main.yaml

name: RSE Events
timezone: Europe/London

events:
  # see below for a template event you can edit to add your own
  # - summary: event title
  #   description: |
  #     A description of your event
  #     over multiple
  #      lines.
  #      With URLs wrapped in <www.example.com>
  #   location: A venue
  #   begin: YYYY-mm-DD HH:MM:SS
  #   duration: { minutes: 45 }
  #   event_url: some_url

  - summary: PyData London
    #id: test1
    description: |
      SocRSE trustee Martin O'Reilly will be giving one of the PyData London
      keynotes on 4 June 2023. It will be on the topic of RSEs and similar
      roles, exploring the similarities and differences between these and
      equivalent non-R(esearch) roles and how people can make the transition
      from non-R roles to RSE roles and similar.
    location: Warwick
    begin: 2023-06-04 09:00:00
    duration: { minutes: 45 }
    event_url: https://london2023.pydata.org/cfp/talk/EML3U9/

  - summary: Surveying AI Safety Research Directions
    #id: test1
    description: |
      Are you curious about what is going with AI in the media and all the
      safety considerations and how one might be able to contribute? Then this
      talk is for you! 

      Title: Surveying AI Safety Research Directions
      Speaker: Dan Hendrycks (Center for AI Safety)
      Location: Zoom [<https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/84463604528>, passcode: DanHEdi23]
      RSVP[free]: <https://www.eventbrite.com/e/638192339467?aff=ai>
      Abstract: ML systems are rapidly increasing in size, are acquiring new
      capabilities, and are increasingly deployed in high-stakes settings. In
      this presentation, I'll give a whirlwind tour of directions in safety,
      namely withstanding hazards (“Robustness”), identifying hazards
      (“Monitoring”), reducing inherent ML system hazards (“Alignment”).

    location: Zoom
    begin: 2023-06-02 18:00:00
    duration: { minutes: 60 }
    event_url: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/638192339467?aff=ai

  - summary: "AI Beyond STEM: digital skills to unleash the power of data science and AI for all"
    #id: test1
    description: |
      Hosted by SocRSE Trustee David Beavan, what are the AI skills (and RSEs
      are part of that, right) needed in the big world outside of STEM? This
      online-only panel event will bring together experts from diverse
      backgrounds, including digital humanities, linguistics, zoology, and more,
      to discuss the digital skills that are essential for future success in
      their fields. We will explore the specific challenges and opportunities of
      applying these technologies in non-STEM fields and gather ideas for next
      steps in developing the necessary skills and knowledge. Then it is over to
      you, the audience, to pose questions of the panel and share your
      experiences. 
      - Kaspar Beelen, Technical Lead, Digital Humanities, School of Advanced Studies
      - Mathilde Daussy-Renaudin, Ph.D. Candidate, UCL/Oxford University
      - Lydia France, Research Data Scientist, The Alan Turing Institute
      - Katie Ireland, DigiLab, University of Georgia

      Register -
      <https://livingwithmachines.ac.uk/event/ai-beyond-stem-digital-skills-to-unleash-the-power-of-data-science-and-ai-for-all/>

    location: Zoom
    begin: 2023-06-06 18:00:00
    duration: { minutes: 60 }
    event_url: https://livingwithmachines.ac.uk/event/ai-beyond-stem-digital-skills-to-unleash-the-power-of-data-science-and-ai-for-all/

  - summary: Byte-sized RSE session 8 - README files
    #id: test1
    description: |
      In this final session of the first series of byte-sized RSE, we'll look at
      the humble README file! Not a default and often ignored file in the root
      of your project directory but a hugely important place for a range of
      information that can make or break the success of your project - join us
      on Tuesday 6th June to learn more.  

