What RSEs Must be Afforded: Better Software through the Right Development Practices and Tools
User/Developer Experience Webinars feature speakers who highlight best practices and challenges for usable scientific software. Have a suggestion for a future meeting? Use this Google form to propose ideas.
This meeting discusses design affordances and modes of interaction effective for supporting research software engineering. Software engineering (SE), or the processes, methods, and tools to support the development and maintenance of software, is crucial for producing high quality applications and is increasingly critical for scientific investigation. However, evidence-based practices grounded in SE research to support development tasks are often ignored by software engineers in practice—and even mores o for research software engineers without technical expertise. This talk will highlight challenges and motivate technological solutions informed and co-designed through two participatory design sessions with research software engineers. Based on our findings, we provide insights to enhance the design and implementation of development tools for research software development workflows to promote high-quality and robust research-based software systems.
Presenter
- Chris Brown (Virginia Tech)
Organizer
- Johanna (Hannah) Cohoon (Lawrence Berkeley National Lab)
Presenter bio
Dr. Chris Brown is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Virginia Tech. His research combines empirical methods, human-centered studies, interdisciplinary concepts, and automated tools to equip developers with evidence-based tools and practices that improve programming behaviors, boost productivity, and support better decision-making—ultimately contributing to more effective and trustworthy software development. He leads the “Code World, No Blanket” research group and teaching software engineering-related courses at Virginia Tech.
Organizer bio
Johanna (Hannah) Cohoon is a User Experience Researcher at LBNL, seeking to create more rewarding and impactful careers for research software engineers and more efficient and enjoyable experiences for users. She has focused on studying and facilitating open source development, open science practices, and data intensive workflows. Hannah earned her PhD from the University of Texas at Austin. Hannah leads the CASS UDX working group.