Abstract:
Scientific software is a cornerstone of long-term collaboration and scientific progress, but software complexity is increasing due to disruptive changes in computer architectures and the challenges of next-generation science. Thus, the HPC community has the unique opportunity to fundamentally change how scientific software is designed, developed, and sustained—embracing community collaboration toward scientific software ecosystems, while fostering a diverse HPC workforce who embody a broad range of skills and perspectives. This Guided Affinity Group will discuss issues related to sustainable HPC software, including opportunities for Research Software Engineers (RSEs, see https://us-rse.org), who use expertise in programming to advance research. RSEs include researchers who spend a significant amount of time programming, full-time software engineers writing code to solve research problems, and those somewhere in-between.
RSEs are unique when compared to other traditional software engineers because they work very closely with domain scientists on domain-specific problems. RSEs often work across various programming languages and advanced topics related to software development lifecycles, software interoperability, performance analysis of software on large systems, and advanced testing methodologies. In recent years, awareness has been growing about the critical roles RSEs play in empowering the field of scientific computing, leading to a tremendous surge in career opportunities for RSEs across the entire spectrum of industry, academia and national laboratories. With RSE recognition gaining momentum, both domestically and internationally, the time is ripe for the new generation of students and researchers to dive into the RSE space and work toward the goal of advancing science.
Short Biography:
Rinku Gupta is a Research Software Specialist with over two decades of experience working with scientific research software used on high performance computing platforms. She has several years of experience as a project manager and is responsible for managing large teams and multi-institutional computing projects. Rinku serves as an Editor-in-chief of the Better Scientific Software website (https://bssw.io), which serves as a central hub for the scientific community to address pressing challenges in software productivity, quality, and sustainability. She is a leader in promoting the Research Software Engineers (RSE) movement within the DOE and broader supercomputing community.
Motivation:
I believe RSEs have played and will continue to play important roles in shaping the future of science. Being a Guided Affinity Group Leader will give me an opportunity to understand the motivation, challenges and areas of improvement needed for attracting the community to RSE-related careers in industry, academia and national labs.
Short Biography:
Lois Curfman McInnes is a Senior Computational Scientist in the Mathematics and Computer Science Division of Argonne National Laboratory. Her work focuses on high-performance computational science, with emphasis on scalable numerical libraries and community collaboration toward productive and sustainable software ecosystems. Lois serves as Deputy Director of Software Technology for the U.S. DOE Exascale Computing Project.
Motivation:
I thoroughly enjoy meeting new people and learning about their backgrounds and interests. I served as a Guided Affinity Group Leader for SIAM CSE conferences and have found that the GAG conversations have been highlights of my conference experiences.