      Registration now open - <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScYbd6vIrL-Irm_DROs74OTEUkT_84PEv12s7UhiBjfuGhGbA/viewform>
    location: Zoom
    begin: 2023-06-06 13:00:00
    duration: { minutes: 60 }
    event_url: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScYbd6vIrL-Irm_DROs74OTEUkT_84PEv12s7UhiBjfuGhGbA/viewform

  - summary: SSI Research Software Camp
    #id: test1
    description: |
      Our next Research Software Camp is taking place from 19 to 30 June 2023. Find out more about the Research Software Camp. 
      The Software Sustainability Institute runs free online Research Software Camps
      once a year over the course of two weeks. Each Camp focusses on introducing
      basic research software skills and good practices, as well offering one.

      <https://www.software.ac.uk/events/2023-01-26-research-software-camp>
    location: Zoom
    begin: 2023-06-19 09:00:00
    duration: { days: 11 }
    event_url: https://www.software.ac.uk/events/2023-01-26-research-software-camp

  - summary: RSECon23
    #id: test1
    description: |
      UK-based (at Swansea University) the SocRSE conference. 
      Registrations - both in person and remote - are now open. Members of the
      Society should have received a coupon code for a discount. Contact
      <membership@society-rse.org> if you don't have it, but are a fully paid-up
      member. Note: This discount also applies to people attending remotely.
      It's worth joining the Society for the in person conference discount
      alone!
      Conference registration is here: <https://register.oxfordabstracts.com/event/4430>. 
      The Call for Volunteers remains open: <https://rsecon23.society-rse.org/volunteers/>.

      Also, if you can, please help us find organisations willing to sponsor the
      conference <https://rsecon23.society-rse.org/sponsorship-packages-for-rsecon23/> -
      perhaps the very organisation you work for?

    location: Swansea University (Remote available)
    begin: 2023-09-05 09:00:00
    duration: { days: 2 }
    event_url: https://rsecon23.society-rse.org/

  - summary: "18th HiRSE Seminar - Neil Chue Hong: Can Software Metrics Improve Software Quality?"
    #id: test1
    description: |
      Software quality in computational science and engineering can be interpreted in two ways: does the software implement the algorithm or simulate the phenomenon as expected, and does it perform as expected i.e. does it scale, is it maintainable, is it secure?

      Software metrics are the degree to which a software system possesses some relevant property. Many software metrics are defined as quantitative measurements based on the analysis of source code. Others, such as those being developed by the CHAOSS initiative, focus on measuring the ability of a project to deliver software that meets various criteria, such as community health or development efficiency.

      A key question is how useful software metrics are in improving software quality when applied to development in computational science and engineering, which can differ from software engineering in other areas because of evolving or unclear requirements, deployment to large-scale systems and architectures, and focus on performance.

      I will consider which types of software metric might benefit researcher-developers and research software engineers working in computational science and engineering. Can useful metrics be identified by considering the differences in the way that software is developed these fields?

    location: The talk will be held online. The connection details will be posted on a variety on channels shortly before the event (see <https://www.helmholtz-hirse.de/series/2023_06_27-seminar_18.html> for a list).
    begin: 2023-06-27 10:00:00
    duration: { hours: 1 }
    event_url: https://www.helmholtz-hirse.de/series/2023_06_27-seminar_18.html
  - summary: Educating Engineers for Safe AI Workshop (Cambridge)
    description: |
      The Alan Turing Institute, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Cambridge and UCL Universities are organising a series of workshops to discuss Educating Engineers for Safe AI.

      We are seeking participants in this workshop series who are:

      - AI Engineers, Data Scientists, Systems Engineers, ML-Ops, Research Software Engineers, Site Reliability Engineers and more, working in the implementation of AI systems OR
      - Academics and other experts working in areas related to Safe, Ethical, Reliable and Trustworthy Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence OR
      - Academics and other experts working in professional education, CPD, and related areas, interested in developing materials related to safe AI for professional audiences.
      The workshops consist of two regional nonresidential satellite workshops in Cambridge (4th July) and in Edinburgh (29th June), and a final residential workshop in Newcastle on the 15th and 16th August.

