{"id":6236,"date":"2016-09-22T08:37:20","date_gmt":"2016-09-22T07:37:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.walkingrandomly.com\/?p=6236"},"modified":"2016-09-22T11:07:30","modified_gmt":"2016-09-22T10:07:30","slug":"first-research-software-engineering-conference-a-resounding-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/walkingrandomly.com\/?p=6236","title":{"rendered":"First Research Software Engineering conference a resounding success"},"content":{"rendered":"

“It gives me great pleasure to welcome you all to the first ever Research Software Engineering conference”\u00a0<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Rob Haines<\/a>‘\u00a0opening line was met by thunderous applause from 202 people representing 14 different countries<\/a>\u00a0with a delegation that included funders, industry, academic researchers and, of course, research software engineers.\u00a0The hairs on the back of my neck stood up as it dawned on me that this was a historic moment and that I was there when it happened. I wasn’t the only one<\/p>\n

\"lgatto\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I felt like I’d come home and that these people were my tribe…and what a tribe!<\/p>\n

\"rse_conf2016\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Microsoft loves Linux<\/b><\/p>\n

The conference was a mixture of talks, workshops and networking opportunities with the opening plenary given by Matthew Johnson<\/a> of Microsoft Research. Microsoft was the gold sponsor for the event and the swag bag included one of these<\/p>\n

\"we're<\/a><\/p>\n

I reflect on the fact that I’m currently using my Macbook Pro as a Windows 10 machine to access the linux subsystem<\/a>\u00a0— we’re not in Kansas anymore!<\/p>\n

Microsoft is a keen supporter of the RSE movement although the job title they use is ‘Research Software Development Engineer’, a title they’ve used for several years now. An RSE (or RSDE) does much more software development than a typical researcher and more research than a typical software engineer.<\/p>\n

The choice of job role is important since it defines how you are assessed for things such as promotion. This is an issue that some of us are working to address within academia because many RSEs are currently assessed using the same criteria as researchers.<\/p>\n

\"screen-shot-2016-09-22-at-07-09-45\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Docker…we need more Docker<\/strong><\/p>\n

The conference included several practical workshops on all sorts of interesting topics but the most popular, by far, was the Docker workshop. It was so oversubscribed that access to the room had to be strictly controlled! Even I wasn’t allowed in and I was on the organising committee!<\/p>\n

Fortunately, the materials are freely available on github –\u00a0https:\/\/github.com\/mfernandes61\/RSE_Docker_course\/wiki\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Popularity of the @docker<\/a> workshop at #RSE16<\/a> is off the chart! We need more docker workshops!<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mike Croucher (@walkingrandomly) September 15, 2016<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n