Future RSE collaboration in Finland
The Aalto University School of Science has a successful Research Software Engineering service serving the whole university. This service has proven its value and there are an increasing number of questions of how others can form their own teams in Finland and work together. This post gives some thoughts on the matter.
This page is the opinion of the author and not Aalto itself. It’s not
an open offer for collaboration. The author is happy to help with any
questions you may have (first.last@aalto.fi or various chat
systems).
What is “research software engineering”?
Universities have academics: the traditional core, making ideas and new results. Much research, even not “computer science”, needs computational tools. However, the skills needed even for basic computation can be so complex that not all academics can master it to do cutting-edge research. A Research (Software) Engineer (RSE) can bridge that gap: academics focus on their primary work, and the RSE makes the computing seamless.
For more info, see the Aalto RSE site. This is not that different from research engineers supporting complex physical equipment.
rkdarst’s recommendations for RSE team starters
We’ve found there are plenty of qualified people to hire. The harder part is mentoring them to transition from a researcher (focused on single projects with emphasis on own publications) to supporter (supporting a wide variety of people with respect and compassion). This transition needs active mentoring.
See the companion post about work rotations for RSE mentoring - if you are in Aalto University then start there.
You should decide if you want (a) wide-ranging support which may include helping with basics or (b) specialist support for a limited audience. I would argue that our most important impact is (a): this has gotten us the most benefit overall, and a steady stream of more advanced projects as work advances.
A possible categorization of research engineers roles. Where do you want your hire to fit in here? (This is not designed to classify people, it’s designed to plan how people might be located.)
Collaboration possibilities: no funding
Let’s say you want your own RSE team at your own organization. How can you and Aalto RSE work together?
Even without joint funding, some of us Aalto people would be happy to talk and give some advice, and be part of a broader general network. For example:
How our team works, what makes it work, advice for your team
Joint RSE seminars to build skills, for example as part of FCCI Tech (fka Behind Triton), Nordic-RSE seminar series, or something new. Both of these are good for professional development and community.
All the advice and practices on the Aalto RSE site.
Professional networking and so on.
However, without funding, Aalto needs to focus on its own work.
Collaboration possibilities: with funding
With joint funding, it might be possible to make a collaboration.
Any higher level collaboration needs to be discussed with management. Assuming these discussions go well, we might join a collaboration together so that we can actually share projects between the team. There should always be a strong local presence, because that gets the best value. This opens more possibilities.
The more experienced or larger teams could provide:
Mentoring possibilities for new research engineers and their teams (see RSE work rotations).
A base for professional networking.
A larger base of knowledge, for more advice and help with specialist problems. A very important part of our team is that for almost any problem, someone has seen it and can solve it quickly. Then we train others to solve it.
Joint support sessions such as our Scicomp garage, which allowed a wider support base for problems, covering the previous point.
The newer or smaller teams could provide:
Funding via some joint project.
More staff around to help fill in the gaps when needed (these staff also get training in these projects they experience).
Specialty domain knowledge (both for support of academics and for professional development).
A collaboration with larger funding could have a joint project flow: there is one place to submit new projects requests, and the right people in any organization will work on them.
Lighter collaboration
We would welcome observers in our support sessions, especially from other staff at Aalto. The Nordic-RSE chat is also a good way to ask questions and see what we are up to for those outside Aalto University.
What’s next?
We know of various opportunities being considered for national (Finland) or international RSE collaborations. The above are some basic thoughts, but any model would be tailored to the actual funding and partners. There is definitely a benefit to starting off together.
For more information, contact the author at first.last@aalto.fi
and read Research Software Engineers for more info.