      The purpose of the workshop series is to develop a roadmap toward the creation of a syllabus and set of professional education materials, targeted at software and systems engineers, so that they can be empowered to champion the creation of safe, ethical and trustworthy AI in their workplaces. Developers and engineers, appropriately empowered and skilled, are uniquely placed to ensure that the systems they build are done so according to emerging ethical best practice. These materials will become part of The Turing Way project.
    location: Downing College, Regent Street, Cambridge CB2 1DQ
    begin: 2023-07-04 09:30:00
    duration:
      minutes: 390
    event_url: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/educating-engineers-for-safe-ai-tickets-646994627347
  - summary: un-deRSE23 - Unconference for Research Software Engineering in Germany
    description: First ever unconference for Research Software Engineering in Germany
    location: Dornburger Schlösser, Jena, Germany
    begin: 2023-09-26 11:30:00
    duration:
      days: 3
    event_url: https://un-derse23.sciencesconf.org/
  - summary: UCL Technical Social - Wed Jun 21 2023 - Jörg Saßmannshausen
    description: |
      How to install high-performant software on a High Performance Cluster?

      Software installation on a High Performance Cluster (HPC) is different from the usual software installation on a desktop 
      computer.In order to get the best performance out of the very expensive hardware, it is best to compile software from source, 
      rather than using pre-compiled binaries. This sounds often easier than it actually is. One good example is Basic Linear Algebra 
      Subprograms (BLAS) [1]: A generic installation will only deliver a very low performance. Optimising the compile process will 
      deliver more performance. However, with the sheer amount of different CPUs around, testing it for each new build with a new 
      compiler is time consuming.

      The solution here is to fall back what others have done, improve on it if possible and contribute back to the community.

      One such an example is EasyBuild [2]: software which is installing high-performant scientific software on HPC clusters 
      automatically.

      The talk will take you through an often a bit personally journey of scientific software installation, without too much of technical 
      jargon. It is aimed for scientists who are installing software, or write their own code. Equally, researchers who are more 
      experienced in software installation might learn something new as well.
    location: Malet Place Engineering Building 1.04 Malet Place Engineering Building 1.04 London WC1E 7JE
    begin: 2023-07-21 16:00:00
    duration:
      minutes: 60
    event_url: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/arc-technical-social-wed-jun-21-2023-jorg-samannshausen-tickets-651818144617
  - summary: RSE Asia Community Call
    description: |
      An opportunity for people who work with or manage (research) software to meet and discuss challenges and solutions, share skills, opportunities, and resources.
      Join this call if you: want to learn about research software engineering, develop software for research, mostly do coding or software developing in a research group, are a doctoral or postdoctoral researcher who mostly develops software, have build software while doing research, and/or want to join the emerging research software engineering community in Asia.
    location: Online
    begin: 2023-07-13 08:00:00
    duration:
      minutes: 60
    event_url: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAvfuGspjotE9FXsM1-fV1lDsmImi_9ns4F#/registration
  - summary: RSE Asia Community Call (August 2023)
    description: |
      An opportunity for people who work with or manage (research) software to meet and discuss challenges and solutions, share skills, opportunities, and resources.
      Join this call if you: want to learn about research software engineering, develop software for research, mostly do coding or software developing in a research group, are a doctoral or postdoctoral researcher who mostly develops software, have build software while doing research, and/or want to join the emerging research software engineering community in Asia.
    location: Online
    begin: 2023-08-17 08:00:00
    duration:
      minutes: 60
    event_url: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYldOCprTwiHNOK4ujIaMUe_IgAaP5gGWnT#/registration
  - summary: RSE Asia Community Call (September 2023)
    description: |
      An opportunity for people who work with or manage (research) software to meet and discuss challenges and solutions, share skills, opportunities, and resources.
      Join this call if you: want to learn about research software engineering, develop software for research, mostly do coding or software developing in a research group, are a doctoral or postdoctoral researcher who mostly develops software, have build software while doing research, and/or want to join the emerging research software engineering community in Asia.
    location: Online
    begin: 2023-09-21 08:00:00
    duration:
      minutes: 60
    event_url: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEufu2urD8tGtwqEoENHz6G-SpbCXXhrY0O#/registration
  - summary: "DiveRSE Seminar: Numbers Game"
    description: |
      Our next speaker in the DiveRSE series is Mariann (Maz) Hardey, Professor of Digital Culture, Technology and Business at Durham University Business School. Mariann is also a member of Advanced Research Computing (ARC) at Durham, where her role supports widening participation and accessibility in computing. She is passionate about self-development and learning, with a focus on representation among business leaders and practitioners in the technology sector. One of her latest books “The Culture of Women in Tech” forms part of the Master Class curriculum of the UK Government Digital Service to promote employment reform and inclusivity. Mariann has been researching and working with tech organisations for over twenty years. In her talk, Mariann will focus on the ‘Whoddunit’ behind Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI/DEI) in the tech workplace. To best serve these fundamental principles, one must first understand the mechanics behind it.
    location: Online
    begin: 2023-07-11 10:00:00
    duration:
      minutes: 60
    event_url: https://diverse-rse.github.io/events/2023-07-11
  - summary: Model-Driven Engineering Network (MDENet) Workshop on Research Software
    description: |
      On October 31st, MDENet, the EPSRC-funded network on Model-Driven
      Engineering, is holding a thematic workshop on Research Software at King’s
      College London.

