Simon Hettrick
Professor Simon Hettrick is Director of Strategy at the Software Sustainability Institute, and a Director of the Southampton Research Software Group.
There's more to research than researchers
9 December 2020 - CDT in Web Science Innovation @sjh5000 ORCID: 0000-0002-6809-5195
By Simon Hettrick
Undergraduate (Optoelectronics)
PhD (Laser physics)
Patent Attorney
Communications
Whatever I am now
1995-99
1999-04
2004-2007
2007-2010
2018-??
Policy lobbyist? Researcher? Manager?
2010-2018
Academia in the UK is old
Important
people
Unimportant
people
Academics
Everybody else in the entire world
publications
It's not just researchers any more
These slides: https://bit.ly/3lTYwFx
92%
Use software
69%
Software is fundamental
210,000
UK researchers
"Professional"
"Beginner"
(n=197)
(n=198)
Research
Software
Engineering
Researcher
Software
Engineer
Researcher
developer
Research
Software
Engineer
RSEs collaborate with researchers to develop the software they need
These slides: https://bit.ly/3lTYwFx
Enticements
-
Wants to work in a research environment
-
Wants to advance research
-
Wants to develop software
-
Work on multiple projects across all research disciplines
-
Focus on research reliability and reproducibility
-
Freedom to choose the right solution
-
Constantly learning... new tech, new disciplines
-
Training and teaching
-
Community building and support
The work
RSE Groups at
bit.ly/RSEGroupsInUK
7 out of 10 satisfaction with current position
(28% of respondents)
Study at: https://goo.gl/is8JZb
7 out of 10 satisfaction with career
(25% of respondents)
Study at: https://goo.gl/is8JZb
An amazing community
Risks
-
It's not yet a formal career path in all universities... but the environment is changing quickly
-
A career break in RSE produces few papers... but publications are under review as the only success metric
These slides: https://bit.ly/3lTYwFx
RSE is the perfect career for people who want...
...to use their skills in research
...to further research
...to work across multiple disciplines with different technologies
...with the freedom to choose how they implement solutions
These slides: https://bit.ly/3lTYwFx
www.society-rse.org
A very brief history of Research Software Engineers
bit.ly/RSETalk2016
A not-so-brief history of Research Software Engineers
bit.ly/NotSoBriefRSE
RSE State of the Nation Report 2017
doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.495360
History
These slides: https://bit.ly/3lTYwFx
Thank you!
@sjh5000
ORCID: 0000-0002-6809-5195
EPSRC Grant no: EP/S021779/1
Licence
© Simon Hettrick
These slides are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
These slides: https://bit.ly/3lTYwFx
There's more to research than researchers
By Simon Hettrick
There's more to research than researchers
Until recently, research was the domain of academics only, but this has started to change. In this presentation, I discuss why academia is starting to support a more diverse family of roles, and look at the benefits of the RSE career path.
