The Scientific Software Initiative at Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Abstract:
Developing high-quality scientific software has become an increasingly important part of the scientific method. Computational techniques such as simulation and modeling are now used more frequently than actual physical experiments, and are employed both for prediction, and for verifying results.
The march towards exascale computing is also changing the software landscape, requiring much more complicated algorithms in order to exploit the full computational capability of the new machines. As a result, the traditional approach of domain scientists developing code to implement their models is now a thing of the past, and software engineering is becoming a hugely important factor in achieving science outcomes.
The Scientific Software Initiative (SSI) at Oak Ridge National Laboratory has been established to concentrate software engineering skills in a central location, and make these available to assist domain scientists to develop high-quality, maintainable, and robust scientific software. In this talk, I will provide an overview of the SSI and outline the activities we are undertaking to create and promote software for a broad range of scientific endeavors.
Bio:
Dr Gregory Watson (pictured) is a Senior Research Scientist in the Computer Science Research Group at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, and an Adjunct Professor in the Center for Data Science at New York University. Dr Watson has a Bachelor’s degree in Information Science and Mathematics from the University of Tasmania and holds a PhD in Computer Science from Monash University.
Dr Watson's research interests include development environments, programming tools, and modeling and simulation tools for high performance and scientific computing.
He is founder of the Eclipse Parallel Tools Platform, a project he has led over the course of the last 12 years, and that continues to be used across laboratories, academia, and industry. He is also a founding member of the Eclipse Science Working Group, and project leader of the Eclipse Science Top Level Project.
Dr Watson previously held positions as Manager of Corporate Computer Systems at Griffith University, and Manager of the Queensland Supercomputing Facility, both in Brisbane, Australia. DrnWatson also worked at IBM for almost a decade, holding positions in IBM Research and IBM Systems Group where he was IBM’s HPC Tools Architect.