One activity that is important for producing better scientific software is sharing information about how we work. In CSE, most conferences, workshops, and journals focus on scientific results and advances in algorithms and methodologies that help create them. Fewer opportunities exist to discuss the process of developing software---which provides the foundation for CSE collaboration and scientific discoveries. So we, and others in the community, try to create opportunities for such discussions to take place, through workshops and focused sessions within larger conferences, as well as other types of events, such as "Birds of a Feather" sessions at conferences like Supercomputing and ISC.

Software discussions at SIAM conferences

Some conferences organized by the Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics (SIAM) have been particularly good venues for such discussions. SIAM meetings are largely organized by the attendees, who propose "minisymposia" on topics of their choice, consisting of up to four speaker slots per block. Like many other scientific meetings, SIAM conferences also include poster sessions. But SIAM is unique in our experience in providing opportunities for "minsymposteria" -- topical groups of posters organized together in space and time, similarly to the talks of a minisymposium.

The SIAM CSE Conference attracts a broad range of researchers to discuss many aspects of CSE (it's not just "math"). With a diverse crowd, and opportunities to create sessions tailored to our interests, we've found it a great venue to organize sessions on software development, productivity, sustainability, and reuse. The organizers of the SIAM CSE conference series recognize the importance of software and have been supportive of sessions on this theme, which have expanded as the conference itself has grown.

Software-related sessions at SIAM CSE19

The CSE19 conference took place in late February in chilly Spokane, Washington. But thanks to the organizers, who selected some sessions to be recorded and made available online, and to the speakers, who were unanimously willing to participate, recordings of three minisymposia on software-related topics (20 speakers), as well as 28 posters from our topical poster session, are available for you to review at your leisure.

Minisymposium: Scientific Software: Practices, Concerns, and Solution Strategies

Part 1 Recordings and slides Toward Automatic Generation of Scientific Software Artifacts, Spencer Smith Runtime Data Analysis for CSE Applications, Alvaro Coutinho, et al. Development and Integration Workflows for Large Complex Distributed CSE Software Efforts, Roscoe A. Bartlett How to Assure Quality of Software Preservation Early in a Project Life Cycle and Ongoing Efforts, Sandra Gesing, et al.

Part 2 Recordings and slides Software Engineering Guidelines for Scientists - A Practical Handout for the Developing Researcher, Carina Haupt Role of Requirements in Scientific Software, Jared O'Neal Repository Analysis of Open-source and Scientific Software Development Projects, Kanika Sood, et al.

Minisymposium: Toward Software Ecosystems for Computational Science and Engineering

Recordings and slides xSDK: Foundations of a Numerical Software Ecosystem for High-performance CSE, Ulrike Yang DUNE Collaborating via Interfaces, Christian Engwer An Innovative Method for Integration of Simulation/Data/Learning in the Exascale/Post-Moore Era, Kengo Nakajima, et al. Software Development Kits: A Software Integration Strategy for CSE, James Willenbring

Minisymposium and Minisymposterium: Software Productivity and Sustainability for CSE and Data Science

Part 1 Recordings and slides Enabling a Culture of Developer Productivity and Software Sustainability, Elaine M. Raybourn Planning to Make Research Software More Sustainable via a US Research Software Sustainability Institute (URSSI), Daniel S. Katz, et al. CIG Perspectives on 14 Years of Sustaining Software and their Communities in Geodynamics, Lorraine J. Hwang, et al. Is It a Project Or a Business? Perspectives on the Consideration of Sustainability, Michael Zentner

Part 2 Recordings and slides Supporting and Sustaining Open Source Software Development: the Commons Perspective, C. Titus Brown Contemporary Peer Code Review in Research Software, Jeffrey C. Carver Acknowledging Scientific Software to Ensure the Future and Legacy of Scientific Research, Daina Bouquin Supporting Continuous Integration at Large-scale HPC Centers, Todd Gamblin

Posters: a collection of 28 posters

Whether you missed CSE19, attended other sessions (there were a lot), or you want to review them again, we hope that you will enjoy these materials, and that you'll join the discussions at a future conference. In addition to SIAM CSE meetings, we also often organize events at Supercomputing, ISC, PASC, and others. If you're organizing such events too, or want to get involved, we'd love to hear from you!

Author bios

David E. Bernholdt (Oak Ridge National Laboratory, U.S.), Anshu Dubey (Argonne National Laboratory, U.S.), Michael A. Heroux (Sandia National Laboratories, U.S.), Catherine Jones (Science and Technology Facilities Council, United Kingdom), Daniel S. Katz (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, U.S.), Lois Curfman McInnes (Argonne National Laboratory, U.S.), and James Willenbring (Sandia National Laboratories, U.S.) were the organizers of the CSE19 sessions described above. When not attending conferences, we spend at least part of our "day jobs" on issues of software development practices, productivity, and sustainability, alongside a variety of other R&D interests.