lead to
a project called Exosphere, which he describes as an OnDemand for cloud computing.
Listen closely for insights to taking care of communities, software projects,
and how a research software engineer can think about his or her place in
the two.2020-06-0428 min
RSE StoriesSpack Attack!For this episode of RSE Stories, we interview Todd Gamblin, a computer scientist
from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory that
thrives in the gray area between hardware, HPC, and open source development.
Todd shares his journey to be working at a National Lab, and how
getting angry at software led to development of a hugely popular package
manager, Spack.2020-05-2121 min
RSE StoriesComing HomeIn this 17th Episode of Research Software Engineer Stories, we interview
Andrew Turner, a research software engineer that leads a team at the University
of Edinburgh, and discuss how research software engineering has brought a sense
of belonging to so many that did not have it before. Andrew shares his hopes
for the future, personal challenges, and a little bit of beauty that you might
not know exists in caving.2020-05-0723 min
RSE StoriesThe Cloud EngineerHave you ever heard of CNCF, the Cloud Native Computing Foundation, or
heard someone describe a tool or workflow as “cloud native?” For this episode
of RSE Stories we talk with Bob Killen, a cloud engineer that is a real life
“Mr. Bobby Tables” and can tell you all about how to take containers, hpc,
and cloud for a spin.2020-04-2320 min
RSE StoriesSoftware on the FarmAgriculture is so fundamentally important to the economy, but some would
argue that it falls behind with respect to access to technology. For this
episode of RSE Stories, we speak with Chris Pahmeyer, an agricultural economist
and research software engineer that is aiming to tackle some of these problems.2020-04-0920 min
RSE StoriesPackage Management? That's Easy.One of the greatest joys is meeting a research software engineer
that is so passionate about their craft that it flows out of them.
This is definitely the case for Kenneth Hoste, an HPC Systems Administrator
in Belgium that found himself strongly to be in the role of RSE
while he was working on the EasyBuild project on behalf of his research community.
In this week’s episode of RSE Stories, we chat with Kenneth,
and learn about how to grow a community, and about the intersection between HPC and
research software. And do you want to know how to...2020-03-2626 min
RSE StoriesThe Monkey FlowersEven when we are young in our careers, the entry point to developing
research software can come from surprising places, like the charming
monkey flower! In this interview with Hannah Verdonk, the Head
of Operations in the Endy Lab of Stanford University, we learn what
a young researcher thinks about her research, software, and her
hopes for the future.2020-03-1215 min
RSE StoriesThe People Side of SoftwareWe sometimes falsely attribute dislike for a domain or career to the work
itself, when in fact the underlying factor of people plays a significant role.
In this first ever episode of RSE Stories with a non US-based RSE,
we welcome Damino Oldoni, a research software engineer and photographer
based in Belgium that is passionate not only about the science,
but also about teaching and working with the people that embark on it.2020-02-2720 min
RSE StoriesOpen Source Biology: a democratic futureWhat is synthetic biology, and where do open source and biology collide? This
week on Research Software Engineer Stories we are joined by Keoni Gandall,
a proud biohacker and researcher in the Endy Lab at Stanford University.
Have you ever thought about what it would mean to empower farmers to design
their own seeds, or grow a boot? What does work look like in a bioengineering lab?
Tune in to learn more about a topic that you may be surprised by.2020-02-1322 min
RSE StoriesChasing Simulations and the SunOn this episode of RSE Stories, we are joined by Verónica Melesse Vergara,
an HPC engineer at Oak Ridge National Lab. Veronica shares with us how she has
consistently followed her passion and need for sunshine to find herself
at Oak Ridge in a challenging leadership role that she continues
to learn from every day. If you are interested in Oak Ridge National Lab or
any associated projects, please reach out to Verónica.2020-02-0220 min
RSE StoriesHPC and Samoan Fire Knife Dancing, What Could Go Wrong?For this second episode of the new year, we interview Ben Glick, our
first undergraduate guest on RSE Stories. Ben shares his experience of setting
up an HPC cluster at Lewis and Clark College, and some of his thoughts on
research software engineering. If you think software is risky, wait until
you hear about Samoan Fire Knife Dancing!2020-01-1621 min
RSE StoriesHidden Layers of DataWhere does computer science and research software engineering intersect with
literature, poetry, or other gems from the humanities? In the digital humanities, of course!