      This one-day event aims to improve mutual understanding of challenges in
      Research Software and opportunities for Model-Driven Engineering to help
      address them.

      Here is the call for expressions of interest:
      <https://mde-network.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Call-for-EOI-workshop-Research-Software.pdf>
      and the application form:
      <https://forms.office.com/e/YK53MD1hrv>
      There is also a travel and accommodation support fund of up to £300, that
      you can find here: <https://forms.office.com/e/S9pgbWZ6qU>
    location: King's College London
    begin: 2023-10-31
    duration:
      days: 1
    event_url: https://mde-network.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Call-for-EOI-workshop-Research-Software.pdf
  - summary: Cambridge RSE Seminar - Code Execution during peer review with CODECHECK - Daniel Nust
    description: |
      Data and software are the foundation for a vast variety and volume of computational
      research in all scientific disciplines. This is how we make sense of small and huge
      datasets using everything from one-off scripts to high-performance computing
      infrastructures. Nowadays, most of these works are eventually presented to a
      scientific community in form of a paper for the recognition of research outputs and
      career advancement. Research papers are increasingly accompanied by data and
      software to ensure transparency, reproducibility, and reusability. This change
      is driven by shifting community practice as well as by publisher guidelines.
      However, the actual inspection of these building blocks is not a common part
      of the publication and peer review process. The CODECHECK initiative tries to make
      code execution standard practice in peer review using a particular focus and a set
      of principles. We present variants of CODECHECK and highlight the possibilities
      for research software engineers to participate in academic peer review as codecheckers.
      Furthermore, we demonstrate the AGILE conference’s Reproducibility Review as a
      concrete implementation of CODECHECK . The Reproducible AGILE initiative
      demonstrates how good scientific and development practices can be encouraged
      and spread through communication and collaboration.

      Daniel is a research software engineer and postdoc at the Chair of Geoinformatics,
      TU Dresden, Germany. He develops tools for open and reproducible geoscientific
      research and is a proponent for open scholarship and reproducibility in the projects
      NFDI4 Earth (<https://nfdi4earth.de/>), OPTIMETA (<https://projects.tib.eu/optimeta>), and CODECHECK (<https://codecheck.org.uk/>).
    location: West Cambridge and online via Zoom
    begin: 2023-10-19 13:00:00
    duration: { hours: 1 }
    event_url: "https://talks.cam.ac.uk/show/index/69831"
  - summary: "Cambridge RSE Seminar - Fortran 77: It's really C with none of the safeguards - Simon Clifford"
    description: |  
      Fortran was summoned by IBM ’s warlocks nearly 70 years ago. So should we still be
      interested in this crusty old programming language?
      Come with crusty old Simon as he opens the vault and delves into some
      distinctly not-modern Fortran.

