The User/Developer Experience (UDX) working group of the Consortium for the Advancement of Scientific Software (CASS) presents a speaker and Q&A session on the first Tuesdays of odd months (e.g., Jan, March, etc.) at 12 pm Eastern.
| Resource Information | Details |
|---|---|
| Webinar Title | The State of AI Use among Research Software Engineers |
| Date and Time | 2026-01-06 12:00 pm - 1:00 pm ET |
| Presenters | Elle O’Brien (Michigan School of Information) and Steve Van Tuyl (Academic Data Science Alliance) |
| Registration and Information | https://lbnl.zoom.us/meeting/register/uecckzcDSO6FIaQuMMhMvg#/registration |
| Presentation Language | English |
Webinars are free and open to the public, but advance registration is required through the Event website.
Slides from previous meetings are archived at https://zenodo.org/communities/uxinscience
Recordings are on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/@CASS.community/playlists
Abstract
The CASS User/Developer Experience working group is happy to start 2026 with something special: Two panelists who have gathered data from hundreds of research software engineers will help us look beyond our immediate professional circles and see larger trends in generative AI usage. What difference does generative AI make to research software? What do current practices tell us about our future needs?
Presenters
Elle O’Brien (Michigan School of Information)
More Code, Less Validation: How Scientists Are Adopting AI Coding Tools
This talk presents findings from a survey of 868 research scientists about their adoption and use of generative AI tools for programming. Adoption is highest among junior researchers and those with less programming experience, with ChatGPT overwhelmingly preferred over targeted developer tools like GitHub Copilot. Scientists reporting the highest perceived productivity gains tend to report less programming experience, lower adoption of development practices like testing and code review, and accepting larger chunks of generated code at once. These patterns raise concerns about research software quality as AI-generated code enters scientific workflows with limited quality control mechanisms.
Steve Van Tuyl (Academic Data Science Alliance)
Impacts of Generative AI on the RSE Workplace - Where are we and where might we go next?
Over a four month period, we engaged with over 100 research software engineers (RSEs) at a number of community events (SciPy, RSECon 25, US-RSE 2025, SC25) to better understand the impacts of Generative AI (GenAI) on the work of Research Software Engineers (RSEs). Through these conversations we have heard about how GenAI has impacted RSEs in academia, industry, and government roles, what promise they see in the technology, and what resources would be helpful for navigating the GenAI landscape. We'll close the presentation with a view into next steps for developing these resources with the RSE community to ensure the profession thrives through this technological step-change.