For this first episode in the new year of 2020, we talk to Rebecca Sutton Koeser, the lead
developer at the Princeton Center for Humanities. Did you know that layers of data are
hiding in the texts around you, and can be translated in so many ways? This week,
we’ll talk about that.2020-01-0219 min
RSE StoriesSpace SoftwareThe role of a research software engineer is so much more about programming or research.
Gregory Lemiuex lives this fully - he grew up inspired by the night sky, and followed
his heart to pursue his dream of designing space missions, and even threw some
tree climbing into the mix. For this seventh episode of RSE Stories, we share
his journey.2019-12-1925 min
RSE StoriesOpen up, Neuroscience! Here comes NeuroDebianDo you know anything about Debian packaging, or reproducible neuroscience?
No worries, Yarik is an Adjunct and Research Associate Professor at Dartmouth College, and both studies and writes software to study the brain.
Along with his expertise in package management, he’s the founding director for the Center for Open Neuroscience, and is also the lead of DataLad. From all fronts, Yarik is helping to drive reproducible neuroscience, and he’ll tell you all about it.2019-12-0529 min
RSE StoriesThe Lab Without A CouchThis week on RSE stories, we’re going to give you a little bit different kind of episode.
We’re introducing a new interview format that is text based, meaning that the engineer
being interviewed answers questions over email, and then (being true to the name of
this podcast) we write and record a story. Why are we doing this? It removes selection
bias that would hugely prefer extroverted folks. You know, not everyone wants to be
recorded as they are speaking.
For this inagural episode, we tell the story of Ross, a research software engineer
at Stan...2019-11-2113 min
RSE StoriesA Coding Center in a BoxAdam is the Director of the The Center for Computing in the Liberal Arts at Doane
University, and offers a unique perspective about the needs for research software
engineering education at small institutions. In this episode, we talk with Adam
about the Center, and his vision for creating “A Coding Center in a Box.”2019-11-0717 min
RSE StoriesThe Ghost in the Container
This is a special episode of RSE Stories, a Halloween special! All characters and events in this post are fictional. Or are they?
He didn’t have a chance to write tests. The deadline for the manuscript was only two days away,
and Dockarod Main had placed reproducibility as an afterthought, an “Oh crap, reviewer three is
going to eat me alive and spit out the little pieces when I don’t offer Tensorno
in a container.” So he built the container. He shared it on Docker Hub, he had a small
twinge of pain in his chest as...2019-10-3118 min
RSE StoriesImpact from Colombia, A Story of Coffee and HPCEduardo works remotely from Colombia, and impressively spans the space between academia
and industry as both a PhD student and software engineer for Sylabs. In this episode
of RSE Stories, we discuss remote life, the interesting lifecycle of software that
moves from academia to industry and back, and some of the challenges for the
upcoming year for both open source and HPC.
Eduardo’s “working buddy” is one of his favorite features about remote work.2019-10-2420 minRSE StoriesDeveloping Software in Graduate SchoolWhat’s it like to be a leader for a software project in graduate school? For this second episode, we interview
Chris Dembia,
a graduate student finishing up his career that found his niche as an OpenSim developer.
We discuss the challenges of finding balance in graduate school, and making choices about next steps.2019-10-1020 minRSE StoriesResearch Software Engineer Stories: Hello World!In this first episode, we interview Ian Cosden,
a manager of one of the first Research Software Engineering groups at Princeton, and a leader
in establishing a model to support RSEs.2019-09-2619 min