      GASP as we use pointers in a language that doesn’t have pointers.

      THRILL as we cast between types without knowing we’re doing it.
      
      GROAN as we make whitespace important years before Python thought of it.
      
    location: West Cambridge and online via Zoom
    begin: 2023-10-26 13:00:00
    duration: { hours: 1 }
    event_url: "https://talks.cam.ac.uk/show/index/69831"
  - summary: Cambridge RSE Seminar - Widening Participation in the R Project - Heather Turner
    description: |
      The R Project is over 20 years old, but its future is not secure – many of the
      R Core Team are nearing or post retirement and there are not enough new contributors
      to sustain the work. In this talk, I will present a number of initiatives, fostered
      under my EPSRC RSE Fellowship: ‘Sustainability and EDI (Equality, Diversity and
      Inclusion) in the R Project’, that are designed to encourage and train a new, more
      diverse, generation of contributors.

      The initiatives vary from regular support on the R Contributor Slack and in R
      Contributor Office Hours, to one-off events aimed at new contributors such as a
      Collaboration Campfire series and a Bug BBQ . I will report back on the recent R
      Project Sprint 2023, hosted at Warwick University, which brought members of the R
      Core Team together with both novice and experienced contributors to work in
      collaboration – the first event of this kind in the R community. I will discuss how
      we hope to keep the momentum going and how RSEs might contribute to the R Project
      and other fundamental open source projects.
    location: West Cambridge and online via Zoom
    begin: 2023-11-02 13:00:00
    duration: { hours: 1 }
    event_url: "https://talks.cam.ac.uk/show/index/69831"
  - summary: Cambridge RSE Seminar - Sustainability at The Netherlands eScience Center - Niels Drost
    description: |
      The Netherlands eScience Center is the Dutch national expertise center for research
      software. We work with researchers from across the Netherlands and beyond, in all
      fields of research on creating and using research software, as well as building
      capacity through teaching, fellowships, and other community efforts.

      We are passionate about making software sustainable (as in durable) so that it can
      be used by as many researchers as possible. To facilitate this we created the
      Research Software Directory (<https://research-software-directory.org/>), a service
      to show the impact of research software.

      A re-occurring theme in our projects is that of sustainability (as in climate change).
      Over the years we have contributed to a number of projects and software related to
      sustainability, including ESM Valtool (<https://esmvaltool.org/>), software supporting
      the evaluation of Earth system models, and used in the latest IPCC report.

      In my presentation I will explain the structure of the eScience Center and how it
      came to be, introduce the research software directory, and provide some examples
      of projects in the area of sustainability we contribute to.

