The role of software and digital skills in research

Simon Hettrick

18 May 2023 - NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, online -  @sjh5000     ORCID: 0000-0002-6809-5195

www.software.ac.uk

Is software important?

Use software

Fundamental to results

69%

92%

n=417

Data analytics

Data management

89%

96%

n=179

Photo by Tyler Easton on Unsplash

Without software, data is just a random collection of numbers

n=594

Is software important?

Yes

There are problems...

Lack of skills

Part 1

n=197

"Beginner"

"Professional"

n=197

Lack of skills

Part 2

Research

Software

Engineering

Research

Software

Engineer

~10,000 RSEs worldwide

Image courtesy Ian Cosden

https://society-rse.org/

Lack of incentives

https://hidden-ref.org/

There is also a lot of support...

2013

1 RSE Group at UCL

2023

40 groups across the UK

https://society-rse.org/community/rse-groups/

 rsg.southampton.ac.uk

+2 more!

Research software expertise on demand

  • We make code reliable, robust and extensible
  • Broad range of software and research skills
  • Pay for expertise only when you need it
  • Costed like any other position in the university
  • Fully supported by UKRI and other funders
  • 26 active projects and >90 completed
  • ...the more advance notice, the better

Training in software engineering

  • Providing the basic training in software and data engineering
  • For everyone from students to Professors, from researchers to professional services
  • Courses for beginners and intermediates
  • Training provided directly, via CDTs/DTPs and via CHEP (staffbook)

What we teach

  • Version control with Github
  • Automation with Bash
  • Introduction to Python and R
  • Introduction to software project management
  • Testing and continuous integration for reliable code
  • Integrated development environments, virtual environments and code conventions
  • Programming paradigms, management, architecture and design
  • Developing software in a team

https://rsgsoton.net/training

Some of our work

  • Shows relationships between clusters of gene expression in a patient in the form of a navigable 3D network graph
  • Produced the MVP based on the implementation of a novel algorithm
  • Developed the visualisation hosted in a scalable, Django web application

TopMD

  • GENIE is a web-based service that enables people with long-term health conditions to find support in their personal social networks

  • We addressed robustness issues and added new functionality to make the code ready for deployment as a service.

  • Implemented GENIE as service-based architecture

GENIE

  • Southampton sprint out led by Josh Steer

  • Improves the design of prosthetics by predicting pressure on limb sockets
  • Productised code and developed web backend to scale presentation to consumers.

Radii devices

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/.

Access these slides:  https://bit.ly/3pXZjgc