Rise of the RSE
Mike Croucher
Head of Research Computing, University of Leeds
Co-Founder of Sheffield RSE group http://rse.shef.ac.uk/
EPSRC Research Software Engineering Fellow
Twitter: @walkingrandomlyWhat is an RSE?
History of the international RSE movement
Background reading
How to build an RSE team
Neil Lawrence (2014)
"How would you like to ditch your commute,
and change the world?"
Sheffield RSE - March 2015
Me!
Remit
Enhance The University of Sheffield's capacity to produce high quality, efficient and sustainable research software
....for the entirely of human knowledge
....in all relevant languages and technologies
My 'plan'
- Help academics with software
- ??????
- ??????
- Profit!!!
Sheffield RSE - Sept 2017
Sheffield RSE - March 2018
- Mostly grant funded
- Mostly permanent/long term contracts
- Support entire university
- Underwitten by IT and faculty of Engineering
My task now
Do it again at Leeds
How did we do it?
Find someone who needs you
aka 'Take away their pain'
The ideal
Results = TheAnalysis(MyData)
Reality
Many researchers
- I am under-resourced
- I lack training
- I don't have time
- I feel so alone
FATPOU Support
aka 'No job too small'
aka 'The first hit is free'
FATPOU is vital
Organically discover researcher needs
Build reputation and relationships
Let RSEs develop themselves
Provide quick wins
FATPOU needs institutional buy-in
CATPOU Support
aka 'Win grants'
aka 'grant support'
aka 'The pay off'
Sheffield RSE - Co-founders
Fractional RSEs on grants
Align with the University business
aka 'Speak their language'
aka 'Be everywhere'
HPC in Urban Studies courses
Communicate
aka 'Coding isn't enough'
Focus on people
We have a problem!
Gary Mcindoe
The talk
RSE problems
- No career pathway
- Not recognised by HR as a thing
- Not many RSE groups
- Lack of recognition for software itself
Accept it
This is how things are.
We are agents of change
Community
aka 'Find allies'
Local
- IT department
- The library
- Departmental RSEs
- Sheffield R User's group
National
- UK RSE
- Tier-2 HPC centres
- Software Sustainability Institute
- Archer Champions
- RSE-Leaders
International
- Software Carpentry
- JuliaCon
- Mozilla OpenScience
- OpenDreamKit
Diversity
aka 'Monocultures considered harmful'
Diversity - people
Diversity - people
Diversity - people
Diversity - technology
What next for RSE?
- Improved recognition
- Improve career structure
- A growth in the number of software experts
- Greater access to skills for researchers
What next for RSE?
You!