      Niels Drost is a Research Software Engineer from the Netherlands. He is currently
      the Programme Manager for Environment and Sustainability at the Netherlands eScience
      Center. He has a background in Computer Science in the area of High Performance
      Computing, helped establish the Dutch chapter of the RSE community (NL-RSE,
      <https://nl-rse.org/>), and has worked on many different research projects over
      the years, mostly in the fields of Climate Science and Hydrology.
    location: West Cambridge and online via Zoom
    begin: 2023-11-09 13:00:00
    duration: { hours: 1 }
    event_url: "https://talks.cam.ac.uk/show/index/69831"
  - summary: Cambridge RSE Seminar - Teaching RSE for Digital Humanities - Mary Chester-Cadwell
    description: |
      Cambridge Digital Humanities (CDH) runs a variety of learning opportunities that
      introduce RSE practices to students, researchers and staff in the arts, humanities,
      archives, libraries and museums. The CDH Learning programme offers a 'Best Practices
      in Coding for Digital Humanities' series and runs a RSE Methods Fellows programme
      for RSEs (of any discipline) to teach workshops and prepare online tutorials.
      CDH also hosts a Digital Humanities (DH) RSE Summer School (together with several
      partner institutions) with the aim of introducing those who code in research to
      beginner and intermediate RSE practices. This is an exciting time for RSE in DH
      and these recent initiatives are still in the process of active development. In
      this talk I will discuss some of the challenges and opportunities of making RSE
      relevant to the various types of research under the ‘DH umbrella’, how best to
      engage DH scholars and RSEs from other disciplines in this joint endeavour, and
      where this might take us next. 
    location: West Cambridge and online via Zoom
    begin: 2023-11-16 13:00:00
    duration: { hours: 1 }
    event_url: "https://talks.cam.ac.uk/show/index/69831"
  - summary: Cambridge RSE Seminar - How not to write a convection parameterisation code? - Mike Whitall
    description: |
      Convection parameterisations are a crucial element of global atmospheric models.
      They simulate the vertical transport of heat, moisture and momentum by convective
      clouds, and associated rainfall. The majority of Tropical rainfall is associated
      with these clouds, which are too small-scale to explicitly resolve on the model’s
      grid and so need to be parameterised.

      Most global atmosphere models use a so-called 'mass-flux' form of convection
      parameterisation, which consists of a diagnostic vertical integral to compute the
      properties of the clouds and the amount of heat / moisture entrained / detrained
      at each height. The calculations in a given vertical column of model grid-points
      are completely independent of those in other neighbouring columns, so it would be
      simplest to write the code so that it only considers a single column at a time.
      However, since we are performing a vertical integral the calculations at a given
      height within each column depend on the results from those calculations at the
      level below, so the scheme must be structured in a vertically sequential manner
      considering a single height-level at a time.

      Considering only a single column and a single height-level at a time amounts to
      computing only a single grid-point at a time. On CPU architectures, this is
      extremely inefficient; far greater computation speeds are obtained by doing many
      identical calculations simultaneously, via vectorisation. Another challenge/opportunity
      is the sparsity of the required calculations, since convective clouds only occupy a
      small fraction of the atmosphere’s volume.

      In this talk I discuss routes to exploiting both vectorisation and shared memory
      parallelisation, and how to make efficient use of memory given the sparsity, in the
      comorph convection parameterisation fortran code currently under development at the
      Met Office.

      However, current and future changes in software and HPC architectures (such as GPUs)
      may radically change the optimal code structure. Is there any way to adapt our
      convection code to these changes without completely rewriting it, or write it in a
      'future proof' way? 
    location: West Cambridge and online via Zoom
    begin: 2023-11-23 13:00:00
    duration: { hours: 1 }
    event_url: "https://talks.cam.ac.uk/show/index/69831"

  - summary: Software Performance Best Practices SIG - Initial Meeting
    description: |
        The founding meeting of a new special interest group focused around
        the topic of accessible software performance best practices (name tdb).
        This meeting will allow attendees to introduce themselves,
        the initial terms of reference to be drafted (to be submitted to society RSE),
        and attendees to put themselves forwards as members of the steering group. 
        Draft Agenda <https://docs.google.com/document/d/1LA5j4pWqAYIvHmvMq9tPAGypMB-P9BDlXoetBNOon8k/edit?usp=sharing>
    location: Google Meet (online)
    begin: 2024-09-24 15:00:00
    duration: { minutes: 60 }
    event_url: "https://www.google.com/calendar/event?eid=MGtsNTZyMmwzcTYwbjFoZWhiZ2ljN2VlZ2Mgcm9iZXJ0LmNoaXNob2xtQHNoZWZmaWVsZC5hYy51aw"