sustainability training workshop - intro to the ssi

Software Sustainability Institute

www.software.ac.uk

Introduction to theSoftware Sustainability Institute

12 December 2011Neil Chue Hong

[email protected]

sus·taintr.v. sus·tained, sus·tain·ing, sus·tains; n. sus·taina·bili·ty; adj. sus·taina·ble1. To keep in existence; maintain.


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Software underpins research


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Changing role of software

• Software now has a longer lifetime of effectiveness than hardware And people’s knowledge is even longer

• The right software makes the hardware exploitable by more researchers Allows computing to be treated as a commodity asset

• Demanding users of computational infrastructure are coming from arts + humanities / social science Software frameworks must support all types of app

• A culture of reuse rather than reinvention is not widespread Originality is good but must be balanced by consolidation

• How do we support this?


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Scientists and their software

• “Sustainability is not an issue for researchers, we want others to take the software over subject to IP issues”

• “Sustainability is a big issue, we are producing complex tools we want to continue to use but it’s not clear how they’ll be sustained”

Quotes taken from ENGAGE interviews


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The Software Sustainability Institute

A national facility for building better software• Better software enables better research• Software reaches boundaries in its

development cycle that prevent improvement, growth and adoption

• Providing the expertise and services needed to negotiate to the next stage• Software reviews and refactoring, collaborations

to develop your project, guidance and best practice on software development, project management, community building, publicity and more…


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SSI: Long Term Goals

• Provision of useful, effective services for research software community

• Development and sharing of research community intelligence and interactions

• Promotion of research software best practice

• Mantra: Keep the software in its respective community Work with the community, to increase ability Don’t introduce dependency on SSI as the developer Expand and exploit networks and opportunities


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SSI: Provision of Services

• Collaborative Projects Improve specific software and transfer knowledge

and skills to community

• Sustainability Surgeries and Workshops Improve knowledge within programme areas and

raise awareness in community


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SSI: Promotion of Best Practice

• Case Studies Raise awareness, make it easier to relate to subject

• Technology Watch Identify and track software trends and common

issues

• Training Materials and Best Practice Guides Improve knowledge transfer to community.

Increase visibility and interest from non-connected community


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SSI: Community Intelligence

• Events and Roadshows Raise awareness in community

• SuperPALs and Agents networks Understand community requirements, overlaps, issues

• Partnership with other organisations Ensure related organisations work together to provide

for research community• E.g. through SeIUCCR, with DSR

• International engagement Ensure best practice is consistently applied given

strong international nature of research communities


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The Agents Network

• A group of “software-savvy” researchers from all disciplines

• Agents connect their research discipline to the Institute

• Provide conference intelligence and more• http://www.software.ac.uk/agents


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Case Study: NeISS

• Evaluate impact of traffic control measures over next 5/10/15 years

• Access baseline demographic data about the city

• Execute simulation of traffic system and population

• Visualise simulation outputs• Augment with new forms of data• Run dynamic models to assess

future patterns (congestion, health, social inequality)


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Case Study: NeISS

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Case Study: Climate Policy Modelling

• CIAS team at Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research, University of East Anglia Develop linked climate and economic models for

detailed analysis Their software was not ready to be used by other

groups• One researcher/developer at UEA, several users

• SSI’s work means the software is robust enough that it can be installed and used by others Enabled use of the software by the WWFN’s

Climascope project and James Cook University• Documented software to allow extensions by contributors• Made it easier to maintain and backup• Added job scheduling to improve modeling throughput• New modelling framework enables new models i.e. new

science• http://www.tyndall.ac.uk/research/cias


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Case Study: Scottish Brain Imaging Research Centre

• Brain Research Imaging Centre, Edinburgh Develop PrivacyGuard software, a DICOM

image deidentification toolkit Created software to support new multispectral

colouring modulation and variance identification technique (“MCMxxxVI”) toidentify white matter lesions that are indicativeof declining cognitive ability

BRIC are not principally software developers, but do provide software to other researchers

• SSI’s work means the software has been reviewed and refactored Looked at exploitation

• Usability review, Naming/trademark review Made it easier for BRIC staff to maintain and develop

• Move to standard repositories, testing and documentation processes• Examination of licencing for MCMxxxVI• Extraction and refactoring to create standalone tools

• http://www.software.ac.uk/who-do-we-work/brain-research-imaging-centre-edinburgh• http://www.bric.ed.ac.uk/


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Collaborations

Building new research collaborations21-22 March 2012, Oxford

Workshop


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A National Facility for Research Software

Become our next collaborators!Email: [email protected]: http://www.software.ac.uk/blogTwitter: twitter.com/SoftwareSavedSlideShare: slideshare.net/SoftwareSavedYouTube: youtube.com/user/SoftwareSavedTelephone: +44 (0) 131 650 5030

Pilot collaborators:• Fusion

Energy• Climate

Policy• Geospatial

Linked Data• Crystal

Structure• Brain

Imaging• Scholarly

Journals

sustainability training workshop - intro to the ssi

Technology

role of software software

better research software

software useful

specific software

right software

group of software

chosen software

track software trends