Open discussions on specific topics selected by the Software Working Group and selected from the list of SWG Topics For Discussion.
Round Table Discussion: Finding the Right Collaborators at NCSA, moderated by Jessica Saw and Maria Jaromin
Recording:
Slides:
Attendees: Ya Lan Yang, Luigi Marini, Jessica Saw, Maria Jaromin, Tamara Roosevelt, Chen Wang, Alaine Martoz, Max Burnette, Bruno Abreu, Chris Keeley, Andrew Manning, Lisa Yanello,, Marcos Frenkel, Bing Zhang, Chris Navarro, Doug Friedel, JIm Phillips, Kastan Day, Kate Arneson, Nick Kowalik, Minu Mathew, Nikki Kopmann, Santiago Nunez-Corrales, Pengyin Shan, Xiaxioa Liao, Visu Monaharajan, Sandeep Puthanveetil Satheesen
Discussion: There are so many type of collaborations on campus that need NCSA's help. How do they find a collaborator?
Meetings start as a brown bag lunch, very informal, but get the first steps ironed out - how much time is needed, is this something we can do, is there a chemistry among the collaborators.
Bruno states that you first make contact, develop a relationship, figure out the deadlines, is there a sense of urgency. Bruno has processed over 200 collaborations on various projects this year.
The Illinois Computes intake process is a little more formal, because it provides the funds for the collaboration.
Santiago wants to know when to say NO. Can we point them in a different direction, can the project wait. The hope is it's not a flat NO, keep the door open.
The PDO often receives the request for collaboration, but that is not the best intake door; they will see who at NCSA has the skillset they are looking to use and we get the correct people on the various processes.
Chen notes that the SD keeps up with our skillset, and PDO can access this list to see who to reach out to.
Our skillset is on google, not on Savannah. We need a skills database that is across the center, not just SD.
There also needs to be a way to gray out those folks who do not have the bandwidth.
Do we have the time to take on projects??? We want more than one person on each project so it something would happen, to on researcher there is a backup who knows the project.
We should begin a mentoring program where newer people are groomed to gain the skillsets needed.
Comments
Links mentioned in this Round Table:
Best Practices Handbook: https://github.com/ncsa/software-development-handbook
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